5 Advertising Mistakes You'll Want to Avoid

Are You Committing These Advertising Mistakes?

Advertising is tricky. You need to strike that balance of enticing the consumer without going overboard and turning them off. With so much information out there, it is very easy to go overboard and make mistakes.

5 Common Advertising Mistakes to Avoid

Ad Mistake # 1 - Stuffing your advertisement with absolutely everything you want to say. Even if you sell carpets and carpet cleaners, don't dilute your advertising by trying to promote both in a single ad.

If you had to post a newspaper ad requiring only 100 words, then you would have given carpets and carpet cleaners 50 words each. Wouldn't it be better to put out a better ad about one of them, and get the reader take action? This way, you make maximum use of your ad.

Ad Mistake # 2 - Ignoring the importance of a good copy. Your ad may have a great design but without the right words, your ad will fail.

It's the words that get a response. Imagine your ad with just a graphic and no words, would it deliver the message? Remember: benefits sell, and you need to communicate the benefits.

Ad Mistake # 3 - Making untrue claims. You need to build trust with your customers so that they feel good about doing business with you now and in the future.

You can say that your product has the lowest price in the market, but can you really back up that claim? If not, you may fool some customers, but when they find out they might ask for a refund, and will probably not want to do business with you again. More important, your reputation is at stake. Your reputation is something you must protect at all times. Going for the money now, at the price of your reputation will haunt you in the future.

Ad Mistake # 4 - Doing what everybody else is doing. Many advertisers put out their ads on Thursday and Friday so that consumers see their advertisements just before weekend (when people do a lot of shopping). You may want to try to put your ad on a Tuesday so that you are competing with fewer advertisers. Who says no one is looking at weekday ads?

You are more likely to get their attention and stick in their minds because they saw your ad without all that other clutter. This is just one small example. The lesson here is to experiment with a small portion of your ad budget.

Look for effective ways to market. Record and study your results and retest. Make this a habit and your advertising campaign will get better and better with a steady increase in results.

Ad Mistake # 5 - Deceiving yourself about the real results of your advertising campaigns. Do not confuse response with results.

For instance, you placed an ad and your website visitors doubled. Great, but how many actual purchases were made? If the amount is low, then you can't say you had a successful ad, because even though you had more visitors, your goal hasn't been achieved.

If you are committing these advertising mistakes, there is no need to dwell on it any further. The important thing is that now you can adjust your advertising campaigns get better increase.

Action Steps to Better Advertising Practices

• Identify your goals (i.e., this campaign should boost sales by...?).
  
• Create an advertising budget.
• Develop a system to record and test results.
• If all this proves overwhelming, shop around for a reputable but inexpensive marketing firm to help you out.

• Make your ads clear and concise.
• Ensure you have a good copy.
• Practice truth in advertising.
• Be unique! Don't do what everyone else is doing.
• Test, record, and analyze results.

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