Best Practices for Education Advertisements in Newspapers

There are certain ad categories which get a lot more preference compared to other categories in case of display newspaper advertising. A tremendous competition exists among these industries which in turn increases the need for advertising. One of them is the Education ad sector of India. This is a booming sector of the country and it keeps growing in spite of any setback to the economy at any point of time.Education Display Ads

More and more people are becoming literate as is evident from the sharp rise in the literacy rate of India which was around 12% at the time of independence and now stands at a soaring 74.04%. This is also an indication of rise in the population in the country which was about 3.45 lakhs in 1947 and is now around 122 crores. Rising population refers to an increase in the need for Education leading to a rise in the demand for education institutes.

Such a demand has opened up a whole new sector for business in India which not only helps earn money and make profits but also ensures that more and more people have access to education. Many of you may be wondering that education institutes advertise only during the admission season.

But that isn’t completely true. There are many institutes that promote themselves and try to create awareness about their existence and contribution to the society. So apart from advertising during the admission season, education ads are frequently published throughout the year.

Let’s evaluate what is necessary for an education advertisement to get the attention it seeks:

Realizing the Objectives

At first, the objective of advertising must be clear whether it is for branding purposes or simply getting the attention of as many students as possible. The next course of action is dependent on the objective.Newspaper Education Ads

In case of Branding, there is no fixed timing. The advertiser needs to stay in touch with the potential target audience so as to drive them later to taking admission in the institutes. In case of admission notices, the timing is of prime importance which needs to be strict during the before and during the admission period.

The choice of newspaper is also quite significant in both the cases since it is based on the intended reach. Based on availability of seats and boarding or hostel facilities, the advertiser can choose an English newspaper with a nationwide reach or else regional language and regional English daily are feasible options for a limited reach.

Deciding the Budget

Budget is a deciding factor for reach since newspapers with higher circulation and readership have higher advertising rates as well while the regional dailies which are fairly high in circulation have lower ad rates than their national counterparts. Although the reach of national dailies is higher and spread across different parts of the country, but depending on the demographics of the target audience and scale of the educational institute, the newspaper may be selected.

For Instance, an institute such as IIT Kharagpur can prefer to advertise in a newspaper such as the Times of India since it has the capacity to house thousands of students at once and also since the popularity of the institute appeals to students all across India.

Creative Demands

Creative demands of education display ads are conditioned by the objective they intend to serve. For brand awareness advertisements, the logo of the institute in question must be clear, simple and well designed so that it gets imprinted on the minds of the readers.Education Display Advertisement

In case of admission notices, the call-to-action, which in this case is to get admission forms online or offline and apply for admission needs to be mentioned boldly and clearly alongside the name of the advertisement. At the same time the images used in the advertisements need to be relevant to the field or fields of study that the institute offers. For example, if an institute like the NUJS (National University of Juridical Sciences) announces its admission session, the image accompanying the ad should include a young lawyer’s image. An organisation dedicated to only women, must have images of young girls if it decides to advertise in the newspaper.

Apart from this, correct information about the institutes must also be a crucial part of the newspaper ad. Such information must include contact information, start and end dates of admission, fields of study or the highest standards/grades in a school, infrastructural benefits (if any) and even the board or University affiliation.

These 3 points are a must-remember thing for all education advertisers. So keep them into consideration before initiating your next education advertisement campaign.

Elements of a Newspaper Ad Creative

For a newspaper ad to grab attention, the first thing that is necessary is the creative element invested in it. The creative is what attracts the reader to an advertisement. It is what drives the reader away from the news and information content, which is the basic task of a newspaper, to taking a look at the advertisement. In print advertising, the visual effect created by the ad is what makes it stand out or simply get ignored.

There are certain essential elements which contribute to the creation of a successful creative ad design. A combination of these basic elements is crucial for an ad creative without which an ad cannot be designed, irrespective of the marketing objective it intends to serve. The significance of each element is heightened or reduced depending on the objective but they are all present in the advertisement.

Let’s find out how each element affects the design of the advertisement.

