Reserving Space Introduction The Res. Form: part one The Res. Form: part two The Res. Form: part three The Res. Form: part four The Res. Form: part five The Res. Form: part six The Res. Form: part seven The fastest way to increase sales! Participate in this award-winning, newspaper-specific ad sales course on-site or in a Webinar.  • Get past upfront stalls and objections without any pushing  • Make the account believe he really needs you  • Get better information from your prosepct  • Develop quick ad strategies that work the very first time  • Eliminate size, frequency, content, cost and most other objections before they ever arise  • Get dramatic responses for all kinds of advertisers  • Never have to push an advertiser to run again click here

The first step in having your advertiser's ad appear in your newspaper or in any other product you're selling begins with reserving space for the ad. Without a reservation, the production department won't know to make space for the ad and billing won't know to invoice that account. So to reserve space, it's necessary to complete an Ad Reservation Form or enter the information directly into a reservation system.

No matter whether you fill out a form or key it into a reservation system, each field you fill in serves an important function. Submitted correctly, the reservation form is one of your best insurance policies you have that your ad will run without any problems.

If you're using a reservation form, fill it out and attach: the layout you created, including the layout sheet, the copy sheet and the art sheet (or email or FTP the information to the appropriate department). Usually a sales assistant will enter the information into an ad reservation system and pass along the layout to an artist or production person.

If you're using an order entry ad reservation system, you'll be shown how to use that system by someone within your publication, but the information you'll need to enter won't vary much from the description below, which explains how to fill out a paper form.

In addition to reserving space, this chapter will discuss making changes to a previously reserved ad, requesting proofs, getting past any credit holds, reserving pages with groups of ads on them, reserving co-op advertising, reserving spot and process color ads, killing an ad, and retrieving an older ad.

Typically, an individual ad reservation form must be completed for each scheduled ad reservation, and the form is then given to your sales assistant or order entry person. Some newspapers have systems that generate identification numbers which the entry person may then enter on the form.

At some newspapers, your sales assistant or order entry person will give you a copy, keep a copy and forward a copy, with your ad material, on to the production department or whatever department is responsible for pagination, or putting the paper together.

Refer to the sample ad reservation form below as I describe the elements that may be on your own reservation form. While yours will undoubtedly be different, you'll find they all share things in common.

Next: Ad reservation form: part one