YOU DESERVE PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT!
When it comes to advertising, consumers prefer not to be ambushed by pop-up ads or assaulted by banner ads. Instead, they like to find advertising on their own. According to The Newspaper Association of America's report "How America Shops and Spends in 2011", 52 percent of adults indicated that newspapers are most relied on to make purchasing decisions and to plan shopping outings. By comparison, only 36 percent relied on TV ads to make consumer-based decisions and 16 percent placed their faith in general interest websites. When it comes to retail advertising, in the eyes of consumers, newspapers come out on top in terms of convenience, reliability, and truthfulness. These are certainly desirable traits when it comes to committing advertising dollars to a medium that has a proven track record of attracting eyes, establishing brands and producing results.
A CLEAR MESSAGE!
When readers come upon an advertisement, they should be able to tell immediately who the advertiser is and what is being offered. Otherwise, it's on to the next picture or headline. With this in mind, Syndicated Ad Features offers its clients a clean layout that includes an attention-grabbing headshot that is designed to familiarize the readers with the advertiser; an attention grabbing, bold-type headline; and a well-researched, well-written column that personally conveys the advantages of working with this local business. From a visual standpoint, Syndicated's editorial layout makes important use of white space and a border to separate its information-based advertising from surrounding advertisements. One look tells the reader that this is something different and worthy of attention. A subsequent reading reaffirms the positive impression and establishes a relationship.
FREQUENCY RESPONSE
Frequent and consistent advertising builds awareness in the mind of the consumer, which leads to familiarity, which in turn creates trust. Thus, it is important that advertisers follow a regimen that places their faces, services and products on the pages of local newspapers to draw in readers. The fact is that many advertisers grow tired of their own advertising long before their readers ever do. From their standpoint, readers value consistency, in terms of placement, style, format and an interesting, entertaining and informative topic. A customer or patient may not need your product or services today or even next week. The payoff from consistent and frequent advertising comes when there is a choice to be made and your advertising efforts have placed you top of mind at the forefront. In the reader's mind, you are a familiar, trustworthy and unwavering friend and neighbor worthy of their business.
WHAT'S THE POINT?
Has your attention ever been grabbed by a headline that immediately leads you to read a column that provides no real answers or explanation until the final paragraph? Good advertising should be concise and worthy of the reader's time and attention. Syndicated Ad Features incorporates its client's picture and byline into an eye-catching format that leads with a headline and follows up with a concise and interesting column that is designed to educate the reader in 120 words or less. Over time, this series of information-based advertorials builds a personal relationship that leads the reading public to regard you, the advertiser, as having the knowledge and expertise necessary to provide the service and/or product they want or need. That's the point! Branded content draws an audience that is more likely to purchase products and services.
"WHERE EVERYONE KNOWS YOUR NAME"
With the acknowledgment that this week's headline owes its widespread familiarity to the long-running hit sitcom Cheers, we evoke the well-known phrase to underscore the importance of frequently advertising. As has been said many times, frequent advertising builds familiarity which leads to trust. When prospective clients, patients, or consumers lay their eyes on an advertiser's face and words in the local newspaper, week after week, it tends to build the kind of rapport that neighbors create when they repeatedly bump into one another in their locality. Not only do readers begin to feel as though they know you, they look forward to seeing your face and hearing what you have to say. At that point, a successful advertising strategy built on consistency and frequency begins to pay dividends. After all, who would you do business with or seek personal service from - a randomly selected stranger or a trusted and respected friend?
CAN YOU AFFORD NOT TO ADVERTISE?
While there can be little question that these are tough economic times that challenge the resourcefulness of small businesses and professional practices, it is hardly a time to cut back on advertising. If anything, it is time to step up efforts to maintain your visibility in the public eye and remain relevant with your advertising message. You could be offering the best goods and/or services in your area but, if people are unaware of who you are and what you do, they will not be buying. In this respect, advertising is as important as stocking your shelves and opening your doors to business. It establishes your presence. If you are not already advertising effectively and consistently, it is important that you start putting your name and face in front of the public. If you are already advertising, keep it up! Otherwise, the public might assume that you have disappeared.
