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Finding
the right advertising mediums for your business can be a difficult
process. Different types of businesses need different types of
advertising. Advertising mistakes are costly. Choosing the right
advertising methods and mediums the first time will save you time and
money, and get you great results.
Here are the top 10 advertising mistakes that business owners make:
1. Failure to get the maximum exposure out of the advertising budget.
Don't limit yourself to one medium for advertising. Use as many
different avenues as your budget allows, and work hard to get the best
buy for your advertising dollars, without compromising quality.
2. Promising more than can be delivered. This is also known as
false advertising. People are turned off by this, as well as claims
that sound too good to be true - even if they are true. Make sure you
can back up every claim that you make in your advertising.
3. Choosing the wrong media. For many businesses, all types of
media work. However, you should be working with the media that works
best for your business. For instance, you spend half of your
advertising budget advertising on television, and the other half
advertising in the newspaper. It is cheaper to advertise in the
newspaper, and it seems that you get more results from the newspaper as
well. You only get two or three responses to your television ads, but
you are getting 20 - 30 responses from each ad in the newspaper. Pull
the television advertising, and invest that money in more newspaper
advertising.
4. Using ineffective ads. Your ads should not only be attention
getting, they should also tell the potential customer how they can
benefit from using your product or service. The text, verbalization,
colors, and graphics all need to work together and get results. You can
have visually attractive ads, but if the message doesn't pull, the
visual effect is worthless to you.
5. Choosing the wrong day of the week to run the ad. Many people
have just as many different theories on which day of the week gets the
best results. The truth is that different products and services need to
be advertised on different days of the week. Determine which days work
best for your product or service. The media that you have chosen
effects this decision as well.
6. Choosing the wrong audience to advertise to. Failure to
identify your target market is very costly. You must know who you are
trying to get your message to before you can determine what avenue of
advertising will work best for you.
7. Using the same ad over and over. While you do want to brand
your product or service with advertising that is memorable, using the
same ad over and over simply bores people. Coca-Cola knows this. Pay
attention to their commercials. Their jingle is memorable, but the
theme of the commercials change often.
8. Failure to track advertising results. If you know which ads
in which media are pulling in results, you can spend your advertising
dollars more effectively. Failure to track your results can be costly.
9. Failure to turn interest into a sale. Often, the advertising
works. The purpose of advertising is to get people to your store or
your website, or to contact you for further information. The sale is
made once they get where you want them to be. Is your store or website
prepared to make a sale?
10. Failure to set yourself apart from your competitors. You
must distinguish yourself from the rest, and prove that you are the
best. Use your advertising to let your potential customers know what
sets you apart and makes you better.
About the Author: Monique Danielle owns Portland Marketing Agency DivaDesignWorld.com,
a full service firm that offers web development, graphic design,
consulting, and a wide variety of creative services. She is also
the founder of divadirectories.com,
a free online resource designed to promote the growth and development
of female business owners throughout Oregon, Washington, and the
Northwest.
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