How To Get Cheap Advertising In Newspapers And Magazines

There are a few facts you need to understand about buying advertising space before you spend any money. Shown below are details of how you can reduce your advertising costs by up to 75% - by following a few simple rules. Read and understand the facts below and you will be amazed at just how much money you can save.

What Is A Media Pack
A media pack is a folder containg a recent copy of a publishers newspaper/magazine, together with information sheets of circulation, demographics, etc about that particular publication. This folder is designed to give you a good impression of the newspaper/magazine so that you feel it is the best place for you to advertise.

Also enclosed inside a media pack is a rate card.

So What Is A Rate Card ?
A rate card is a price list of how much the publisher wants to charge you for placing an advert in their newspaper/magazine. The prices vary depending on size, location of your advert within the publication. Extra charges also apply if you want your advert in colour or black and white.

Prices rise if you want a bigger advert in a prime location. The smaller your advert is - the lower the cost.

But what you must appreciate is that the prices being asked by the publlisher are "not set in stone". They are highly negotiable.

Never Pay Rate Card Prices
If you do pay rate card prices, you will be throwing money away and only helping to boost the commission payments of the advertising sales person. Rate card prices are a starting price - the final price you pay for advertising can be a million miles away.

Advertising Sales People
There are some common factors about advertising sales people that will help you to buy cheap advertising:

1. They are employed on a low basic salary.
2. They are generally aged between 18 and 25.
3. They boost their salary by selling advertising space and earning commission.
4. They always have a deadline by which time they must fill their newspaper / magazine with sold advert.

By being aware of these facts you can use your position as a buyer to drive down the cost you pay for advertising.

Two Different Types Of Advertising Discount You Can Get
Before you book any adverts you need to learn the two diffrent methods of booking cheap advertising, these are:

1. series discounts
2. last minute discounts

Series Discounts For Advertising
A series discount is the discount you receive by agreeing to book multiple adverts - in a newspaper/magazine for several issues.

Here is an exmaple:

(1) If you book one advert in a monthly magazine - the cost would be £100

(2) But if you agree to book the same advert in for six months - you would receive a 20% discount. This means the cost of each advert reduced to £80.

(3) However, if you agree to book for an even longer period of time - lets says 12 months - you would receive a 40% discount. This means the cost of each advert reduced to £60.

But why would the advertising sales staff agree to such a big discount. The answer is very simple, by getting your adverts booked in for the next 12 months they don't have to spend time trying to find (and persuade) another advertiser to book an advert. This not only saves them time and effort, but it also saves the publisher expenses trying to find a new advertiser. So the discount offered is worth their while and it is worth your while by obtaining a discount from the rate card price.

Late Space Discounts For Advertising
All newspapers and magazines have deadlines. The publisher has to send their magazines out on the first day of each month to the newspaper vendors. If they don't the vendors will soon stop handling their publication.

This means that the publisher must sell all (or as much as they can) of advertising space before their publication is printed and sent out.

To help you understand this principle - think of a magazine as an aeroplane. If an aeroplane takes off with an empty seat, it means the airline wont make any money on that one empty seat. Yet the airline still has to pay for airline staff, pilots, fuel, airport charges etc etc. So even if the airline received a payment of just one penny for that seat - it is better to earn an extra penny - than to let the aeroplane take off with an empty seat.

The same principle is true of newspapers and magazines. If a publication is printed with an empty white space (unsold advertising space) - that is equivalent of an empty seat on an aeroplace.

Thus, it is better for the publisher to earn one penny for that empty space in their magazine - rather than let it go empty.

Armed with this knowledge you can now obtain some amazing advertising discounts.

Process For Obtaining Late Space Advertising Discounts

1. Contact the magazine/newspaper you are interested in advertising in.
2. Ask them to send you a media pack
3. Wait until it arrives - then wait a few days (don't look to keen).
4. Contact the publisher and speak to the advertising sales department.
5. Explain you are interested in advertising, but don't have much money (always plead poverty).
6. If the space you want to advertise costs £200 - tell them you can only afford £50.
7. They will immediately say they can't accept such a low payment (which is a lie).
8. And now this is the point at which you call their bluff.
9. Offer them £50 for the advert on a last minute basis.
10. Tell them you will send over a finished advert which they can hold for you if they do get any late space.
11. Agree the price with them and supply them with your credit card details.
12. Inform them they can charge your credit card £50 if any late space does become available.
13. This now means that if at the deadline they have been unable to sell all their advertising space, they know they have your advert as a backup.
14. Your advert is the equivalent to the airline earning pne penny for that empty seat in the aeroplane.
15. 9 times of 10 - your advert will appear.
16. Occassionally the sales person might sell all their advertising space for more money - and thus, don't need your booking.

Use these method shown above and you will be amazed just how much money you can save.