Logo Designing

The logo of a brand name is what gets imprinted on the minds of the readers or target audiences. A logo is the symbol of recognition for a brand and potential audiences remember it through that symbol. So designing a logo that is unforgettable is a dream for a brand that intends to create awareness for itself. For every brand awareness campaign, it is essential to have a prominent yet unique and well-crafted logo so that the audience is able to recognize it and associate it with the product or service provided by the brand in question.

  •         Call to action

Describing the call to action

You all must have heard of the saying, “Communication is key.” This proverb stands true even in case of newspaper advertising. Advertisers need to communicate with the target readers to ensure that their message is comprehended by the audiences. For that describing the ‘call to action’ in an advertisement is highly essential. It is what drives the reader to become a consumer since the ‘call to action’ tells the reader what course of action is he required to follow after taking a look at the advertisement. This description is essential for all those adverts which are directed towards driving footfalls to a store or raising sales.

Use of engaging images

The image used in creating an advertisement is what makes the readers get attracted to an advertisement. An advertiser needs to pay a lot of attention to the image that is used in the concerned advertisement as it is important for both branding and driving sales objectives. It needs to be relevant to the call-to-action and at the same time promoting the brand name. An image needs to capture and exude the essence of the advertisement so as to engage every reader that comes in contact with it.

Body Copy and Taglines

In a newspaper ad, the readers may not get an audio but they can surely read a well-directed content. Every part of the advertisement is subject to copywriting, which makes the content or copy of the advertisement of utmost importance. The image selected, the catchy taglines provided, the words and language used in the call-to-action, the information provided to the audience, the border, the colour combination and everything else is driven by the copy that is created for the advertisement. The copy is what conjures an ad from scratch and creativity and imagination are the key ingredients required for creating the tagline and body copy. Therefore, an advertiser must ensure that complete attention is provided to the newspaper ad creative to make the advertisement relevant and successful.

So get ready to get your hands dirty and get creative for a successful newspaper advertisement campaign!

How to Determine The Right Budget for your Newspaper Ad Campaign?

Budget, a word that pops up first in everyone’s mind, leave alone an advertiser. Everyone interested in advertising intends to be sure of how much investment needs to be made behind a successful advertisement campaign. One also needs to be sure of the elements that lead to the expenses associated with the advertisement.

To respond to that, there are quite a few factors which regulate the budget of an advertisement and needs to be published in a newspaper. In this case, the medium is already been determined, which is Newspapers and the elements that manipulate the expenditure for any newspaper advertisement are listed below:

Choice of Newspaper

Many of few may be wondering that how can the newspaper choice affect the budget for an advertisement. Well, the truth is that every newspaper is not as popular as a few are and not all newspapers have the same circulation or readership.

More popularity, higher circulation and wider readership lead to a higher price tag for a newspaper advertising space. Simply because all these factors ensure more eyeballs for an ad and of course higher visibility leading to better responses.

For instance, if you intend to advertise in Times of India, then naturally the budget will be higher when compared to an ad published in a less popular newspaper such as Midday. As TOI has a much higher circulation (around 31.4 lakhs) than The Telegraph (around 4.84 lakhs), rather the former is the most widely circulated English daily of India.

Frequency of Ad

The frequency of an ad is always a factor that manipulates the budget of a campaign. This frequency of the advertisement is associated with the objective that needs to be addressed with it.

Multiple Ads-Brand awareness advertisements require a lot more visibility on a frequent basis to make the target audience accustomed to the brand name, therefore, this objective requires advertisers to publish a single ad multiple times or multiple ads in multiple newspapers with consistent gaps between each release.

Running Ads- Certain advertisements need to be published at the time so that they run parallel with the event that’s being promoted. In the sense that, if a Shopper’s Stop is giving out a massive sale with attractive discount offers during the festive month of October, then they need to promote the event during the course of the month of October, if possible, on a daily basis. This can ensure a huge number of footfalls but will also be an expensive affair as the same ad cannot be run every day, but new ad creative needs to be conceived individually for different days.

One Time Ads- Notifications are the least expensive ones as they need to be announced only once as a formal announcement. It is the just straightforward intimation to the public about a personal development or change or a notice issued in public interest.

