| 5 Myths of Newspaper Advertising debunked and then rebunked! |
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I found an article today about advertising in newspapers. In the article James Burchill debunks 5 "myths" of newspaper advertising. I agree with some of his theories, but I disagree with some as well. (By the way, the article was found at www.EzineArticles.com). I agree completely with everything. The only exception is when the Company is already a huge name in the community. Then it does need to be a focal point to get readers to look at the ad. "Advertising Myth 3: You should never use a reply coupon because it looks 'unprofessional'." Burchill says use a reply coupon unless you simply do not have the space. I agree with him only if your ad goal is to generate a direct response and if your business is one that "fits" the coupon image. If your industry typically uses reply coupons and people are use to seeing them, then go ahead and use them. But not all businesses are well represented by coupons. And not all consumers use coupons nor do they respond to them. So, to simply say coupons are right for all ads is, well, too simple. "Advertising Myth 4: You should use a design agency to create your ads." Burchill says, "In almost every case you are better equipped to create your own advertising rather than using a design agency" and I disagree. Although some of local businesses have the internal resources to design their own ads, most do not. My experience has been that a skilled designer who understands the publication can almost always create a more effective ad than a typical small business can. "Advertising Myth 5: Your ad must not have too much copy (words) and have lots of white space." Burchill says, essentially, the more words the better. His reasoning is that if you have more words, you have more opportunities to "sell" the reader on responding. You can offer more benefits to them. I disagree. I believe in good photos and/or a great headline. You want a response to the ad, not someone reading everything you offer right then and there. The goal is to get the reader to pick up the phone and call or come visit your store. In my experience, I've seen that people tend to look at the ads with photos and less copy a lot more. The ads that have to much copy just get skipped over, because everyone is always in a hurry to rush through the paper. I've been designing ads for various local publications, but most commonly in the Coffee County Shopper and more recently The Saturday Independent. Below are some ads I've designed for TSI over the last two weeks.   
 
 
 
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