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The DON ZIERDT Agency |
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Your Window to the College Market |
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When you take on managing the advertising of your newspaper, responsibilities go beyond the experiences you may gain that will help you in the future. You are contracting with businesses, both large and small, to "help" them grow. Advertising, as part of the marketing mix, is a critical part of every business. It may be a large company looking for grads to fill positions, a local boutique promoting a holiday sale or a national fast-food chain offering discount coupons. Businesses take marketing seriously. It must be meaningful. Consistent. Cost effective. Many need to plan months in advance (and need to get their ad agencies involved). At a national level, you may receive advertising today that began its process a year ago. What does this mean for you? You must learn to manage all aspects of your advertising department to help advertisers. This ranges from your media kit to ad placement to billing to responsiveness. Any notion that you can forego these responsibilities because you are "just a student" is a discredit to the businesses that are relying on you. On the web pages in this section, you will hopefully get help with building the "nuts and bolts" that are the foundation for running a simple, but solid advertising department. You will also realize that you do not live in a vacuum. Your actions (or inactions) can have negative effects on business’ bottom lines. You will learn a lesson that will be critical in any career you choose to pursue: your procedures, policies, information, etc. must have as their basis the needs of your advertisers. |
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Responsibility |
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Phone: 609-265-0442 |
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Headache Remedy #1
Here are some of your responsibilities that could account for 90% of your problems.
· Send your rate card with complete information in a timely manner when requested. · Confirm insertion and ad copy receipts with the advertiser. · Send tear sheets and invoices quickly after a run date. · Adhere to insertion instructions to avoid payment problems.
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Yes, it does happen...
· Don’t send tear sheets with horrible quality. These should be checked before mailing. · Check the issue to make sure the ad ran (so you do not send an invoice for an ad that did not run). · If there is a scheduling or sizing problem, do not unilaterally change anything without consulting with the advertiser. · Check your voice mail once in a while. It is amazing how many are “full.” |