The advertising options in today’s crazy, fast-paced world are endless. The more options there are the more confusing it gets.

There’s an old saying in the marketing world that states, “All advertising mediums work if you know how to work the medium”.  

The challenge for business owners today is knowing what mediums they should be investing in. How many mediums at one time are too many?  Is there a secret to making them work better together?  And do certain mediums work better for certain businesses?

One of the leading advertising experts in the world, Roy H. Williams (Wizard of Ads), says that Rule #1 in his 10 Most Common Mistakes in Marketing is Inappropriate Use of Social Media.  He explains, “The whole world is on Facebook, but is it the right place for your product or service to be advertised?  If you go to the success stories page at Facebook.com, you’ll notice that Facebook does extremely well at getting people together socially, but not so well for services and professionals.”  (Hmmm, maybe this is why they call it “Social” media.)  Fact: It’s not actually the whole world; only 59% of the US population has Facebook. This is an 8% decline from previous years.

With that said, social and digital mediums certainly have their place, and when combined with traditional media (Radio/TV) statistics suggest they can move mountains.  While studies vary, when combining traditional media and social or digital media, you can increase your google search by up to 29%.  This is important because 88% of people pre-research their buys online before making a purchase.

It’s also important to know that people are 72% more likely to click on a business name they are familiar with rather than one they are unfamiliar with when searching.  It’s important that they KNOW you before they NEED you!

In Roy’s 10 Most Common Mistakes, Rule #9 is Believing “Millennials” Aren’t Like the Rest of Us. The industry brims with theories on what makes millennials tick. But when you look at a list of what millennials supposedly want, it’s exactly what the rest of us want.

Knowing and understanding the mistakes most commonly made in advertising can certainly help in avoiding them.  To see the complete list of Roy’s 10 Most Common Mistakes in Marketing, click here.