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
- Introduction
- How advertising can help your business
- Local advertising
- Advertising on the internet and in online directories
- Advertising in the trade and technical press
- Radio, cinema, outdoor and national advertising
- Planning an advertising campaign
- Getting value for money from your advertising
- Managing responses and monitoring your campaign
- How to write an advertisement
- Here's how I increased my sales through advertising

Actions
- Contact your local authority through our Contacts Directory
- Advertising in local media guidance on the Newspaper Society website - Opens in a new window
- Newspaper circulation figures on the JICREG website (registration required) - Opens in a new window
- Business directory and advertising scams information on the Office of Fair Trading website - Opens in a new window
- Marketing e-course on the learndirect business website - Opens in a new window
- Use our interactive tool to investigate what will be the best advertising media for your business
- Manage your personal list of starting-up tasks with our Business start-up organiser
- View local and national events linked to this topic



