Of course you would, and here’s how to do it.
Have you heard of what is known as an editorial advert?.

This is when you see what looks like a news story accompanied by an advert for the same company.

It’s common practice whereby you would agree with the newspaper to take on a full page in their publication, for an ‘editorial display’ advert.

They write a small story piece on your business or organisation and in return you would normally be asked to pay for the other half of the page and publish a ‘display’ advert. This is all great apart from most small businesses can’t afford the costs of the half page advert, depending on the circulation of the newspaper this could run into many several hundred pounds or even thousands.

So a solution would be that you sell the advertising space for the remaining half of the page, but I don’t mean you want sell this to just anyone, you should seek to sell it to your suppliers or businesses associated with yours.

Call your best suppliers and ask them if they would consider buying a ‘support’ advert from you, which will be depicted alongside your editorial feature. Depending on the size of the company, (but more likely the amount you spend with them), will determine how much you can get in the way of contribution towards paying for the advert. All you need to do is to divide up the space needed for the ‘display advert’ then sell it off in chunks to your best suppliers, larger adverts for those who can afford it and smaller for those who may have less spare budget to support you.

It doesn’t matter if this advert looks like a patchwork quilt, all be adverts in support of your company and by doing this makes it affordable to your suppliers.

It has been known for supplier to not offer to give you actual pound notes towards your cause, but free goods instead to the tune of the same amount. As long as the goods they gift to you are easy enough for you to sell or typically stuff you buy from them regularly then this has the same monetary value you’re still onto a winner.

Some suppliers may want to actually place an advert for themselves within the allocated space, or alternatively they may want an actual support advert to be created which normally follow the lines of ‘Congratulations on your new venture from all at ACME & Co”, or “ACME and Sons are proud to support ‘Your Company’ in their future success’. If you include their company logo and contact information then this in turn gives them something for their money so hopefully this will not make you feel too bad about leaning on them for a charitable contribution for your promotion. At the end of the day they should be welcoming towards this, if your company succeeds then in turn you’ll buy more from them.

This is a really great way you getting exposure for your business through the local press without having to cost you a penny. So what are you waiting for, get in touch with your local newspaper now.

Dean Williams

Dean Williams is a design and marketing blogger working for Print-Print Limited, promoting business and building brands through quality print marketing. If you’re interested in small business promotion then please get in touch hello@print-print.co.uk