1. Classified ads in newspapers.
If you’re running a statewide classified newspaper ad campaign, there are state newspaper associations that offer great rates on almost every newspaper in your state. Discounted newspaper advertising rates can be 30% – 50% – 70% off listing, if you purchase classified ads through your state’s newspaper association. Yes, they are much cheaper.

State associations can be found online, in directories, and in “The Intelligent Testing System,” a program that provides specific benchmark data on classified ads. It is a database of names, addresses, and phone numbers from all of the state newspaper associations in the US, along with the major national classified buying associations. It also includes specific discount rates for virtually all local newspapers published in the United States.

If you want to learn how to place 100 to 10,000 classified ads across the country with a single phone call at very low prices, The Intelligent Testing System is the ultimate classifieds program. You will see exactly where to buy cheap newspaper advertising and how to buy wholesale newspaper classifieds at a discount.

2. Advertising in Local Newspapers.
Discounted advertising rates abound for local newspaper advertising if you know how to ask. If you’re only buying an ad once, it’s pretty hard to get cheap newspaper advertising rates. But if you are a local retailer, all your ads will be local advertising. And chances are you’re placing more than just one ad, so you have A) good credibility and B) great bargaining power, so you should C) ask for a discount for all local ads in your print ad campaign.

Everyone loves a winning ad: advertisers love it because it consistently generates business, newspapers love it because if a client’s retail print ad is successful, they’ll run it more often, perhaps forever. So ask for a discount to your print advertising rates, and here’s how you do it.

3. How to Politely Request a Discounted Newspaper Ad Rate:
Ask for

or 2 ads for the cost of 1 (buy one get one free special)

o Request a larger ad at a smaller ad price

or Buy 2 get one FREE rate

o Mail Order Fee

o Multiple Insertion Rate

o Contact rate (for longer insertion contracts)

o Remaining space rate

4. Submit a press release with every ad you place.
A press release doubles your exposure and with the successful placement of your press release, your credibility goes up, way, way.

Remember, newspaper publishers love press releases. They have a whole newspaper to fill every day (every week for weekly papers) and writing it all themselves is hard. Newspaper advertising needs editorial support, and if you write your press release correctly, you’ll be providing editorial support. Check out our 85-page chapter on writing press releases in the book “How to Market a Product for Under $500.”

5. Ask your local newspaper for “remaining space.”
If you place national ads, use a holdover service – there are several excellent ones and they are shown in the book “Direct Marketing Strategies”.

“Left space” is the term that makes all newspaper and magazine publishers tremble.

Also called “holding space,” this is the unsold portion of the newspaper that is left over just before the newspaper goes to print. Like an empty seat on an airplane when the door is closing, newspaper advertising space is a perishable commodity. The editor of the newspaper can’t just leave it blank – it would show up as a white hole in a gray printed page, so sometimes they’ll run an internal ad for the paper, or sometimes a free ad for a charity like the United Way. But most of the time it sells, and whatever you pay for it is better income than unpaid space. This can mean cheap and heavily discounted newspaper ad space ads for you.

Remaining ad space is always sold at the end of the sales cycle, in the last closing moments before the printing process. You won’t know if your remaining space ad appeared in the paper until the last second, but deep discounts make it worth the wait.

Discounted newspaper advertising rates can be as high as 80% of the list. That’s right, you can get cheap newspaper ad space by paying 20 cents on the dollar requesting “remnant space” or “holding space.” For the full article on how to buy newspaper space at a discount, read the Uncommon Marketing Techniques book or click through to our website, as we sometimes feature this article in our rotating article presentations.
Regardless of the price you pay for your newspaper advertising fees, always ask for a great placement of your ad on the FRONT of the newspaper, at the TOP of the page (called above the fold) and aligned to the right, on the HAND RIGHT (outer position) of the RIGHT page. This is the point of greatest visibility in the newspaper. Ads that are at the bottom of the paper or buried in the gutter have much lower visibility and lose effectiveness due to poor placement.

You must request this “FFRH” (Right Hand Forward Forward) position over the fold point before you say “yes” to your final ad placement. Once you say yes to placing your ad in the newspaper, you won’t have any further bargaining power. Even deeply discounted print advertising rates won’t help if your ad isn’t seen because it’s in the middle of the left-hand page, visually hidden below everyone else’s ad. I hope this is useful.