Ad Specifications

Ad specifications refer to the size, position and placement of an advertisement in a newspaper. So it is essential to comprehend that the cost of an advertisement is decided as per the size or space occupied by it in a page, the position or section of the page it is placed on and the page or supplement it is printed on.

The size of the ad is measured in terms of the height and width calculated in centimetres.

The position of the ad varies depending on the corner or area of the page it is printed such as upper half, lower half, upper right or left corner and lower right or left corner.

The placement of the ad makes the cost vary as per the page selected, which can be the front, back, third or any page and it can also be printed on a preferred supplement.

For instance, if an ad is printed on the front page, an extra premium will be added to it unlike an ad printed on any page.

Rate Negotiations

Negotiation is the most important part of budget allocation for an ad campaign. So an advertiser needs to be careful while negotiating the rates for newspaper advertisements. A simple strategy can ensure that you get the maximum out of the money invested in the ad campaign. Two things must be considered while confirming the release of your advert as are specified below:

Packages It is always advisable to opt for packages in case of multiple city or district or state releases rather than choosing individual editions of a newspaper. This saves on a huge amount of money as packages offer hefty concessions on newspaper ad releases.

Insertions offer Insertion offers to refer to bulk booking offers such as “Book 5 and Get 3 ads for free” or “Get 6 ads for the Price of 4”. It is quite evident that such bulk bookings help save a lot of money due to the availability of such insertion offers, which in turn can make quite a positive difference to your advertising budget.

So get set and be smart while you allocate your budget for your newspaper ad campaign!

What are The Factors Determining Your Advertisement Release Schedule?


An advertisement needs to be timed well in order to be effective enough to draw sufficient attention and consequentially result in an urged action. In order to time an advertisement well, an advertiser needs to be aware of the factors that govern the release schedule of it.Newspaper Ad Online

Multiple elements affect the timing of launching an advertisement campaign in a newspaper. Some ads need to be published multiple times while in case of other ads just one formal announcement is sufficient.

So let’s find out what and how the factors determine the release schedule of a newspaper advertisement.

By Objective

By now it is quite clear that advertising objectives hold a significant place in determining crucial matters associated with the ad campaign. Rather objectives are the primary factor which pilot any and every newspaper advertisement campaign. Therefore based on the 3 main objectives of newspaper advertising, the release schedule is determined, which is different in case of every objective as mentioned below:

Branding– For a brand to create awareness for itself, it needs to remind the target audience of its constant presence and to ensure that multiple ads with a consistent gap between each advertisement should be published in multiple newspapers.

Sales-If the objective is to drive footfalls, increase sales during discount periods or other events, then it is advised that the ad be scheduled for release during the event or discount period

Notifications-Notifications such as public announcements, change of name ads, business tender adverts etc need to be announced just once as a formal communique as and when the requirement arises.

Day of the Week

The day of the week may not appear to be as significant for the readers but it is highly essential for the advertiser. This is because subconsciously, the readers read or access certain specific newspapers of supplements on specific days as they are purposely released on a weekly basis.

Many supplements associated with recruitment, entertainment, education, real estate and even matrimonial ads are published on different days of the week.

For instance, most matrimonial special pages are published on Sundays while Wednesdays are a suitable day for Recruitment Pullouts. Saturdays are a preferred day for real estate supplements.

So depending on the focus days dedicated to each supplement, an advertiser can publish the ad ensuring maximum visibility for it on that specific day of the week.

Seasonality

Certain advertisements are influenced by the different seasons in a year, that is, their releases need to be scheduled based on the audience requirements which are inspired by seasonality. Let’s evaluate some ad categories which are driven by seasonality.

Throughout the Year-Recruitment can take place in an organisation any time of the year and are therefore published as and when vacancies available. Apart from recruitment notifications, matrimonial ads, businesses and even real estate ads are published all throughout the year.

Festive- Most Retail advertisers choose to advertise during the festive seasons like Navaratri, Diwali, Christmas etc. New offers, new collections, discounts and more are offered during festive seasons by a number of retailers, FMCG industries, electronics and even automobiles.

