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Is your advertising effective? Does it accomplish it’s goals and bring in business? If not, read on. If so, go ahead and read on — you just might find a tidbit you hadn’t thought of before. Here are some common mistakes small business owners and service providers make when developing their advertisements. Any one of these could lead to your advertisement’s failure.

Bigger Is Better
Some think that a bigger ad is more effective, so they invest a lot of money in the ad, but still don’t reach their target market. Size of advertisement is not as important as placement. Your ad needs to be placed where your highly targeted market will find it.

State What You Do
It is estimated that people are exposed to about three thousand commercials per day. Your ad must stand out from the rest. It should focus on benefits to your market, now what you sell specifically. For example, what does a mattress store sell? If you said mattresses, you’d only be technically right. If their ads only said “We Sell Mattresses!” how much sales do you think they’d get.

No, mattress stores sell a peaceful night’s sleep. If their ads said, “Are you suffering from back pain that keeps you up at night?” I think they’d get a better response. This puts the benefit — not the product — front and center and will catch more attention.

Focusing on the problems of your prospects and providing a solutions just plain works. People don’t buy products — they buy the benefits from the products.

Where’s the Call to Action?
An ad has to clearly state what you want the reader to do. Don’t assume that they already know! Tell them to visit a website, call a phone number or come into the store.

Too Much Content
Regardless of how long or big your ad it, it needs to be focused on one thing — getting the reader to take action. Keep the content flowing in a logical and organized manner. Use headlines, sub-headlines and bullet point for those who skim. And only include the content that will get the job done — no more, no less.