Top Ten Mistakes You Will Inevitably Make In Advertising

Top Ten Mistakes You Will Inevitably Make In Advertising

10) You will pick the media choices reflective of what you consume…without considering what your target customer is consuming. You don’t count…sorry!

9) You spend 90% of your time selecting and negotiating with the media for the best price and only 10% on the creative message they have been hired to deliver.

“What you say times how many times you say it, dictates the effectiveness of any ad campaign.”-Dave Gifford noted marketing expert

8) You don’t schedule a saturation of messages to reach your target customer enough times to get them to move to your product or service.

Consumers will generally use a product or service they are familiar with…even if they consider it mediocre or inferior…over a product or service they are unfamiliar with…even if they perceive it as superior.

7) You begin an ad campaign and then change the message or delivery system before the target customer has become familiar with you (see above). Consumers have 30,000 messages bombarding their brain every day. Most of them bounce off as a defensive mechanism to avoid insanity. Every time you change the message you “reset” the memory button to zero. Even mediocre campaigns can work if you create repetition-which creates recall-which initiates action upon facing need.

6) You don’t demand the best media representative. Talk to the sales manager of whatever media you are interested in and demand the best. You should never have to educate your media representative about your business. Conversely, they should be able to educate you about their business to the degree you can make a valid decision.

5) Your “brand message” is not identical throughout your company and every facet that might have contact with your target customer. In other words, if your advertising says something… make sure your invoices, staff shirts, web site, delivery trucks, on-hold message, colors, font, logo, etc., have the same message on it. Advertising and marketing does not have the immediate impact of an asteroid hitting the earth (unless you have billions of dollars)…it is more like Chinese water torture with one drop hitting your forehead every ten seconds again, and again, and again…

4) You fail to convert “high tech” web users into a “high touch” relationship with your target customer by making human contact with your company difficult. Unless your company is completely based on e-commerce, you should have your telephone number and physical or email address at the top of your web page and easy to read. Do not rely on the contact page to funnel prospective customers your way. In today’s world one more click…may be one too many.

3) You don’t ask for action on your web page. Initially the Internet was utilized as a distribution method for information. Today you can develop the first step in a relationship if you ask for the user to respond by voting, asking for more info, signing up for a newsletter, asking for permission to contact them, inviting them to register to win, or offering application to validate qualifications. When someone surrenders their email address by responding to any of these options they are opening the door to a consumer relationship.


2) You have not identified your core value -- what makes you unique -- what people would want from you and can’t get elsewhere. That is your message! Now render it down into a word phrase that is 6 words or less.

“Sticky notes where you want them”
“The six minute pregnancy test”
“More HD channels than cable”
“The fastest selling hybrid in America”

1) You begin advertising with the intention of someday stopping. As long as you are in business you have to consistently market and advertise in some form to bring new customers to your business, reinforce your value proposition to current customers, and (if your aggressive) create new revenue streams to fend off competitors who want a share of your market.