MORE THAN JUST A PRETTY FACE
Those already familiar with Syndicated Ad Feature's advertising strategy know that it pays to put your face in the public's eye - literally. Each of our clients runs a weekly column ad in his or her local newspaper that features a picture and byline. Not only are readers' eyes immediately drawn to a smiling face, the picture helps establish personal familiarity with the advertiser. However, there is more to drawing readers' eyes than just presenting them with a pretty face. It is necessary to back up that image with words. We provide content that is thoroughly researched and developed to cultivate reader interest. The polished and informative nature of the column is intended to elevate the advertisers to the level of expert in their field of choice, someone whom readers respect and trust for his or her knowledge and experience.
ABSORBING READING
When considering the local newspaper as a vehicle for your business advertising, it pays to note the differences between reading a newspaper column ad and Internet advertising. When readers sit down to read the newspaper, they do just that! They make time and create space to lay the folded pages before them, in preparation for thoroughly scanning entire pages, one after the other, for material worthy of their interest. Newspapers adhere to a strict format that is designed to invite reader scrutiny, within which advertisers have a suitable and stable context to display eye-catching ads. The ad does not jump around, as the content downloads, and the eye is not distracted with all manner of gimmicky promotion. Newspaper advertising tends to hold more value in readers' minds, providing material that is perceived as being substantive and worthy of consideration. Your newspaper column ad remains readily accessible and something that readers can rely upon and trust in a tangible way.
WHO'S PAYING ATTENTION?
If you watch TV, you know that advertisers are doing everything in their power to attract your attention, from turning up the volume on their commercials, to using captivating visuals. The question is: Are you buying into what they are selling or are you using your remote control to switch the station as soon as there is a commercial break in the programming? Beyond that, it is fair to ask how much attention you pay to radio advertising, Internet and newspaper ads. More importantly, how much attention is the general public paying? According to a recent survey that appeared in AdWeek, consumers indicated that the types of advertising that they were most likely to ignore were Internet banner ads (43%), Internet search engine ads (20%), TV ads (14%), radio ads (7%), newspaper ads (6%), and none of the above (9%). Thus, it is pretty fair to say that newspaper advertising is the most likely of these advertising forms to get noticed. Which would you put your money on?
CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT
These days, advertisers have many ways to get the word out. They can advertise on TV or radio, on the Internet, in the newspaper, or pay to have an airplane flown overhead that carries a banner with their names on it. Whichever way they choose to go, it must be credible in the public's eyes. After all, anyone can get his or her voice heard on the Internet (yes, including us), but not everyone can back up what they have to say. That's why professional journalists will give out only information that they can have confirmed by two or more credible sources. Otherwise, who is going to entirely believe what they have to say? Advertisers have to ask themselves how they are going to provide unique, relevant, and differentiated content that readers feel they can rely on. One answer is Syndicated Ad Features. We provide our clients with interesting and verifiable content that appears in their local newspaper, a proven and responsible medium. Content is key!
OF LOCAL INTEREST
Whether your interest in news and current events involves what's going on in Washington D.C., the rain forests of the Amazon Basin, or Lindsey Lohan's head, there are a number of information sources to which you can turn. On the other hand, when you want to know what is going on in your own neighborhood and the surrounding community, your best source of credible information is always the local newspaper. This is why there are so many devoted readers of local weeklies in virtually every corner of this country. People want to read about things that are relevant to them - including local politics, who died and who is in the police blotter summary. What's the elementary school lunch? What road is being repaved? Who has what to say in the editorial column? How did the high school team do? What local person distinguished him or herself in a noteworthy way, etc.? Thus, when Syndicated Ad Features positions its clients as fixtures in their local newspapers, their weekly column gets read by people who matter- local consumers.
WHAT CHOICE DO YOU HAVE?
