Purchasing advertising can be incredibly expensive. Whether it is for advertising in a print publication (newspaper, magazine, etc.) or Web advertising, or even radio and/or television advertising—it can take a big chunk out of your expense budget. One way that smaller, home businesses can do some “official” advertising, is to consider taking out classified ads. These are often the least expensive way to advertise and you will likely not need a professional to help you design your classified ad.
Newspapers, magazines, trade and specialty publications, and even e-mail newsletters often offer classified advertising opportunities. These small ads usually are made up entirely of text (without graphics or images), although some classified advertising may include a small image or graphic for an extra charge. If you look in the back of your favorite magazines or trade publications, you can get an idea of what kind of classified advertising is available and see how much information you can get in a small ad. Your ad can include contact information, a Web site, or even an address and still have room for information about your product or service.
A classified ad can get your business information in front of a much larger potential market, or a very targeted market of potential customers. While it certainly isn’t as large or as flashy as the more expensive display advertising—it is one way that you can do some advertising without breaking the bank. Most classified ad space is sold by the word or by the column inch. You’ll have to do some research to find out how many words or characters you need in your ad and how much space it takes up. An advertising professional or someone at the publication or web site may be able to help you shorten your ad—these people will be able to tell you exactly what information is important and needed, and what you might be able to leave out.
Things to keep in mind as you consider classified advertising are: the demographic or the market that will be seeing your ad, how long the ad will run and what the “shelf life” of the publication will be (is it the type of magazine that sits around in doctor’s offices or gets passed around and/or saved?), and whether there are any special rates or discounts for the number of inserts or times you run your ad in the publication. While advertising is a pretty inexact science, there may be a way that you can code your ad or have a special offer to track the actual response. This will help you to evaluate whether or not your classified ad has been effective and useful.