Top 10 tips for advertising

1. Don’t run out of money. It always takes longer and costs more than you expect to spread your idea. You can budget for it or you can fail.

2. You won’t get it right the first time. Your campaign will need to be reinvented, adjusted or scrapped. Count on it.

3. Irrational, strongly held beliefs of colleagues (especially those of top management) should be ignored. It doesn’t matter if they don’t like your logo. They probably don’t understand the product, market or both.

4. If it makes you nervous, it’s probably a good idea. If you’re sure you’re right, you probably aren’t.

5. Focusing obsessively on one niche, one feature and one market is almost always a better idea than trying to satisfy everyone.

6. At some point, you will have to address those things important to your customers. Save money by doing it right from the word go.

7. Compromise in advertising is almost always a bad idea. Extreme A could work. Extreme B could work. The average of A and B will almost never work.

8. Test, measure and optimise. Figure out what’s working and do it more of it.

9. Your heading must be a promise. If it does not stop your target market in their tracks and “force” them to take note, you are probably wasting your money.

10. Many advertising agencies have little marketing experience or knowledge. Sad but true. Some are only interested in winning awards, and not in selling your product. You know your product and market the best, or at least – you should.