Every ad must contain your Unique Selling Point (USP)   What is it about your product or service that will make people say 'Yes I must buy from that business' because that is exactly the product or service that will satisfy their need or want.

 

3. Have a Call to Action

4. Poor ad design

5. Too hard to buy from

Sometimes customers find it hard to respond to an ad. You need to make it easy for customers to contact you or buy from you. Give them lots of choices to contact you by either phone, email, fax , website etc. If you're selling products on your website make sure it's easy to navigate through the various pages required to make a purchase. Buy something from yourself and make sure you can find it easy to do and remember not everybody might be as smart as you are when buying on-line. Make sure all of your staff know about any special offers being made public so that when they get a phone call or a customer visits your store they know about the special and can give the customer top-class service rather than being all at sea about an enquiry and having to go and ask another staff member.

6. Wrong advertising medium

Make sure you have done your market research on who your customers are so that you choose the appropriate medium to advertise in. For example if you are trying to sell your products locally then there's probably not a lot of point in advertising in a national magazine. Understand who your target market is and stay focused on that.

7. Measure your results

Measuring the responses to your advertising is critically important. If you don't measure the responses to your advertising you won't know what is working for you and what isn't. This is very important as there is no point in wasting money on advertising that doesn't work for you. Ways to measure your advertising is to code a cut-off reply response or discount coupon that may be attached to your advertisement. Ask the customers when they come into your shop or phone in how they found out about your business. Whatever method you choose, record all of these replies and then analyse them and see what worked for you and what didn't. This will help you fine tune and improve your future ads and then compare the results each time. Of course you need to use wisdom on how to decide the results of an ad. Perhaps you didn't sell many items of the product you advertised, but did the ad draw customers who purchased other items from your business?

8. Word of mouth

Don't ever underestimate or forget 'word of mouth' and what it can do for your business. It is the best form of advertising and it's free!   Encourage it wherever you can. If you hand out business cards to a potential customer, rather than only giving them one card, give them three or four cards and ask them to hand them onto other people they know, who may need your products or services. Of course, you must remember that you must provide the best customer service, so that the 'word of mouth' is about how great you are. Remember that poor customer service will also be spoken around, so it is up to you to be the best.

9. Don't forget free advertising

As a small business owner you need to make your advertising dollars go as far as you can so make the most of any free advertising you can find. Free advertising methods include having info about your business on your email signature. Make sure you have a link to your website. Maybe advertise specials you have available currently.  
Google is a great way to get your business name in front of a potentially huge market. Get your website tech to optimize your website so that your website gets a high up ranking.
Write articles for publications such as your local newspaper or community newspaper or in your industry's magazine. This is another great way to spread your business in front of potential customers.
Even simple things like a flashing light in your shop window or regular change of displays with plenty of colour to attract attention.   And change the photo's on your website regularly to keep it looking fresh.