Unfortunately, we are all occasionally faced with emergencies that require the help of a professional. Either we wake up with a toothache, become seriously injured, or face litigation that requires that we immediately get in touch with a nearby dentist, orthopedic surgeon, or attorney. The question then becomes: Do we contact the first person to have listing in the local yellow page telephone directory or turn to the professional whose face and expertise we have come to recognize from the local newspaper? The point is that the professional who advertises in the local paper has a leg up on the competition. Of course, thankfully, the choice of a professional is not always made under duress. More often, readers are impressed by what they read in a professional's weekly column. They see it in their best long-term interest to become a patient or client. Syndicated Ad Features provides their professional clients with a proven way to get noticed and cultivate business.
LET'S FACE IT!
What a great idea! In 2004, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg launched what was to become a multi-billion-dollar company based on the idea of coupling photos with personal information that users would find to be infinitely appealing. Now, why didn't we think of that? As it turns out, we did! More than forty-five years ago, Syndicated Ad Features, Inc. created an advertising program for its clients which combines the advertiser's picture, byline, a headline and written informational copy, to create print-media advertising that captures the reader's attention and rewards them with useful information. What we knew then, and continue to promote now, is the time-tested notion that people prefer to deal with others on a personal basis. We all prefer to see the faces of those with whom we interact so that we may make decisions and draw inferences based on shared personal understanding and knowledge. In short, when your face is on your advertising, it gives people a chance to feel that they know you personally. As we all know, that's how relationships develop.
DID YOU KNOW?
We live in the "information age", in which anyone can access information that may previously have been inaccessible or too obscure to find. The dilemma now becomes one of sifting through mountains and seas of (dis)information to find verifiable facts. This may not be a problem for the discriminating reader, but what about the person, who doesn't even know the correct question to ask, to get the answers (s)he never knew (s)he needed? To make things easier on themselves, many people turn to reliable sources to get information that they may not even have known they could benefit from. It's nice to know that you might learn something that you might not otherwise know by simply reading the newspaper.
People derive a certain satisfaction from tuning into a radio program or reading a newspaper column that informs them. This is why Syndicated Ad Features' program is constructed the way it is. Each week, readers look for what our client "columnists" have to say about issues and developments in their field of expertise. In time, this platform for dispersing information creates the interest and trust needed to attract business.
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?
Advertisers have more ways to bring their names and services to the consuming public's attention than ever before. Aside from radio and newspaper media, there is the Internet, which makes its way to the public's eyes via mobile phones, laptops, tablets, and good old personal computers at home and in the office. So, now that you have a variety of media and information-delivering devices available to you, what do you have to say? Without words and ideas underlying your advertising strategy, everything comes to a screeching halt. Heck, even an airplane towing a banner will have little effect if there is no eye-catching phrase or message to display.
The fact is that most professionals have little time or inclination to develop advertising copy, much less the experience and knowledge needed to create it in a grammatically correct, properly punctuated, well-spelled, and entertaining form. That's where we come in. Syndicated Ad Features provides its clients with pertinent, verifiable, and interesting copy that readers look forward to seeing. It's advertising at its best.
WHAT MAKES YOU THE EXPERT?
Sometimes, as I watch the myriad of talking heads populating the TV screen from the studios of various news media, I wonder just who these people are. It seems that their mere appearance on television programs with ambiguous titles posted beneath their shoulders provides them with instant credibility. The fact is, viewers are all too willing to unquestioningly believe what they see and hear. As far as I (and many others) am concerned, they best be able to back up what they say.
The same may be said for the type of newspaper advertising we offer. Our advertising is designed with our clients' pictures and bylines to appear as though they are guest columnists in their local newspapers. As such, readers accept them at face value (pun intended) to be experts in their particular fields. On this basis, they garner reader interest and trust with the goal of cultivating future business. We also back our clients by providing them with verifiable content that assures them that they can be taken at their word.
WHO GETS IT RIGHT?
When a local news story breaks, Internet tweeters may beat traditional print reporters to the punch, but how reliable is their information? The fact is that many of the breaking stories posted by amateur reporters would never get beyond the editor's desk of a local newspaper. Without access to local official channels, amateur Internet providers often rely on unconfirmed reports, unidentified sources and their own ability to piece the story together. On the other hand, local newspapers must adhere to strict journalistic rules when it comes to investigating a story. As a result, the local newspaper and its website are far more likely to get the story right. Which one therefore is more trustworthy?
