Advertising: the basics

Local advertising

Advertising locally can benefit any business, including small businesses and sole traders. Examples of local advertising include:

leaflet drops
supermarket boards, postcards in shop windows
advertising space rented at railway stations, bus stops or on buses, roundabout islands, leisure centres or doctors' surgeries
local organisations' newsletters, fete programmes and parish magazines
a sign outside your business premises, which must conform to planning regulations - contact your local authority through our Contacts Directory

Local and regional newspapers

Weekly, evening and morning paid-for and free local papers provide a variety of ways to advertise:

Classified advertising (lineage) - usually containing only words and often the cheapest option.
Display and semi-display - display advertisements are bigger and more sophisticated. They usually appear on editorial pages or in special supplements, eg motoring, recruitment, property, etc and can use pictures and design devices.
Advertisement features - laid out like editorial pages but featuring you and your business (perhaps your new premises). You pay for them, and you may also be given advertisement space. Your suppliers might advertise as well and offset the cost. This is sometimes called 'advertorial'.
Loose inserts you supply that are placed inside the newspaper, ie using the paper's circulation to distribute your flyer.

Try to make sure any advert addresses its target audience and stands out - readers could easily miss it amongst the editorial and other adverts. When deciding on the text, remember that readers may only spend a few seconds looking at each advert - unless you can keep them interested. You can get details of newspapers in your area and how to advertise in them on The Newspaper Society website - Opens in a new window.

Ask the advertisement department at the newspaper for a media pack with readership breakdown and rates for different types of advertisement. The quoted rate is only a starting point - always negotiate to try to pay less. Ideally, check circulation figures on the Joint Industry Committee for Regional Press Research (JICREG) website (registration required) - Opens in a new window.

Local magazines and directories

Many areas have local lifestyle magazines - useful for certain types of upmarket consumer advertising. Always check when and where they are circulated.

Phone directories such as the Yellow Pages and Thomson Local offer free listings and paid-for display advertisements. However, as most of your competitors will also be listed in the same place, it may be hard to make your business stand out. Remember also that directories are usually consulted only when there is already a need for a product or service, eg blocked drains, so they are unsuitable for generating general awareness of your business.

Local business directories produced by Chambers of Commerce and other organisations can be useful if you're selling to other businesses.

Subjects covered in this guide

Print options - What are my print options

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Print guide now - Opens in a new window

Add guide to my print portfolio (print later as PDF)

Email options - What are my email options