How to Get a Circular in a Newspaper

Newspaper circulars can be cost-effective buys for localized advertising efforts.

Newspapers are a great vehicle to get the word out about a sale or an event. Instead of buying just a display advertisement on a page, you can place a circular in a newspaper. The advantage to a circular is that it can be easily removed from a newspaper, ultimately outliving the paper that it contained it. Depending on circular's size and the newspaper's circulation, the cost of placing a circular in a newspaper can vary dramatically.

Instructions

1. Determine internally what will go in the circular. If you are running a business, you can do this by tapping the insights of your marketing and inventory personnel, who have knowledge of the supply and demand of the products that your business offers. Decide on a promotion or sales pitch and devise the right creative presentation to achieve a desired return on investment.

2. Explore size, color and timing options by consulting with the staff of the newspaper. Remember, the more pages and the more color, the more costly the circular will be to produce and to place in the newspaper. Another consideration is the day or days of the week the circular goes in the newspaper. Sunday will be more expensive than Monday because of the bigger circulation of the Sunday edition and because there is greater demand within the advertising community for Sunday placements.

3. Consider all options. Weigh any other sales techniques and incentives with the staff of the newspaper. These options will be whether you want to place the circular online and whether you want to have a coupon or coupons within the circular. In larger metropolitan areas, you may also have the choice of targeting one or more zones, which are geographical sub-regions within the newspaper's total market area.

4. Weigh the alternatives that are outlined in steps 2 and 3 with your marketing and inventory staff. Once a determination has been made, sign the contract with the newspaper staff.

References

• New York Times: Newspaper Ad Circulars Find Their Way Online
• Southwest Media: Marketing Services