ADVERTISEMENT: 5 ADVERTISING MISTAKES BUSINESS OWNERS MAKE IN 2022.



As books are to students, the same as advertising is to marketers, brand owners, companies and everyone that is involved in the art of business. Either B2B or B2C is popularly categorized in this age.

Advertising has evolved over time and it has become a major key factor element in the modern marketing economy. Prior to this age, advertising has been in use, which is in its native way before the big hand of modern technology which in turn elevates the native techniques of advertisement and is still growing its tentacles as a major technique in marketing.


WHAT IS AN ADVERTISEMENT?
According to Wikipedia, Advertising is a marketing communication that employs openly sponsored, non-personal messages, to promote, sell/market a product, service or idea.
Advertising/advertisement is the key to delivering relevant messages to prospective customers/consumers/people in need of one's services. Also, the purpose of advertising is mostly to inform. It is usually woven around passing information to prospective buyers and customers.
Mostly, the information passed is to announce new products to customers/audiences, demonstrate new uses for newly designed products, draw customers to the business and hold the existing ones.


However, as essential as advertising is to businesses and as much as you can make use of advertisements for your best opportunities, many companies, brand owners and even marketers fail to understand the in-depth art of advertising. Consequently, these peoples tend to shoot themselves in the foot.


‘If you don't plan advert well it can be a waste of money, this was the word of a business owner that has been in business and has to understand the role and how-to of advertising. As a marketer or business owner, there are worst times and best times in marketing- based on what niche you are operating in.
Chances are that you have some wins and some days, there are losses. Whichever way, when there are losses, it is either a product of a mistake from your end or you are not in alignment with your target audiences.

Therefore, there is always a need to check back on what is working and what is not. Here are 5 common mistakes marketers/brand owners make when advertising:


  1. Undefine Audience: This particular mistake is common among businesses that are just coming up and/or among marketers that are new to the world of marketing. Everyone is not your customer, which is one of the golden rules in marketing, said Seth Godin. It is when you are certain about who your audience/customers are/will be, that is when you can reach out to them. When your audience is not defined, your advert is likely to be a waste when someone that is not interested or that is not in need of your product is the one getting your messages.
    For instance, I’ve seen people run ads on their Whatsapp statuses with the hope of selling. First, you are likely to be limited to people on your contact list only and there is every possibility that a large per cent of them are not viewing your status or many are not even interested in your goods.

  2. Blind Advert (Advertising without Research): In this 21 century where there is competition in markets, marketers, companies, and brands use everything and anything trending to drive traffic to themselves. The research comes first before planning how to run an advert. What is trending? Which channel do your customers use most? What will capture their attention in one glance? and all other sorts of questions. If a marketer or a brand owner or a company does not perform research before going to plan or executing an advert, they are likely to get poor performances on the advert. 

  3. Just ME Advertisement: This type of advert will always be injurious to your business. Because people are more interested in their problems than yours. So, if your advert is not solving people's problems or attending to their pain points, it will be a failed advert and this mistake is also common to businesses that are just growing and only focusing on getting known.
    Although there is no problem with bringing people to know your brand or business, it is also imperative for you to solve their problems because marketing is not just about you because ‘marketing is a contest for people's attention-Seth Godin. And you sure don’t want to lose people's interest.

  4. Wrong Publication: Imagine having to make extensive research about what your audience like and want, defining your audience (age, gender, location) and preparing a very great, detailed advertisement plan. Then, the advertisement still fails because you publish it on the wrong publication channel. It is a common mistakes marketer make.
    As much as there are different publication channels (digitally speaking), these channels operate on different metrics and target differently when it comes to audience segregation. A magazine that speaks about fashion should not be used to advertise a food company because it will be a total waste of time and effort on the advertiser’s part.

  5. Inferior Contents: Many people will say ‘ I am just starting, perfection is not needed”. Who tells you that you can”t model quality content? Low-quality contents are always a turnoff for people and it makes them lose interest at the first glance.
    So, if you create low-quality content for your advert, be sure that it is going to fail and you might even lose customers and it will be a big blow to your just-coming up business.



If business owners will avoid these mistakes and thoroughly research what advert is better for their business or markets, advertising will yield good results, boost their sales and give them a good hedge ahead of other marketers in their industry.




REFERENCES

  1. Wikipedia

  2. Thedrum.com

  3. Simplilearn.com

  4. Common Advertising Mistakes

  5. Pictures from Unsplash: Beautiful Free Images & Pictures