There is little question that various media battle one another "to get the story first." However, accuracy should not be sacrificed in the name of speed. In this very important respect, local newspapers wait until they can confirm a news story from its source or through official channels before being put out for consumption. As a result, readers know where to turn for verifiable information. This is why it is so important for advertisers to associate with local print media. Syndicated Ad Features works with its clients to place their advertising where it will be noticed, read, and trusted—in the local newspaper, along with all the other news and information that is too important to get wrong.
NEWS YOU CAN USE
As an advertiser, your credibility and reputation are largely tied to the status of the media in which you choose to make your appeal to the public. As a result, it pays to make your advertising choices thoughtfully. As a local professional and business person, where do you think your investment in time and advertising dollars will best be spent? According to one survey of over 1,100 users of Internet news sites, nearly two-thirds of Americans say they trust community news sites more than mainstream media. It seems that the pages of local weeklies and other community publications are the places to be if you want to be taken seriously.
Another significant benefit of concentrating your advertising in local newspapers is that it attracts the very people to whom you wish to speak. As a general matter, readers of local newspapers are better educated, have higher incomes and have more money to spend. All of these characteristics that retailers and service professionals find so desirable may be attributed to the notion that people in this demographic simply like to read. If so, our clients may take advantage of proper media positioning and readers' thirst for interesting and useful information by putting them in the right place and providing them with the content they believe they need to succeed.
APPOINTMENT PREFERRED
There is a term in television circles known as "appointment TV." This refers to a viewer's commitment to tune in at the same time (every day or week) to watch a favorite TV show that they would not think of missing. If one does not attach such loyalty to a television show, the term can be widened to encompass other forms of entertainment and pursuits. For instance, many people can't wait to read their favorite newspaper columnist or indulge themselves with the weekly special at a local restaurant. In each case, the public is engaged enough with a particular provider that (s)he wouldn't think of missing the next episode, column, or serving. As an advertiser, what wouldn't you give for such a loyal following?
We at Syndicated Ad Features view our role as something of "star makers" as well. Our goal is to make our clients both instantly recognizable and worthy of reader interest and devotion. By taking our clients' images and pairing them with interesting and informational copy that appears weekly in the local newspaper (and Internet), we create an appealing image and attention-grabbing content that most readers find worthy of their time and interest. As people read our columns week after week, they find themselves learning a great deal about many aspects of our advertisers' services and goods. As a result, our clients often hear that the information in their columns motivated readers to schedule an appointment or to simply "drop by".
WE KNOW WHERE TO FIND YOU!
The Internet is relatively new and exciting, but does it deliver the goods to advertisers? That's the question advertisers must ask themselves when they commit to advertising on an Internet site other than their own. The commercial site often cannot guarantee how many eyeballs it will attract until after the fact. On top of that, Internet sites cannot define their audiences to the degree that most advertisers find necessary. Also, there is always the problem that ads on the Internet sites rotate, which makes it difficult to say when a particular ad will appear before the target audience.
Then, there are newspapers. Not only are local papers able to deliver an audience of loyal readers who subscribe to the publication, they are able to deliver a quantifiable audience of interested readers. Unlike the Internet, newspapers often place our clients' advertising in the same section, on request, week after week, so that advertisers can be reasonably assured that readers know where and how to find them. Newspapers are also delivered at predictable times, on a reliable basis, so that advertisers can be sure that their ads will appear with the frequency and predictability that assures consistent exposure. Ask any advertising sales person. The key to advertising success is consistency. Newspapers deliver! Use them to deliver readers to your website.
TOON IN!
Do you know why so many companies use cartoon figures such as geckos, doughy figures, and lovable dogs to advertise their products? Of course you do! We have all grown up with a love of cartoons, which have morphed off the pages of Sunday newspaper comic sections onto TV screens, iPads, billboards, magazines, and weeklies. The fact is that few things attract our attention more than a cartoon on the pages of a newspaper. Our eyes are drawn away from the print toward the carefully drawn box of recognizable figures with the expectation that we are going to laugh or otherwise be entertained. Have you ever turned the pages of a newspaper and NOT looked at the cartoon? Our educated guess is: probably not.
