Affiliate since: 04/13/2012, Power Rank: 785 | Read Andrew's 330 other Ask SC answers

In over 2 decades of advertising promoting, and marketing I can tell you the biggest mistake I have ever made is starting an advertisement thinking about the product instead of the customer.

When you think about the product you sell points about it that are features and the packaging, and the price but the advertisement runs low on emotional satisfaction. The ES factor is what makes a viewer become passionate about the product and has them saying I have to have that.

Advertising should connect with the viewer and fill a need they have and should lead into your marketing funnel where you will build product knowledge and brand awareness and eventual trust. To do this you have to take your item and ask, "Who uses this, and what problems do they face?" and "How does our product solve those problems?" and apply that to the root of your ad.

Think Tide Laundry Detergent

Their average commercial starts with a housewife and mom with an active family and shows the stains this family gets on their clothes. They then show you the average generic cleaner leaving the stains in and then Tide getting the stains out.

The problem is Stains
The customer is MOM
The secondary problem is cleaners that don't work.
The solution is Tide, Tide with Bleach, and/or Tide Stain Remover
The picture at the end is always clean clothes happy family and happy mom.

Most people don't think about the commercial much to see how they are lead on a journey but it sticks with the inner mind and with repetition it programs our behaviors. Advertising for this must be regular, consistent, and in volume. The same crowd needs to see your advertisement 7-9 times before it begins to take hold and dozens of times to fully commit the message to long term memory. You can not do that spending $20 a month on Adsense, writing 10 ads on 10 classifieds sites and then never advertising there again unless someone joins, or by surfing sporadically instead of daily for long hours.


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In over 2 decades of advertising promoting, and marketing I can tell you the biggest mistake I have ever made is starting an advertisement thinking about the product instead of the customer.

When you think about the product you sell points about it that are features and the packaging, and the price but the advertisement runs low on emotional satisfaction. The ES factor is what makes a viewer become passionate about the product and has them saying I have to have that.

Advertising
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

The single biggest mistake that can be made in advertising is to make a false promise. If you raise someone's expectations, and then fail to deliver, they will never trust you, and you have lost a potential customer - and they will tell others.

The way to avoid the mistake is to make a realistic promise - and deliver what you have promised and more. Think of what used to be called a baker's dozen - 13. When a customer ordered and paid for a dozen buns, or whatever, the baker would add an additional piece as a bonus, and the delighted customer would come back again. So:

1. Promise only what you are sure of delivering.

2. Always deliver what you promise, and more if you can.

3. Go the extra mile to keep your word and build your reputation.
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The single biggest mistake that can be made in advertising is to make a false promise. If you raise someone's expectations, and then fail to deliver, they will never trust you, and you have lost a potential customer - and they will tell others.

The way to avoid the mistake is to make a realistic promise - and deliver what you have promised and more. Think of what used to be called a baker's dozen - 13. When a customer ordered and paid for a dozen buns, or whatever, the baker would add
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Affiliate since: 02/03/2015, Power Rank: 99999999 | Read Emilio's 29 other Ask SC answers

With marketing, success often depends on knowing what not to do as well as knowing what you should do. Today there are numerous online marketing opportunities, many of which are self-service. While that’s convenient, it can make it too easy for a company to get an ad campaign up and running. In fact, it might be so easy that a company doesn’t take time to think things through and ends up making a serious marketing mistake that can derail a campaign altogether. Here are some marketing campaign mistakes you should make the effort to avoid.

1. Piggybacking on Someone’s Misfortune - In September 2014, one of the biggest news stories was about NFL player Ray Rice hitting his wife, which shone a bright spotlight on the issue of domestic violence. Discussions of the topic on Twitter utilized the hashtag #WhyIStayed, and frozen pizza brand DiGiorno decided to latch onto that hashtag with the interpretation that it’s better to stay home and make your own pizza than go out for it. It did not go over well, and the company pulled its tweet using the hashtag a few minutes after posting it. But that was plenty of time for people to make screenshots of it, and the company had to do a lot of apologizing and responding to backlash as a result.

