Free-standing inserts (FSIs)

Free-standing inserts, often called FSIs, are increasingly used as an important part of the sales channel. It makes sense. They are inexpensive to distribute, because you simply insert them in your own newspaper. The audience is people predisposed to the message, because they are already paying the retail rate for single copies to read your newspaper. You need not convince them that the newspaper is a worthy investment. You can focus more on how they can enjoy the newspaper more often, more conveniently, and for less money with a subscription.

The Sunday newspaper and the weekend editions are key times to insert FSIs. That’s because people who are Sunday and weekend subscribers are prime prospects for a weeklong subscription. While FSIs are often thought of as a means of converting single- copy buyers to home delivery, there is potential for newspapers to use FSIs to convert their Sunday subscribers to weeklong subscribers. Many of the same principles of direct mail apply to the design of free-standing inserts. Here, you don't need too much selling. The customer already purchases the paper for some reason. You don’t need to know what that reason is. You need to simply give them an offer so that they will buy it on a subscription basis instead of single copy. You can target different messages in subsequent free-standing inserts. Don’t insert the same piece all of the time, achieve a rotation of inserts. You can integrate your direct-mail campaigns with your free-standing inserts.

Some newspapers worry about over-exposure. This is probably not a major concern. Just as when you receive a new magazine in the mail, insert cards often fall out. That doesn’t stop the magazine from including them in every single issue. Exactly what is the concern with over-exposure? You’re not going to annoy the person to the point where they stop buying your paper. If, for some reason, they are unwilling to ever consider a subscription, perhaps because single-copy is more convenient for them from a time of day perspective, then they will simply ignore it. But over-exposure is not a legitimate concern unless you include multiple inserts on a daily basis. Some newspapers will use in-paper ads as a substitute for free-standing inserts. The better solution is to use both tactics. If a person buys your newspaper on a single-copy basis during a sports season because he wants the game results, he may only look at the sports section. If your in-paper ad appears in the main news section, he will never see it no matter how many times you run it. A free-standing insert, however, is more likely to catch the attention of this periodic sports reader. So the two tactics are not mutually exclusive. But it’s important not to use in-paper ads as a substitute for free-standing inserts, because in-paper ads will miss people who read the paper only for one or two key features that they enjoy.