While we uphold a tradition of excellence in news coverage as Grayson County’s oldest newspaper, we are also vested in offering effective marketing and advertising expertise.
As the Internet and social media grow, a new advertising opportunity seems to pop up every day.
Small businesses, on limited budgets, can easily be overwhelmed with a rush of information and (in some cases) get taken by out-of-town companies who don’t have their best interest at heart.
Through it all, community newspapers remain the local marketing experts. We are here to help and are passionate about the services we provide.
One example of an out-of-town outfit over-promising and under-delivering is an outfit called Team Sportz Advertising that made calls on local businesses about this time last year.
They promised a full color Whitesboro Bearcat football schedule poster to be littered on walls all over town.
They convinced five local advertisers to subsidize their efforts at the tune of several hundred dollars per ad.
In return, each advertiser was delivered a crude wall hanger that included their five ads and the 2014 football schedule… no local pictures, nothing personalized about it.
Beyond that, the graphic design work could have been done by any fifth grader and the worst part was the advertisers didn’t get their shipment of posters until four weeks into the football season.
So, more than $1,000 left the community in exchange for 25 posters that no one ever saw because they were too ugly and out-of-date to hang in a store front.
Whitesboro athletic director and then-high school principal Rendell Cole both assured me the school was not contacted beforehand and did not have a hand in the process.
I have seen this before, and it is sad. There are countless companies who all operate on the same model. Some are better than others, but I have seen none as bad as the group mentioned above.
Posters are fun and different. I have done plenty of them in my career and would love to do some here.
In 2013, I entered into a partnership with the New Boston (Texas) Athletic Booster Club that yielded three different posters over the course of a school year and resulted in a $2,500 donation to the Booster Club.
We then implemented the same model at Atlanta, Queen City, Linden and Pittsburg (all Texas).
We were able to give local businesses an attractive new marketing option, keep the revenue local and offer the community a collectible piece of art they could be proud of.
I have made similar offers to each of our local booster clubs with limited interest that has yet to materialize.
The point is, once again, the local newspaper is able to be inventive when it comes to local marketing needs.
An even sadder story occurred this winter when a few downtown businesses were taken by a con artist supposedly selling ads on restaurant menus.
At least in the poster case the company delivered a product. The menu crook did not.
Local business owners said a salesman blew in from the metroplex selling ads for a menu at a local eatery.
He needed to be paid up front. A few folks bought it and never heard from him again.
The restaurant in question had never heard of him either.
Things like this are sad but are more common than you may think.
I am not saying all menu ads are scams. In fact, I will be around talking to some of you soon about a legitimate offer we are partnering with a local restaurant on.
All I am saying is, do your homework. If nothing else, pull out your phone and Google the salesman you are dealing with.
Even easier than that, call me. I don’t care if I’ve ever sold you an ad or ever will. Advice is free and I will give it honestly.
I will never tell you 100 percent of your advertising budget should go in my (or anyone else’s newspaper).
I believe in a balanced approach and will help anyone find that approach.
But the one thing I will not stand for is folks getting scammed; either by a poor product or no product at all.
We are your local marketing experts and we will be honest with you. We are here to serve you and, in turn, help you better serve the community we all call home.
It also seems every Chamber of Commerce has and ad to sell as well. Most of which bypass their local newspapers (which are usually their longest-standing members) and consult out-of-town firms. So once again, money leaves town –doesn’t that contradict the very mission of a Chamber of Commerce?
There are advertising opportunities everywhere and (nowadays) it seems everyone is a marketing expert.
We here at the News-Record really are. It is what we do and we want to help you. We can offer advice with print, radio, TV, mobile, online, whatever advertising you are interested in. Just because we don’t produce it, doesn’t mean we can’t help with your campaign.
The Whitesboro News-Record has been answering local marketing questions since 1877. It is what we do. We keep it local.