What's the most effective way to handle print advertising on a limited budget? One large article and hope for the best or many small articles over time?

The answer: that depends.

First ask yourself what it is you are trying to accomplish. Promote a new product or service? Seasonal sign-ups? Launch a new office or location? Or just build up recognition in the market place with a few "coupon" style offers so you can track response.

This means you have to create an advertising "campaign," in other words, allocate your funds to a budget, fine tune your message and set up a schedule for your marketing message.

Readership studies by McGraw Hill have shown larger ads are indeed more effective because "the more you

tell, the more you sell." Long text does indeed work for customers who actually want to make a buying decision. They want information presented clearly to them so they can decide if they want to make the next step.

If they delay their decision, they'll want to find you again either on the internet or in print and will look for you in the next edition of the Pitt County Women's Journal. Example, we received a phone call this week from a physician's office who saw an article about a new medical billing company in our Journal, but couldn't remember the company's name. Thankfully, we were able to direct him to our website, where he found the article and contacted the firm.

So, the large article drew the interest, but the smaller article got the follow-up.

Size does matter.