2. Failure to Proofread or Think Through Possible Consequences - Some marketing mistakes result from simple failure to double check and think things through. For example, General Motors tried a viral marketing campaign for people to create their own advertisement for GM SUVs. What they didn’t count on was environmentally conscious people using the campaign to create negative ads, something they might have realized was a possibility if they had thought it through more thoroughly. This type of carelessness, as well as unfortunate misspellings, URLs, or hashtags can also cause companies to pull ad campaigns.

3. Thinking Pre-Internet Marketing Simply Needs to Be Moved Online - Successful online marketing doesn’t just mean taking what worked before the internet and moving it online. The truth is, people behave differently with the internet and mobile devices than they did with old media. Potential customers have more control, choices, and information than ever, and what worked when print and television were dominant can’t just be moved online and expected to perform. Successful digital marketing must be relevant and it must reach the people it’s relevant to. Achieving this requires smart use of marketing data and an internet-age approach to marketing.

4. Thinking There’s a Single “Right” Message - Rare is the single marketing message that will resonate with your entire target audience. Today’s market is more diverse and fragmented than ever, and has more control over what advertising is taken in. Today’s marketing campaign must use marketing data to take multiple angles in the approach to product advertising. Different information should reach different types of buyers. Making a campaign general or bland enough to be used across the entire market isn’t effective, because people are skilled at ignoring or shutting out marketing messages that aren’t relevant to them.

5. Not Making Use of Your Data - Sometimes your instincts tell you one thing, but the data tells you something else. In today’s marketing environment, you have to act quickly and be prepared to understand the feedback you get from your campaigns. Marketing data can help you learn which ads receive clicks, which landing pages lead to conversions, and countless other metrics that you can use to market more effectively. The goal isn’t to get the most traffic, but to get traffic that counts, and using marketing data effectively allows you to do this. Don’t ignore the story your marketing data tells, even if it doesn’t tell the story you expected.

Conclusion - Marketing data is essential to making smart marketing choices, but you have to ensure your marketing data is of high quality. Low quality data will lead to faulty decisions, so you must take steps to validate the quality of your data, including timeliness, accuracy, completeness, and lack of redundancy.

Good luck with your advertising!
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With marketing, success often depends on knowing what not to do as well as knowing what you should do. Today there are numerous online marketing opportunities, many of which are self-service. While that’s convenient, it can make it too easy for a company to get an ad campaign up and running. In fact, it might be so easy that a company doesn’t take time to think things through and ends up making a serious marketing mistake that can derail a campaign altogether. Here are some marketing campaign
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

There are many, many mistakes people make when advertising. One of the biggest is not taking the time to find out what your target audience needs or wants.

Simply picking a product and promoting it anywhere and everywhere is the least cost-effective way to generate revenue. Very few small businesses can afford to take that approach, but it is exactly the approach most suppliers of any given product will urge you to take.

There is a better way.

First, pick a target market you are comfortable with. You should know how they think, where they can be found, and what issues are important to them.

Next, do some research, and identify a need common to that target market.

Then, and only then, look for a product that addresses that need. The great thing about SFI is that there is almost certainly a product available to meet whatever need you have identified.

Now promote that product to those people where they are most likely to see your ad. Use a hook to get their attention, identify the problem you are addressing, show how they benefit from your chosen product/solution, and give them a specific call to action.

Bear in mind, the first sale is the hardest sale to make. People who have bought from you once, and are happy that they got a good deal, are far more likely to buy from you again, so once you start having some success, try sticking with the same market, but promoting a different product.
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There are many, many mistakes people make when advertising. One of the biggest is not taking the time to find out what your target audience needs or wants.

Simply picking a product and promoting it anywhere and everywhere is the least cost-effective way to generate revenue. Very few small businesses can afford to take that approach, but it is exactly the approach most suppliers of any given product will urge you to take.

There is a better way.

First, pick a target
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Affiliate since: 03/16/2012, Power Rank: 99999999 | Read Caroline's 111 other Ask SC answers

The biggest mistake in advertising is to make sweeping claims and promises that you can't fulfil. Don't tell a person he can make money while he sleeps, or make any specific amount of money in any certain timeframe.

If you do this kind of advertising you will attract people who will drop out very quickly when they realise that it will take a long time and a lot of work to achieve your promises. You will also give SFI a bad name. These disillusioned people are likely to write articles on their blogs or FB pages calling SFI a scam. We definitely don't want that because these negative reviews show up when future prospects do a search for themselves.

