It's hard to read the label from inside the bottle, yet many business owners try to all the time. Business owners are often times the least equipped to look at their own business and marketing objectively. Most proprietors are very knowledgeable about their fields of expertise or the service and products they sell.  What they are not very good at is advertising or marketing those goods and services. if you have ever said "i never listen to that radio station."  or " I don’t know anybody that reads that paper.'  then you are probably guilty of lacking some fundamental understanding of marketing and advertising.

Another common mistake small business owners tend to make is improper use of each medium. Newspapers and yellow pages are passive media. Consumers use them when they need something therefore you need to create ads with photos or illustrations because the medium is non intrusive and will be effective at reaching buyers who are actively in the market. Which is all well and good unless you use more intrusive mediums like radio and TV in the same way.  You can use these mediums to create a passion or brand message about your product that will help future customers gain a positive disposition to your product or service. you can win them over BEFORE they enter the market for your product with effective messaging on radio or TV.

 And the final mistake to be discussed today is copy cat ads. Why does everyone want their ads to sound like the other guys?  Break on through. Having duplicate ads confuses the listener and if the other guy is more established or has been running his campaign longer all of your ads will gain a visual credit for them.  Be unique, creative and above all salient.

These mistakes and others can be avoided by reading from the master (who is liberally taken from here) Roy Williams- The Wizard of Ads