Admission Period- As the name suggests, admission notices are carried out by Education institutes like schools, colleges and Universities are subject to a specific time period which starts from the month of June and continues till the end of August.

So prior to choosing and confirming the dates for release, you must be sure of the objective you intend to fulfil along with categorising the advertisement as Business, Matrimonial, Recruitment, Retail, Notification or Education.   

What are The Various Factors to Help Decide The Right Newspapers?

Every time you decide on launching your advertisement campaign in a newspaper, it is highly essential that you pick the right newspaper to speak to the intended target audiences. The intended target audience is linked with certain factors and envisaging those factors helps you choose the right newspaper for your advertising campaign. The audience for any product, brand or service, as well as notifications is differentiated on the basis of their location, language, income level, profession, age group and the exact demographics of the preferred location.

Let’s find out how these factors influence the choice of the newspaper for an ad campaign.

Targeting Region

Reach is the prime factor that conditions the newspaper an advertiser decides to choose for every Newspaper ad campaign. It is essential to ensure whether you need to reach out to only the neighbourhood, a city, an entire district, a complete state or multiple states.

Based on this specification, an advertiser can pinpoint the newspaper that will serve the advertising objective. Such detailed bifurcation of the target region is essential since it also decides whether the circulation of the newspaper needs to be high or moderate or low. This in turn affects the advertising budget as well. Every newspaper has different city editions and there are some that reach out to districts as well.Advertisement on Telegu Newspaper

For Instance, Eenadu has specific district editions that cover the cities as well as the suburbs and villages that come under the districts of Nellore, Kurnool, West Godavari, Anantapur, Guntur, Hyderabad Urban, East Godavari etc. This newspaper is the Telugu language daily and is quite popular for being published district-wise.

Language and Income level

India has a population of 123.6 crores, of which 48.5% are females and 51.5% are males, alongside a literacy rate of 74.09% at present. About 18.6% people are comfortable with English, 41.3% people are fluent in Hindi and nearly 59% people speak languages other than Hindi, which even includes English.Advertising on Hindi Newspaper

Such detailed information is necessary for every advertiser, as this helps the advertiser to determine the language of the newspaper he must choose to publish the ads in. One thing is quite clear from these numbers, that the number of regional language newspaper readers, together, is higher than the number of Hindi or English newspaper readers. This provides a basic understanding of the trend that exists among newspaper readers.

Although the percentage may vary from state to state and region to region, it still must be comprehended that it isn’t necessary that a region’s readership is dependent on these figures.Malayalam Language Newspaper Ad

For example, in Kerala, about 96% of the population is fluent with Malayali and in spite of having the highest literacy rate in the country, around 93.91%, opting for Malayalam language newspapers is the best way to reach out to the consumers of Kerala.

Profession and Age Group

A newspaper is often selected based on the kind of readership it has. Whether it has more appeal among students or whether it is more popular among Businessmen, the type of audience is a deciding factor for any newspaper. There are certain newspapers, rather supplements which differ in popularity between genders.

For Instance, if the Economic Times is ideal for advertisements that target businessmen then the Times City Supplement such as Delhi Times or Mumbai Times is more popular among females. The Midday, a popular tabloid of Maharashtra is preferred by professionals due to the time frame it is published in, so accessing such professional audiences becomes viable with a newspaper like Midday.

Urban and Rural

For every advertiser, it is a necessity to ensure whether they intend to target a rural audience or an urban audience or both. This has a huge influence on the choice of a newspaper, simply because, the rural regions are more comfortable with regional language newspapers while the English dailies are preferred by the well-educated urban audiences. Even if an advertiser intends to cover both the urban and rural population of a specific region at the same time, then there are options to choose district editions which cover the villages, towns and cities alike of a district.

As per an illustration, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad etc are considered to be City editions published by Times of India, while district editions of Eenadu comprise of Kadapa, Srikakulam, Warangal etc.

So keep these factors in mind while choosing the newspaper you intend to launch your ad campaign in.