Other advertising mistakes concern focusing your ad on features rather than benefits as well as placing ads in the wrong places. If your ads aren't being seen by qualified prospects, you are wasting your time and advertising dollars. However I don't think these mistakes are anywhere as bad as making wild claims and misleading people.

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The biggest mistake in advertising is to make sweeping claims and promises that you can't fulfil. Don't tell a person he can make money while he sleeps, or make any specific amount of money in any certain timeframe.

If you do this kind of advertising you will attract people who will drop out very quickly when they realise that it will take a long time and a lot of work to achieve your promises. You will also give SFI a bad name. These disillusioned people are likely to write articles
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Affiliate since: 09/24/2015, Power Rank: 3 | Read Aubrey's 23 other Ask SC answers

Each form of advertising has it's potential pitfalls that can cause you problems.

The biggest mistake I want you to be aware of and avoid is in the advertising realm of email marketing from your personal email address.

There are 2 things that are big mistakes:

1) When you send an email out to members from an email list, make sure you put all the email addresses in the Bcc: line. If you put the email addresses in the To: or Cc: line, then all the recipients can see the other email addresses. This means you have shared other people's email addresses without their consent. You have basically spammed their email address. This could get you reported to your email address provider and/or in some legal trouble.

2) Be careful not to send out too many emails at one time or a lot in a short period of time. Some email address providers watch the number of emails you send out and how they are accepted/received by the recipient. If too many email addresses show up as bad or undeliverable at one time, the complete mailing could be perceived as spam. Also, if you email a lot at one time and a large number of the recipients report the email as spam, then you could
be blacklisted as a spammer. Email address providers will protect themselves at this point by shutting down your email account. If your email account is turned off, then you lose all connectivity with your contacts and you would have to start over and re-establish with a new email account, probably with a different provider. This would take a lot of time and in the meantime, you have no email. You can try to contact the email address provider and get your account reactivated, but that also takes a lot of time and convincing. I have seen where even if it is not your fault, the account stays closed. The key is to send out a few emails at a time and stretch the mailings out over a period of time.

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Each form of advertising has it's potential pitfalls that can cause you problems.

The biggest mistake I want you to be aware of and avoid is in the advertising realm of email marketing from your personal email address.

There are 2 things that are big mistakes:

1) When you send an email out to members from an email list, make sure you put all the email addresses in the Bcc: line. If you put the email addresses in the To: or Cc: line, then all the recipients can
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Affiliate since: 12/05/2015, Power Rank: 99999999 | Read Warren's 21 other Ask SC answers

Marketing is an investment in your business.

Creating a marketing plan and then putting it into action may increase your exposure and reputation.

Below is a list of marketing mistakes to avoid damaging your online business:

• Not paying attention to details
• Believing that marketing is an expense, not an investment
• Not understanding your customers’ needs
• Not staying true to your brand
• Not reviewing your online reputation regularly
• Not adhering to email marketing best practices
• Spreading yourself too thin
• Believing in and hiring the SEO “expert” that will get your business on page 1 of Google
• Using your business name or having no picture of you in your social media personal profiles
• Not seeking professional help when creating your brand identity

Marketing efforts must be more than an incoherent set of tasks.

Effective marketing is a multiple activity, and a specifically tailored effort that requires planning, consistency, and resilience to accomplish.

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Marketing is an investment in your business.

Creating a marketing plan and then putting it into action may increase your exposure and reputation.

Below is a list of marketing mistakes to avoid damaging your online business:

• Not paying attention to details
• Believing that marketing is an expense, not an investment
• Not understanding your customers’ needs
• Not staying true to your brand
• Not reviewing your online reputation regularly
• Not
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

False advertising is a guaranteed way to lose trust and earn a reputation as a dishonest businessman. A play on words leaving the interpretation to the reader might sound clever at the time but it will land you in hot water and uncomfortable situations with your readers.

Do not promise things you can not deliver on. SFI is NOT easy quick money - do not advertise it as such. You can not guarantee anybody a certain income in a specific period of time. You might get sign ups this way but you will lose them the moment they find out it is not happening.