With this in mind, Syndicated Ad Features offers its clients a wide range of cartoons that they can use to draw reader attention and get their messages across. A cartoon can be just the sort of eye-catching attraction that you can use to build a client base, as readers regularly look for your cartoon and the associated copy in your local newspaper.
Also bear in mind that cartoons are very cost-effective in that it only takes a minimum of space to create maximum impact. If you have been thinking about a novel way to start advertising in your local newspaper, a weekly cartoon with your name and message is just the kind of ìout-of-the-boxî idea with the ìin-the-boxî format you have been waiting for.
DON’T GET BLOGGED DOWN!
Blogs are immediate, fun, and interesting to read. Keeping a running web journal of thoughts, ideas, and information pertaining to your business or profession also invites reader scrutiny and comment, which helps build a bigger consumer/client/patient base. These digital forums are not only cost-effective and easily accessible, but they also help build credibility in the public’s eye. On the other hand, they can be difficult to compose.
Not every business owner or professional has the time, energy, and/or inclination to write and edit a carefully researched piece of interesting copy. It can also be argued that, if you are conducting your business successfully, you should keep doing what you do best and allow others to attend to the advertising, bookkeeping, etc.
That’s where Syndicated Ad Features comes into play. We dot the “i’s” and cross the “t’s” on timely and interesting blog content that is carefully selected to be appropriate to your business and appealing to your audience. It is designed to inform readers about your product, service, or field of expertise and increase their awareness about products, ideas, techniques, and procedures pertaining to your line of work.
Let’s face it. Blogs are entertaining to read, but writing quality pieces on a consistent basis can seem a bit more like doing homework than conducting a fun conversation with the cyber audience. Blogs are work. Don’t you have enough to do in your business, practice, or profession without having to write your own advertising? If so, let us do the work for you. If not, you need us more than you might realize.
DRAWING READERS IN
Editorial cartoons on the pages on this country’s newspapers have a long history of drawing reader attention and influencing sentiment. Unfortunately, many newspapers are finding that they no longer have the necessary resources to hire a fulltime artist with editorial sensibility or even to pay for syndicated cartoons. At the same time, there has been no fall-off in reader interest in cartoons that inform, enlighten, and entertain. If anything, readers’ thirst continues unabated for any single-block cartoons with concise messaging. The good news is that advertisers can avail themselves of effective cartoon advertising by running Syndicated Ad Feature cartoons in their local newspapers.
Each cartoon in our vast library is selected to highlight the individual advertiser’s business or profession with images and copy designed to elicit a chuckle or nod of acknowledgement. These cartoons stand out from page text, pictures, and graphic representations as invitations for readers to look at something uniquely fresh and engaging. Once the precedence is set, loyal readers will target your cartoons with your logos, name, and other information as must-see features week after week. The cartoons are easy to spot, easy to read, and hard to forget. There is something about sketched images with pithy, humorous captions that draw our attention and set us up for a punch line. Here’s your chance to run advertising that delivers.
SETTING YOUR SITE ON CONTENT
Now that you have set up a website for your business or practice congratulations! You are well on your way to taking full advantage of the greatest advertising medium since television. And, like TV, your website needs new and interesting content to attract readers and keep their interest. After all, we all may watch a TV rerun once in a while, but our attention is certainly going to wander if that is all we are presented with. Similarly, once readers see all the interesting pictures and graphics on your site and have read all the content, they will want something fresh the next time.
The content we provide is selected and designed to slake reader thirst for something new and interesting. Aside from giving readers thought-provoking content, our copy can help point the way to new avenues of approach to your services and products, as well as new reasons to seek you out. Once readers find that they have something new and different to learn by reading (y)our content, they will be more inclined to make it their business to return for more.
Ask anyone who runs a television or radio station, and he or she will tell you that Content is King! As long as it grabs attention and remains relevant, it has the power to steer consumers, clients, and patients toward products and services that will benefit them. The price we pay for this power is finding ways to feed the monster. Syndicated Ad Features offers its clients an endless supply of advertising content at reasonable cost. When utilized wisely and consistently, it will more than pay for itself many times over.
