The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1921-08-12
HOW TO USE THE
LOCAL NEWSPAPER
Retailers Can Make 1t Profitable If
They VIII. Paper Taken to Keep
in Touch With Local Progress.

The Harvester World. makes sug.
gestiOns in the article below, which
while directly TO machinery dealers
can be made profitable to dealers OF
all kinds of goods:
Subscriptions to the verag coun
try weekly newspaper are usually
divided about sixty per cent in towr
and forty pee cent to farmers. Say
from thirty to forty per cent of the
subscribers are farmers, that is safe
figuring.
These farmers pay from $3.50 tC
$3.50 a year for the privilege OF
reading the local news. No matter
what other papers they may take, the
local newspaper gets an audience.
A paper with a circulation Of one
thousand will reach every week from
three to four hundred farmers. As
= usual thing, these farmer subscrib.
ers to the local paper are among the
best machine buyers in the communi.
ty.
The average advertising rate in a
country weekly, twenty cents per
column inch, makes it possible for q
dealer to make a good big announce
ment 6 inch double column) at a
cost of from 3-5 to As of a cent per
farmer. On this basis, fifty-two
weeks advertising can be done at a
total cost of about AZ cents per farm
er reached.
This field and this cost are both
attractive to the live local dealer.
Even If we allow fifty per cent for
waste through lack of interest of the
farmers in the particular machines
or advertisements, how could a dealer
possibly make a better bargain than
the n by which he gets a chance to
make hfty-two sales talks to one hum
dred and fifty or two hundred farm
ers for less than one cent per farmer
per talk?
We are not suggesting the use of
the local newspaper to take the place
of personal visits. But it can surely
be made a very profitable means of
preparing for personal visits to farm
ers and of persuading farmers to visit
the store when in town. The cost of
newspaper advertising in the local
paper is SO small that one good our
chase made by one farmer might
show profit enough to pay for three
oOfcELlSllik.
That thought Of preparing farmers
Tor a dealers visit or of persuading
them to drop into the store when in
town brings up the question of the
best kind OF copy to use and here we
suggest the cooperation of the editor.
He will probably agree if you ask
hun that one of the main reasons, if
not the most important one, why
farmers and others take his paper is
to find out what the neighbors are
doing and TO keep in touch with the
details Of community progress.
1t seems to US that advertising
copy can be had and should be writ
ten from this same point of view.
Let us assume that you are selling a
fairly complete line of farm equip
ment, Including tractors. After a
hot campaign in which there has
been & strong element of competition,
you succeed in selling John Williams
a 1910 Mogul kerosene tractor.
In making that sale, you have done
much more than many dealers fully
realize. You have converted an in
duential farmer to the idea of using
mechanical power in place of horse
power. You have succeeded in driv-
ing from his mind all thought Of
spending his money for a gasoline
tractor. You have convinced him
against all the arguments of competi-
tors that the Mogul tractor is the
best Of al substitutes for horses on
farm. All. this has taken work
thought, argument, and persuasion on
part. II your work was success
full IN. selling Williams his tractor,
would 1Ot the same line of argument
and persuasion be at least partly sue
il selling other farmers?
Why Not. since the Williams sale is
made, get the editor into your office,
get yourself into his. and between
you work up q series of tractor talks
based on your successful experience
with Williams, to be published in the
paper?
The fact that Williams bought a
tractor is proof of interest in your
The fact that you had
competition in his case is proof.
enough that your competitors are
working with other farmers. The
fact that you sold a tractor proves
your arguments and sales talk better
than those Of your competitors. With
all these facts in your favor, an ac-
tual sale to base your advertisements
on, and an audience of three or four
hundred farmers to talk to at a cost
of less than one cent each, are YOU
not overlooking a pretty good bet if
you let such an opportunity ship by?
The same chance is open to you on
practically every line of machines or
equipment you sell. Farmers are
interested in what their neighbors are
doing, and will read every word of
an advertisement that covers a local
sale. If you are a regular advertiser,
the editor will always take time to
help you make your stories readable
and interesting. 1t makes him happy
to see an advertiser succeed. The
copy you use draws attention to no
machine but the one you talk about
and to no dealer but yourself. You
never have to think up things to write
about. The facts for such an al