You can be as involved as you want. We encourage our advertisers to participate, but we understand that sometimes that’s not possible. At the very least we will need some input from you about the reason you’re advertising and the audience you’re trying to reach. We’ll take care of the rest.

A very good question. We love it when our advertisers use both so they can see the power that a combined approach brings. After meeting with one of our highly-skilled Account Executives you’ll probably know for sure which avenue to go down.

That very much depends on why you’re advertising. Did you open a new store? Are you having a sale? Are you moving to a new location? Are you interested in growing your sales? All of these can be excellent reasons to advertise, and there are dozens more. Talk about your “Unique Selling Proposition” or USP, which is the one thing that sets you apart from your competition. By focusing on your USP, you’ll set yourself apart from others who are looking to take market share from you. What makes your business different and why should someone buy your product or service? It may be price, or food quality or convenient location, but if you say your prices are "lower than the other guy" you better be able to live up to that promise. Consumers quickly find out when a business isn’t truthful.

We would avoid doing so. There are thousands of potential customers in the Mother Lode, but they aren’t all listening at exactly the same time. You want to give your business the best chance to succeed, and that’s generally with a schedule that offers consistency to build familiarity.

Much of the timeframe depends on how quickly we can navigate through the different aspects of creating the ads. In many cases we can have you on the air or posted on mymotherlode.com in five business days or less.

We don’t think there is a bad time, but your decision will probably be based on the conditions we discussed in the question above. Your Account Executive will help you decide.

It would be great if every person in the Mother Lode was a candidate for the goods and services you provide, but unfortunately that’s rarely ever the case. A lot of fast food restaurants can target everyone because A) everyone eats and B) they usually are a well-known brand that has become well-known through years of advertising with big advertising budgets. If you don’t have a huge budget, you need to focus on the type of person who is likely to visit your business. Then, reach out to that person in every way possible and keep doing so until you begin to see people with the same characteristics visiting your business more frequently. Only at that point should you start to think about marketing to a broader demographic.