Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Preventing Advertising Mistakes - Three Ways To Do This

By Kelly Boyle


If you don' t know enough to know you're making advertising mistakes, then it's hard to prevent it from happening. The best way to avoid this outcome is to do your research and find out what mistakes are most commonly made in this area. Businesses have been advertising for over a hundred years in relatively modern times. You can actually pick up some valuable information from advertising books written fifty or more years ago if the author was knowledgeable. The stronger your foundation, the more likely it is that your advertising efforts will be successful. It's not necessary to read every word that's ever been written on the subject, but you should become familiar with the basics.

Don't just follow the crowd with what other people are doing with their ads as you'll just end up blending into the crowd. Your ads need to stand out from those of your competitors. Even if your ad design is different, you can still blend-in by using similar themes in your copy. If you believe looking a bit different is enough, think about how many ads appear during the holiday season that look a bit different, but all contain essentially the same thing. People don't act based on your ad's design, but they do take notice of the message you offer. It's really important to keep a careful watch on what your competitors are doing. When you know what they're doing, you'll know what to avoid in your own ads.

Trying to get your ads out for the widest possible approach is actually a mistake. Aiming your ads to an untargeted audience is actually wasting money, so avoid this. Always aim at a highly targeted audience that will increase your return on investment. Find places where you're most likely to reach your target audience and advertise there. When you find the right place, create an ad and test your results. Never throw your entire budget at a brand new campaign because you want to test and then scale it up later.

You may be passing up excellent advertising opportunities by avoiding direct buys. What that means is you find websites whose readers are in your niche. Contact the webmaster and see if they'll accept direct advertising for your campaign on their site. If you do this enough, you will find terrific ad costs and the audience may be very responsive. Discuss the option of putting up a small test campaign first to check responses before proceeding to a larger campaign. There are some webmasters who won't be interested in a small campaign, but others will be happy to help out. This process will teach you a lot about the nitty gritty details of direct buys. Just be sure you have tracking ready to go in order to test your results accurately.

As you probably know, advertising is important for everyone's business. Learning how to do it the right way (and not make advertising mistakes) is imperative, especially for your success. There are many people who prefer established marketing methods while staying clear of paid-for ads. Most people are just afraid of losing their money which is why they go in this direction. Learning how to be profitable will not take too long, however not every campaign will make you money. It's all about learning this skill, mastering it, and then using it from that point on.




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