Newspaper Advertising

Free Newspaper Advertising

Written by Rayzelle Forrest Young for Gaebler Ventures

Highlights using an advertising co-op to get free newspaper advertising. Gives step by step instructions on how it's done.

Advertising in the newspaper can be an excellent way to promote your business. If you frequently use newspaper advertising for your business, you already know how costly it can get.

To alleviate the cost of this form of advertising, try seeking out avenues to get free newspaper advertising. It not as hard to do as you may think, but will take some effort on your part. You can get free newspaper advertising by creating an insert with a group of other businesses. You can charge them a premium for your work and completely offset the cost of your advertisement.

Find Out Rates

Find out the advertising rates for the newspaper you want to use. Research the printing and paper costs for the amount of inserts you will need. Once you have researched your costs, divide the total by three.

Develop a Co-Op

In order to split the cost of advertising, develop a co-op. Approach 3 other business in your area that are interested in advertising with a newspaper insert. It's a good idea to work with companies that offer products and services that are along the same lines of what your business has to offer but it's not a must. For instance, if your business is a shoe store you could contact a shoe repair company to be a part of the advertising co-op.

Inform the other business that they can have a quarter page advertisement for the cost that you got when you divided the advertising rates by 3 in the above step.

Collect Payment

Collect half of the payment upfront. Inform them that the remainder of the balance will is due when they approve the ad. This ensures that you don't get stuck with paying the balance of the bill.

Design The Ad

When designing the ad for the newspaper insert, make sure you have the necessary information from the other participating businesses. This should include any artwork, contact information and whatever else they want to be on their portion of the ad. Allow enough approval time before you print the inserts and collect the final payments from the other business.

Meet Deadline and Requirements

Ensure that you meet the newspapers submittal deadline by having your inserts in at least a day before they are due. You will also need to make sure you have the required amount of inserts in order to go in all the papers or the newspaper company won't take them. Once you are done with submitting, give a copy of the proof of submittal that the newspaper gives you to the businesses in the co-op. This is to ensure them that you aren't just taking their money.

Getting free newspaper advertising in this way is an excellent idea as well as great for building business relationships. This is a win-win situation for all parties involved. The businesses in the co-op as well as yourself will benefit from this form of newspaper advertising.

Rayzelle is an entrepreneur and writer. Based on her experiences as an owner of her own dance studio, she will share her personal tips on being a successful entrepreneur.

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