In essence, look at your free report as a r sum . Lead generation should be regarded in the same way. Your free offer must be small, contain a concise message, stress an immediate benefit, and cause the prospect to come forward. If you're giving something away, you'll realize that what you're really doing is not giving away free stuff but generating better leads. General publications won't do that and they certainly cost a lot of money.
Many people have their ads published in large, high-circulation, general newspapers or magazines.
Specialized publications, on the other hand, have the distinction of appealing to a specific audience and thus increase the chances of it being noticed as well as read. In other words, rather than fishing for small fish in the middle of the ocean, you'll be a catching big fish in a small pond. Think of the specialized publication as a sonar that will help you to find the kind of fish you really want. This is not only due to the fact that the readership will match your demographics, but also due to the fact that people who buy specialized publications have a tendency to read them from cover to cover. If you advertise a free offer to a specific target market, your per capita hit-ratio will dramatically increase than if you would have advertised your product or service directly in a major publication that's too general or too vague.