5 Minute Marketing Tips # 16 – Common Marketing Mistakes That Businesses Make

Hello, everybody. Welcome to five minute marketing tips, which we share on YouTube, like and subscribe, and in our Facebook group and across Facebook and our other social media. Today we’re talking about the big mistakes that folks make when they’re doing their marketing for small businesses. So today I want to talk to you about a huge problem and that big problem is the ad copy that you’re writing. All right? And everybody has problems with this. We’ve got bad ad copy everywhere.

And so today we’re looking at this little ad and this is an absolutely hilarious ad. Whoever, did this was asleep at the wheel. You see so many good things in DuPont cellophane. And I see this ad and I’m like these poor babies save them from choking to death. They’re covered in plastic. Whoever, came up with this, this is funny. This makes us laugh. But the truth is that a lot of you have some hilarious ad copy. Like I would look at it and probably be like, “are you serious? This is what you wrote”. And then you’d be offended if I said anything. Right? But the truth is you need to look at your ad, copy in an objective and really smart way.

And we’ve got in our series on landing pages, some procedures for how you can go about crafting some better ad copy, but we’re going to look at some of the big mistakes when it comes to ad copy. These are obvious things that are easy to fix. Let me just give you some examples of what not to do. All right. Trust me, I’m a lawyer. My dogs do. All right. So there’s a couple things going on here. This is hilarious and everybody’s laughing, but these are the things that people do in business.

First the tree is covering the number, which is a big problem. But the other thing is we’re always talking about things in our ad company that have nothing to do with what it is that we actually do. And we talk about ourselves. He’s talking about himself, he’s thinking about his dogs, like who cares? Who cares about your dog, dude? I just got in a car wreck and I can’t walk. I don’t care about your dog. Talk about people, talk about their problem, and talk about how you solve their problem in a unique way. Don’t talk about yourself and be clear. This only brings a huge level of confusion. It’s just confusing, it doesn’t help. It’s totally confusing.

The dogs don’t have anything to do with what he’s offering and he doesn’t even say he is an injury lawyer. Free consultation for a truck, car, he’s an injury lawyer. He would’ve been better off just saying “I’m an injury lawyer”, and showing his picture and then showing this. This is clarity folks. Clarity is extremely important.

Second big pet peeve, who in their right mind would read this pamphlet, okay? Who in their right mind? This is like a list of products. And it’s all written together with all this ad copy. People go on your websites, and I go on your landing pages and you’ve got 4,000 words of ad copy. You know what the optimum for most verticals is? Less than 500 words on the initial page of your website, or your landing page. Put space around your ad copy, make it simple. Talk about the problem, this doesn’t talk about the problem. This talks about the junk that they sell. And I’m not ever going to read this, even though it was aficionado of natural soaps and aroma products and therapy products. This is not the place that I would buy from just looking at this. It’s overwhelming. It’s terrifying. Split up your ad copy, make it simple.

And we’ve got one more here. This is an example of being cute and there’s two problems here. Number one, this is a mortgage ad and we’re talking about dominoes. What the heck does it have to do with a mortgage? And what the heck does that have to do with solving the problem of getting people a mortgage who want to buy a house? We should be talking about buying a house. We should be talking about, are you buying a house? Here’s how our mortgage product is different from the rest. And then there’s no call to action. What I do with this? This is not even good branding because the thing I remember from this ad is dominoes. And it’s a mortgage ad. This is just totally an example being cute, too. Stop being cute. Be clear, be concise.

Tell people what it is that you do and how you solve their problem. That’s what they’re there looking for. They surf very quickly. People have a lizard brain. The part of your brain that does two plus two equals four is called the lizard brain. This is in the psychology book by Alfred Conway. The other part of your brain that’s slow, that does long division is the one that’s more complex. Which one do people try to use most of the time? Many try to use a lizard part. The two plus two equal four. I look at this and I’ve got to do a complex calculus in order to understand what they’re even offering. And there’s no call to action.

Right here the call to action is the number it’s covered up. Here there’s no call to action. Always tell people what to do and make it clear with your ad copy across your website, your landing page. Your material it should always have something on it that tells people what to do and how they can get your product and service. Okay? These, these are very common problems. That’s why I’m going over. Fix this immediately on your website, on your pamphlets and everything that you have, fix it because I know that half of you have this problem. All right. Easy to fix.

We went over our five minute allotment, but you can tune in. So I got to cut this, but you can tune in on YouTube ads, like can subscribe. Where you can join our Facebook group, where we’re offering this content and more other content. The Facebook group you looked for is DFW business master mind. Yes, you can join if you’re not in Dallas Fort worth, but that’s where we’re located. So, that’s what we’re calling it. And thank you so much for watching five minute marketing tips. This is Jared with Hivelead.