Blind advertising is another mistake. By that I mean - you need to keep track of your advertisements and the success you have with each. This is even more important if you are using paid advertising. When you keep track and records of your advertisements and their effectiveness you can adjust your campaigns. You can stop the ones with no or very limited success and try something new instead. When you found a specific advertisement that shows results - keep it and enhance it if you can. If it ain't broken - do not fix it. Let it be - to continue bringing in sales or sign ups.

Another mistake is to try and reinvent the wheel. Why would you waste time and money on coming up with advertisements? Look at our marketing centre - it gives you so many options and especially if you are a beginner it will not only look good and show results, it will also keep you out of trouble.
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False advertising is a guaranteed way to lose trust and earn a reputation as a dishonest businessman. A play on words leaving the interpretation to the reader might sound clever at the time but it will land you in hot water and uncomfortable situations with your readers.

Do not promise things you can not deliver on. SFI is NOT easy quick money - do not advertise it as such. You can not guarantee anybody a certain income in a specific period of time. You might get sign ups this
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Affiliate since: 12/31/1969, Power Rank: 99999999

"What is the biggest mistake to avoid when advertising?"

I just googled "advertising mistakes" and found this website: http://www.smalltownmarketing.com/top_ten_advertising_mistakes.html! I think it is a goldmine for any new affiliate to visit. And I had to admit I made and are still making these mistakes.

His number 1 mistake is "Not knowing if your advertising is working" and the answer is KEY CODES! As SFI offers key codes this is definitely one mistake we all can avoid.

His number 2 mistaking is not testing ads. This is one of my mistakes. Bottom line is to run one ad on one site for a week. If no signups or the key code value is zero, move on. This ad won't work. Try another ad for a week. If after a month and 4 or 5 ads with zero results, move on. This site is of no use. If there are some results, tweak the ad and try again. If more results, start advertise that ad elsewhere at several sites. Then after a week or a month, trim off those sites with meagre results. You have found what work for you. Now await the results.

His number 3 mistake is timing. Another of my ongoing mistakes. There are times to advertise and times to wait. If you can find the ideal time to advertise and it is an awkward time for you, scheduling your advertising with an app could be an answer. Invest in one might be a good idea as you can schedule ads every hour and then check the results and then reschedule for the best time slot.

His number 4 mistake is advertising in the wrong place. Would you advertise liquor to a teetotaler or a Muslim or (worse) a rehabilitated alcoholic? No! You won't. But that is a thing we all do. We advertise "Make money" to an audience that are not interested or think we can take them to the gold pot at the end of the rainbow!

And that is the tip of the iceberg...

Go and read that article! Download it and read it again. It opened my eyes. I am changing my advertising for better results today...
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"What is the biggest mistake to avoid when advertising?"

I just googled "advertising mistakes" and found this website: http://www.smalltownmarketing.com/top_ten_advertising_mistakes.html! I think it is a goldmine for any new affiliate to visit. And I had to admit I made and are still making these mistakes.

His number 1 mistake is "Not knowing if your advertising is working" and the answer is KEY CODES! As SFI offers key codes this is definitely
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Affiliate since: 10/04/2014, Power Rank: 3131 | Read Mohammed's 69 other Ask SC answers

There are many mistake that can be made in the course of advertising. The biggest is false claim/promise.

This mistake is worst than others because it affects not only the advertiser but the organization and anybody related to it. In an attempt to get sign-up or/and PRMs, we should not make an advert that holds false claim/promise. For the time is short for the truth come out/known.This mistake will make recruiting and sales difficult for the person. As this happens, it kills the person's business. Also, it will create a negative impression on the prospect about the company and all those working in the company.

We should endeavor to make our advertisements short, simple and sincere. It's a number game for prospects. A prospect might not like a product now, your next advert might be his/her desire. Let's always build trust through our advertisements. The benefits are numerous.
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There are many mistake that can be made in the course of advertising. The biggest is false claim/promise.

This mistake is worst than others because it affects not only the advertiser but the organization and anybody related to it. In an attempt to get sign-up or/and PRMs, we should not make an advert that holds false claim/promise. For the time is short for the truth come out/known.This mistake will make recruiting and sales difficult for the person. As this happens, it kills the person's
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