Business Writing

Lesson 7: Advertising and the Press

This lesson teaches you how to use language to promote your business to the public and to potential trading partners. It covers a range of different types of advertising and also tells you what you need to know to write press releases.

Basics of Advertising

When it comes to advertising, even business people who are confident about their writing will be tempted to hire an outside agency to take care of things. However, this can be expensive, and often the amount of advertising you need to do will not justify the cost. Though you may need an agency to get you to the top in a crowded marketplace, there's no reason why you shouldn't design basic advertisements for yourself.

The most basic type of advertising, and the type most accessible to small businesses with limited funds, is advertising in newspaper and magazine small ad columns. Some newspapers and specialist magazines offer such advertising for free, because their sales are improved when their readers see a lot of adverts for products or services which they are interested in purchasing. These offer the best opportunity of all, because you've nothing to lose and it's probable that your advert will meet with a sympathetic readership. However, there can be a lot of competition from other businesses taking advantage of the same deal, so it's all the more important that you make your advert stand out.

Advertising in major newspapers and magazines usually costs money. This means that your advert will be seen by a larger number of people, but you should consider whether or not those are likely to be the sort of people who will be interested in your business. If you're offering products and services which might appeal to a wide range of people (eg: fashionable clothes, graphic design, or a new kitchen gadget) then advertising in the mainstream press could be beneficial to you. If you are advertising tennis accessories, placing your adverts in specialist tennis magazines might result in a better return on your investment.

Free newspaper and magazine small ads adhere to a standard format, so the only thing you have control over is choice of words, and the number of characters which you can use is strictly limited. In this case, it's best to use short, snappy words and phrases and provide a phone number and/or email address to enable readers to contact you. Use active verbs to make your advert sound energetic. Keep descriptions brief and to the point.

Reading small ads will help you to become familiar with the many abbreviations which advertisers use to help them work within the set character limits. Some of these are widespread (eg: 'o.n.o.' for 'or nearest offer', 'c.o.d.' for 'cash on delivery') but others are specific to particular publications. It's always wise to familiarize yourself with a publication as a whole before advertising in it.

Small ads which you pay for usually offer a range of options which can help you to make your advert more effective. These include leaving blank space around your advert or enclosing it within a border. These options cost more, but are often very effective. Look at a page full of small ads and you will find that your eyes are drawn toward the ones that have been made to look distinctive in this way.

Creating space around adverts can be very effective in a range of situations. People are more inclined to read information in small amounts; a few well-chosen words with plenty of reassuring space around them are more appealing than a page full of dense text. The same thing applies to information presented visually. If you design adverts which involve pictures, you should try to avoid making them look crowded.

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