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Newspaper Advertising tends to provide geographical coverage for your business or product, ranging from local or regional through to national newspapers. What can you do to influence your success rates through this advertising medium?

Well the first thing is to make sure you choose the right newspaper in which to advertise. There are many newspapers published across the UK covering different geographical areas. There are also national newspapers in which there may be regional variations enabling you to appear in a particular regional edition rather than having to purchase nationwide advertising. If you offer a local lawn cutting service on the Isle of Wight, is there much point gaining national coverage by advertising in a national newspaper? No there isn't, so you need to locate the right publications offering newspaper advertising.

Once we have found the publications covering the right geographical area we need to understand their frequency, and therefore with what frequency are you going to advertise in them. Weekly newspapers can by nature of their content often have a longer life on the coffee table than perhaps a daily. Could this be important to your business?

You need to research what sections are in your short-listed newspapers on which days. For example if you find a local daily newspaper which has a gardening section every Wednesday, a car section on Thursdays and homes for sale on Fridays, chances are the Wednesday edition will be the best day to advertise your lawn cutting service. Though it may pay you to think a little laterally about this, could you target an advert at making a garden look it's best for potential home buyers? In which case you may want to try the Friday edition as well.

With regards to the advert itself there are a couple of things to keep in mind when preparing an advertisement for the newspaper. Firstly, you will normally get better results from regular advertising, preferably in the same spot each time. It is generally more effective to have regular smaller advert that fits your budget than occasional larger adverts, as this builds trust with the regular readers who keep noticing your advert. It sends the message that you are around to stay.

Secondly, the advert itself must be crisp and clear, only focused on your objective from the advertising. It must sell the benefits of the service or product you are promoting and call the reader to action with clear next steps providing full relevant contact or website details. Maybe consider including a special offer for a response by a certain date as this can give people a reason to act now rather than waiting until next week.

As with all forms of advertising you must monitor the results you are achieving. Newspaper advertising is no different if it's not achieving it's objective; improve the advert, change the placement or even try another publication.

Most newspaper organisations tend to have teams who can help and advise you on the whole process, and in many cases they also have people who can produce the artwork for your advert, if you so wish. Where this is not the case, or perhaps where advertising in a newspaper is just a part of an advertising campaign, you should consider using the services of a professional designer.