Common Advertising Mistakes

Look at your advertising and see if you have made one or more of these common mistakes. Try to avoid them in the future.

Headlines

• You don’t have a headline.
• Your company name is the headline.
• You don’t promise the main benefit.
• Emotional headlines consistently outperform more logical headlines.
• You use a one word headline.
• You use the name of the product/service as the headline.

Body Copy

• Your copy isn’t persuasive.
• Your copy is not from the prospective customer’s perspective.
• Your copy begins with a description of your company.
• You don’t convert features to benefits.
• You have too many or unclear messages.
• You mention price before benefits.
• You don’t prove you are the best.
• You don’t provide benefits in subheadings
• You don’t include customer testimonials.
• You don’t mention who your product/service is for.
• You don’t offer a guarantee.
• You don’t close the copy strongly.
• You don’t have a call to action to get an immediate response.
• Your copy includes long word, long sentences, or long paragraphs.
• The tone of your copy is too formal.
• You fail to include an image that helps the reader remember and understand the message.
• The image of your product doesn’t add value or actually hurts the effectiveness of the ad
• You don’t use people in your visual components.
• Your visuals don’t include captions.
• You don’t make it easy for the reader to find how to respond.
• You don’t use graphic elements to highlight important elements.
• You use a drawing of a product instead of a photograph.
• Your photo is too small, too fuzzy, etc..
• Your company logo is prominent.

Color

• You use too much reverse copy.
• Your colors are not functional.
• Your ad looks like you are too small or inexperienced.

Layout

• Your ad is too busy or cluttered.
• Your layout is symmetrical.
• Your ad is not visually unbalanced.
• Some copy angles at more than a 45 degree angle.
• Your headline runs into the gutter (the space where the pages meet and are bound together).

Order Form

• Your order form starts with price.
• Your order form is not a selling devise.
• Readers have to do some figuring on your order form.
• You don’t plant a key on the order form to know where it came from.
• You use a P.O. Box as an address.

Type

• Your body copy is too small.
• You use more than one type of font in the ad.

Placement

• Your ad is visually dominated by another ad on the same page.
• You don’t ensure that the ad on the other side of the paper doesn’t require the reader to cut your ad.
• Your copy a competitor’s style.
• Your ad is next to your competitors.

 

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