10 Most Common Advertising Mistakes
Advertising is expensive enough when it DOES work, and way too expensive to waste money on if it doesn’t! Here are 10 common advertising mistakes to help insure your advertising makes you money instead of wasting money:
1. NOT TARGETING YOUR ADVERTISING – Don’t waste your money advertising in areas and to markets that you have little hope of return on. If you receive the vast majority of your business in a 5-mile radius, think long and hard before you advertise in a publication with a 30-mile radius. You’re wasting your money on all those readers outside your target area.
2. ADVERTISING BASED ON COST ALONE – Cost per thousand doesn’t matter one iota. What matters is cost of advertising per customer. If your advertising is working, the cost pays for itself.
3. EXPECTING ADVERTISING TO SOLVE ALL YOUR PROBLEMS – Advertising is a “piece” of the puzzle. It’s not the whole puzzle! If you don’t have solid products, past client follow up, enviable service, or a generally poorly run business, the best ad in the world will offer no more than a short term solution.
4. FAILURE TO REMEMBER THE NEEDS OF THE CUSTOMER – You may be proud of a whole list of things your company offers, but unless there’s a customer out there looking for those things, to advertise them would be futile. Learn the benefits of benefit advertising. Figure out what your customer is looking for and advertising THAT.
5. NOT DIFFERENTIATING – Be different from your competitors. Be unique. Watch what they don’t and don’t do it. Set yourself apart from everyone else. You’ll be remembered!
6. NOT ASKING FOR THE SALE – There are only two reasons to advertise – EVER. One - to inform and educate. Two – to incite action. Even if your reason for advertising is to inform, don’t miss out on the opportunity to call for action. Granted, there are a limited number of people in the market for a home or home loan at any given moment. But that number grows exponentially if you include people who KNOW people who may be in the market. Simply adding, “If you or someone you know is thinking of buying or selling a home, call and request this free brochure: “HOW TO SAVE MONEY ON YOUR MORTGAGE ” is one easy way to ask.
7. ADVERTISE INFREQUENTLY - Repetition, repetition, repetition – believe it or not, research says an ad needs to run 9 times before a company is seen as credible in the eyes of the consumer. And only 1 in 3 ads are even SEEN by the consumer. Repetition works.
8. FORGETTING TO TEST – If you are going to advertise, at least measure the results to see whether it worked! Don’t make the same offer every ad, so you can test accurately. And when you get response, keep track.
9. CONFUSING THE AD WITH THE MESSAGE – You want a pleasing ad, but don’t confuse graphic beauty with effective advertising. The message is the key.
10. NOT KNOWING WHY – Advertising because “the paper was there” isn’t good enough. Know what you want to accomplish with your advertising. Set goals, determine your market, track your results, and you’ll soon have a formula for accomplishing what you need to within your advertising budget!
Advertising can work IF you advertise wisely. And advertising isn't marketing, although it can be part of a marketing plan. It's best to consider your overall marketing and sales goals before allocating any money at all to an advertising budget.