Community Newsletter Advertising

by Tash Hughes of Word Constructions (www.wordconstructions.com) 

Whether it is to target a certain group of people or to minimise advertising costs, or both, community newsletters can be an effective way to advertise your business.

What is a community newsletter?

There is a lot of variation in the size, style and format, but community newsletters are like mini newspapers in a specific area.

Groups such as schools, kindergartens, sports clubs, gardening clubs, community centres, support groups, neighbourhood watch, Scouts, Guides and children’s activity clubs produce community newsletters.

The newsletters contain information that is of interest and use to the targeted group, including calendars of matches or meetings, committee contacts and developments within the group.

Some newsletters will also include articles and advertisements of things that may interest most of the group.

These newsletters may be a single page, or a number of pages stapled together. They may be weekly, monthly, quarterly or some other time frame that suits.

Why advertise with them?

Community newsletters are not produced to make a high profit. Any money received from advertising will usually go towards costs of the newsletter and running the group. They also have a smaller readership than newspapers and magazines, so the cost to advertise is substantially less than in many other venues.

For local businesses, advertising in a community newsletter is effective because it is only read by local people; they aren’t paying for advertising to people who won’t use their services anyway.

The highly targeted nature to the newsletters can also make them useful for advertising. For instance, if you sell music for toddlers, a newsletter for a crèche or children’s group will reach exactly who it needs to - parents of young children. Likewise, someone selling tents and sleeping bags could make use of newsletters for Scouts, Guides and hiking groups rather than advertising in a newspaper where only a few people would be interested.

For low costs, community newsletters will get your ad in front of a specific type of person who is likely to read the newsletter. You can also think of how you are benefiting the group by paying them to be included.

How effective is this form of advertising?

There is no simple answer to that.

The fact that the newsletter is targeted will make the ad more effective than an equivalent ad in other places, but the newsletter will also have fewer readers.

A well written and timed ad can do extremely well from community newsletters, but it is unlikely that one such ad will make you rich!

Ads in newsletters are also part of your marketing campaign so they have value in letting more people know about your business, even if they don’t buy something immediately.

Like many things in business, the more you research beforehand, the more positive results will be achieved.

Which one do I advertise in?

In business, it is a good idea to know who your prime customers are. Knowing that, you can identify what sorts of groups they will belong to.

Phone directories, council books and the internet can all be used to find relevant groups. You can stay local or find groups across Australia, depending on your business specifics.

Make sure you really know who the group involves, rather than assuming. Advertising wedding dresses to the men’s netball team or books to the blind ping pong team won’t be as affective as they could be.

Decide on how much of your marketing budget will be used in community newsletters and whether you will do a lot of advertising at once, or spread it over time.

You may want to place an ad in twenty sports club newsletters at once to get a lot of exposure quickly, or you may decide to work with one group at a time.

Once you know what you what  groups to look at and what you can afford, it shouldn’t be too hard to choose which newsletters to advertise in.

How do I advertise in there?

You will need to prepare an ad to put in the newsletter. You may need a few versions of the ad if you are using more than one newsletter as some will have different space limits available.

In some newsletters, you may be able to have a flyer or page added to their newsletter, rather than an ad within it. If you do this, the same flyer can be used in multiple newsletters and for other purposes and this can save you time and money. However, it may cost more than just placing an ad.

Make sure the ad is easy to understand and will appeal to the group of people reading the newsletter. A masseur would mention injury treatment in a sports newsletter and stress release in a business network newsletter.

When you researched the name of the group, you will have seen the contact details for someone in the group. The enquiries person or secretary of the group will know who you should speak to about placing an ad, and may even be able to give you the rates directly.

Be sure you find out:

How much the ad will cost

How big the ad will be

Whether you can include a logo or picture in the ad

How many people get the newsletter

Whether you can have repeat ads, and if there is a discount for this

How they would like you to present the ad (especially important if logos are being added)

Once you know who to give your ad to, it’s easy. Send your ad and payment to them and they will do the rest.

It is quite reasonable to ask for a copy of the newsletter so that you can see the ad.

Now all you have to do is get ready for the extra business!

Tash Hughes is the owner of Word Constructions and is available to solve all your business writing problems! From letters to policies, newsletters to web content, Word Constructions writes all business documents to your style and satisfaction.

This article is available for free use on your web site or in your newsletter.

It must be acknowledged as written by Tash Hughes of www.wordconstructions.com.au and copyright remains the property of Tash Hughes.

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