Advertising In Regional Parenting & Family Magazines: An Ideal Small Business Solution

If you are a small business with a product or service that might be of interest to child-rearing parents, you have a golden opportunity to advertise and generate new business through regional parenting & family magazines.

When you reach parents during their child rearing years, you are reaching a very motivated group of consumers who are at the highest acquisition stage of their lives. Large corporations are acutely aware of the purchasing power of the parent market, which is why they commonly place $90,000 display ads in the most popular mainstream parenting publications month-after-month.

However, because the regional parenting magazines don't have sufficiently large enough circulation to suit their requirements, the large corporations completely ignore them. This presents a golden opportunity for a small business who is operating on a modest advertising budget. They can use these regional family-oriented magazines to reach out to the enthusiastic parents across the county, who also happen to be very motivated consumers. And the best part, is that the advertising rates for these local regional publications are infinitesimally lower than any mainstream parent magazine.

As consumers, parents and grandparents across the U.S. and Canada are demographically linked together by an imperative desire to do what's right for their families, and to buy the best services and products for their children. Parenting magazine readers rarely ignore the ads in these magazines and actually take time to read them. This is why surveys conducted across the country showed that 74% of these readers pay attention to the ads they see in these publications and use them to make purchasing decisions.

There's no question the potential to generate a lot of business exists here. The real question is, does your product or service fit this market? Let's take a look at these readers' backgrounds.

Most of the regional parenting and family magazines are distributed free to their readers. These parents are always interested in products and services that will help them manage their busy lives:

78% are women (52% of them work full-time)

75% are mothers (33% are planning to have more children)

20% are expecting mothers

78% have children under the age of six

57% have children in grade school

38% have at least one preteen or teenager at home

32% have at least one parent who works at home

Average household income is $68,000 (national average)

These are busy, time-starved parents who are 80% either college graduates or have some college background. The type of products and services they have purchased in the past and plan to purchase in the future includes everything from vacation packages, financial services, children educational products, children clothing, home appliances, work at home opportunities, health products, and much more. In essence, if it's something that could add value to their family lives they are probably interested in hearing about it.

The circulation for these regional publications ranges widely. Some may distribute less than 10,000 while others have a circulation of over 200,000, with the average circulation usually being between 30,000 - 50,000. You can focus on specific geographic regions of the U.S. and Canada, which is an ideal way to test your ads, or advertise at a nationwide level. These regional parenting publications offer very flexible advertising rates. Their display ad rates could start as low as $100 in many cases, with full-page ad displays sometimes for under $1,000. In addition, most magazines offer classifieds and low-cost marketplace opportunities, which allows a small business on a shoe-string advertising budget to still take advantage of the enormous potential this market offers.

In addition, most of these publications offer several theme-based supplemental editions throughout the year, giving the advertiser extra options to focus their message.

Regional parenting and family magazines present the small business the unique opportunity to reach a highly motivated targeted audience, with affordable advertising rates that can suit even the most modest small business advertising budget. Perhaps it's time to take a closer look at what this opportunity could mean for you.