Classified Selling Ideas

October is Self-promotion Month. The truth is, there’s never a bad time to promote the benefits of subscribing to and advertising in your publication. Print newspaper is still the best source of local information and strongly influences purchase decisions—recession or not. In fact, a 2009 survey reported by MediaWeek concluded that nearly 60 percent of adults use newspapers to plan shopping or purchasing decisions. Additionally, 41 percent of adults turn to newspapers when they check for advertising.

Why not take advantage of these facts and do some self-promoting? Aside from simply increasing readership, self-promotion is an essential way to sell more ads. Here are some tips to help your publication:

Ad/Promotion Ideas:
• Does your publication give back to the community? Does it offer special pricing plans? How many readers use your classifieds? What’s the average selling price for an item? Make such information visible to potential advertisers through online, networking and print campaigns.
• Check out the self-promotion material on AdBuilder.com. Ad templates can quickly be customized for your publication in minutes.
• Build an email marketing list, starting with subscribers and contacts your employees know. Encourage viral marketing in your email so your list can grow itself over time.
• Make subscribing to the news as simple as visiting your website and filling out a form! Consider friend referral promotions as well.
• Utilize free social media outlets such as YouTube, Twitter, etc. on your website to create outside-of-the-box content.

Share your experiences!
Have you run any unique or notable self-promotion campaigns? Were they successful? Post your experiences as a comment and let’s increase ad sales together.