Megan's Blog

Print Advertisements are an effective way to market a product, service or event. The most obvious way to advertise is by designing an ad and paying for the ad space. However, there are two other avenues that are equally as effective and don't cost anything.

The first is an editorial advertisement. By writing a feature story and including pictures of your product or event and submitting it to a magazine to publish it is a free way for your name to get in front of your audience. Feature stories also allow for more space for you to more thoroughly explain your product, service or event. I have utilized this concept as I moved forward in marketing the University of Arkansas' Horse Festival this year. I wrote a feature story and included pictures of the performances last year and had it published in Ozark Farm and Neighbor and the Macaroni Kids Newsletter of Northwest Arkansas. This was a free advertising avenue that allowed us to more thoroughly explain the event and really catch the attention of our audience.

Another way to make the most of print advertising is placing an amount of advertising that your product is in but that you did not pay for. This was something that I did during my internship last summer with the American Paint Horse Association. I went through hundreds of magazines looking for advertisements that had Paint Horses in them. The ads could have been for Horse Insurance, medicines, fly sprays or tack but if they used a Paint Horse in them it was subtly promoting the breed. After finding these ads, I measured the size of the ad and learned how much the company paid for the ad and then used specific formulas to translate that cost into free advertising for the Association. I had never heard of this concept before my internship and after working with my boss I understand how this works and think that is it very effective.

Print advertisements are an effective marketing technique especially when one evaluates the different avenues that one can utilize the free aspects of print advertisements.