Image by Frankie Roberto via Flickr

Here on the Isle of Man, advertising, particulary in newspapers and magazines seems to be one of the main tactics used by business’s large and small.

My experience of advertising in press and magazine publications is fairly mixed and especially so in todays environment when there are far more alternatives than ever before with digital media and the web also driving change and choice.

That doesn’t mean to to say it cant work for you. If done well there is no reason why this form of advertising can’t be effective for you as long as you follow these simple tips.

1. Planning - like every campaign you embark on you need to put the hard work in first, without proper planning it is highly likely that your advertising campaign will be doomed from the start. Make sure you know what your embarking on and that you have enough budget and resources to keep the campaign going. In my experience advertising in newspapers and magazine takes at least four to six weeks before it starts to gain momentum and generate real leads so unless you can commit a budget to this you have to ask a serious question ‘is this really right for me?’

2. Consistency - this helps to build trust with your products and brand, where possible you should try to have a presence every week or month depending on the publication and also try to get the same positioning within the publication each time you appear. Speaking of positioning….

3. Positioning - to get the best possible exposure don’t just settle for the placement the publication tells you that you will appear Where possible you should aim to run your adverts in the main news section of the newspaper and as near to the front as possible. Appearing on the front page if you are allowed can often be expensive but there is no harm in haggling and making sure you get the best possible position for your spend. The jury is out on the right hand left hand side positioning. Old school thinking was that right hand position was always best, but recent research would indicate that it doesn’t make any real difference. I would still aim to be as far forward as possible.

4. Design - this might sound obvious, but the design of any advert is crucial if it is to be a success. Believe it or not people look at adverts in very similar ways being humans and so building this in to your ad design is a critical element. First of all people will see a picture or visual first next any headings and then your name or logo. Research has shown that if you add a visual to your advert you will increase the response rate by around 30 percent! Yes 30 percent. Pictures of people work particulary well , however use these with caution, people are often turned off by ’staged’, ‘cheesy’ pictures so it’s important that you use the right image giving a natural feel especially if shows someone enjoying themsleves as a result of using or buying your product. It is worth paying to have a proper designer create the advert for you as it really will pay off in the long run.

5. Colour - whilst full colour ads are usually around three time the cost of a single colour ad the research shows that the response rates for colour adverts are more than double that of a single colour or mono ad. As the local newspapers and magazines on the Isle of Man print using four colour process it might be worth asking how much extra it would be to add just a single colour if budget is on the slim side?

6. Size - it isn’t always everything ( I think that’s how it goes anyway). The key to size is making sure that your advert has maximum impact on the page this can be achieved by going across the columns rather than down the columns. Newspapers and magazine tend to have columns running down the page so by breaking these up with your advert either by shape or size (see image above) can often be better sometimes than forking out for a full page advert, after all people are buying newspapers for the news not the adverts!

7. Tracking element - this is an essential in my mind, after all what’s the point in paying to have an advert designed and placed if you don’t know how effective it is. Traditionally coupon codes have been used and these still can useful, usually in the form of an abbreviation for the publication along with the date. This helps track what adverts in which publication and what date generated the most calls? Other alternatives could include a reference to quote when calling (very similar to a coupon) and other tracking mechanisms such as specific telephone numbers for specific adverts and TxtOrder services whereby people who are interested in finding out more can text a code to a listed number and receive an automated reponse almost immediately via email with the precise information that has been requested.

8. Call to action - time and time again I see adverts with either no call to action or with very poor call to actions incorporated in the design and it baffles me! What is the point of advertising if people don’t know how to call you, find you, visit your website or meet up with you? Make sure that phone numbers and web address are in prime position and as big as you can make them so that what ever you ask people to do they know how to do it!

9. Experiment - before embarking on any large advertising campaign it could well be worth running some experiments with different ads to gain a feel for which ones work best. You could use different designs with a focus group or even different friends and family to gain an understanding of what flicks there switch and grabs there attention?

10. Dont expect instant results - sometimes it might just happen that you strike gold with some great ad copy. Just remember how many messages we are bombarded with on a daily basis, sometimes its not easy to cut through all these but hopefully if you follw these tips you might just save yourself a lot of time effort and money!

I think I will do a piece shortly on the various Isle of Man publications on that are on offer and the target readerships they all have. Watch this space!

Related articles by Zemanta

• New mag for Isle of Man
• Death of Newspapers - I don’t think so … not quite yet
• Magazine Ads Explained: They Sell Things! [Media]