Why you should never pay "rate-card"

Written by Neil Moran


Off line advertising is a great way to get an extra traffic boost, but it can be very expensive if you haven't done it before....

There is a 'fixed', published rate for advertising in newspapers and magazines. This is calledrepparttar "rate-card" price. The 'rate-card' is a newspapers or magazines published "priced list" of space inrepparttar 101138 publication concerned.

Doesrepparttar 101139 "rate-card" price reflectrepparttar 101140 average price you could expect to pay inrepparttar 101141 publication concerned? NO! It representsrepparttar 101142 absolute highest, top dollar rate you could ever be insane enough to contemplate paying!! The "rate card" price for say, Daily Mirror would berepparttar 101143 £5000 price. The"rate card is a kind of wish list fromrepparttar 101144 newspapers. This isrepparttar 101145 price they would like to get for all of their adverts.

This is what they considerrepparttar 101146 space to be "really" worth. In practice, they hardly EVER get "rate card" for an advert, and most ofrepparttar 101147 time they get half of one-third of rate card prices.

However, if you are naive little bunny, and you telephone any national newspaper classified department and say to them; "Hey, look, I'm a rank amateur in this business, I was wondering if you could see your way clear to telling me how much my half-page advert would cost to insert in your excellent publication."

They will reply......

"Why certainly sir, our rate card for that advert is....let me see now....ah yes, £5000."

And you hop away thinking:- "Cripes! That's a bit steep. But ifrepparttar 101148 competition is paying that rate , then they must be really pulling inrepparttar 101149 orders". So you stump up your five grand, and send your advert intorepparttar 101150 paper. The conversation onrepparttar 101151 classified desk goes something like this:-

Sue: "Here , John, you'll never guess what! You know that ACME publishing company I quoted five grand last week?"

John: "Yeah?"

Sue: "They've only gone and sent me a cheque and their advert!"

John: "What!!! You're pulling my plonker!"

Sue: (Laughing). No. Straight up. Look, here'srepparttar 101152 cheque."

John: "Bank it, quick!"

Etc., Etc. You sit back and wait expectantly. The advert appears. The phones start ringing,repparttar 101153 first day's post arrives. The results look unpromising, but you reassure yourself that people need a bit of time to respond, andrepparttar 101154 post is a bit slow etc. Next day you get about one third ofrepparttar 101155 post you expected. You put this down to a hold-up atrepparttar 101156 sorting office. Next day you get about one tenth ofrepparttar 101157 post you expected. andrepparttar 101158 following day you get about three letters! You start to become alarmed. Ten days later, you know you've blown about three grand. You hastily examine your advert. What's wrong with it? You look atrepparttar 101159 competition. Hmm, they're offering a thirty day money-back guarantee and you're only offering fourteen. Damn! That must be it.

Your first job is to get your customers to see your ad!

Written by Noel Peebles


If you have read my manual "The Secrets Uncovered: How To Write Headlines That Could Make You A Fortune", you will recall that every ad should followrepparttar AIDA formula: 1. Get Attention 2. Generate Interest 3. Create Desire 4. Call for Action

The problem is that most ads just aim to get attention by using bold or unusual graphic gimmicks. It is a bit like walking up to a customer and grabbing them by both shoulders, staring them inrepparttar 101137 face, and shaking them.

I suspect you'll get their attention but will they buy? You see, getting their attention is only part ofrepparttar 101138 job.

I have a more effective way of getting attention ...repparttar 101139 right kind of attention that will generate interest in what you have to sell.

The secret is:

Make your ad look like a news story!

Don't make it look like an ad. Don't use line art. Don't use arrows, cute graphics, reverse type, (except maybe to highlight a phone number), weird typesets . . .

Or anything else that might win an award for graphic design!

Come closer and listen. Here is how to think about your newspaper ads. Think about what could berepparttar 101140 best possible piece of luck you could have. Think aboutrepparttar 101141 reporter who heard a rumour about your product or service and decided to check it out. And then he fell in love with it. In fact he loved it so much, he went back to his PC and wrote a full page rave article about what you are selling.

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