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I am a salon owner wanting to advertise my establishment beyond just using social media for marketing purposes. What mistakes should I avoid in terms of adverts?

Advertising can be the best investment you can make, or it can be a major expense for your business. Ask someone else to test your ads against these six common mistakes below. If you feel at any point that you have to defend or explain something in your ads, then you have a problem.

1. You do not identify and qualify your potential client in your advertising.

Ads are, by their very nature, invasive, as nobody waits for your ad to appear before them. The ad appears in front of somebody who is busy doing something else, either paging through a magazine or scrolling a social media wall. Your ad needs to tell the viewer in a single view that it is there to deliver an important message to her, and why she should not ignore it.

2. Your potential client doesn’t see in one second what your ad is about.

Generic does not attract attention. We all have a long list of things requiring our attention and we are always looking for a possible solution. When an ad addresses a specific problem and offers a solution for a problem on our list, it gets our attention. For example, one more laser clinic doesn’t address any problem or offer any solution. But a laser clinic that specialises in the removal of hair caused by hormonal change after a pregnancy addresses a specific problem. And it offers a solution.

3. You don’t prove to your potential client that you know more and provide a superior service.

Nobody likes to be a ‘lab mouse’. Your ad needs to tell the viewer that she is not the first and that the solution you offer her has benefited many before her. Once the viewer knows that she is not the first, she wants to know that you are a specialist in your field.

4. Your ad doesn’t invite your client to learn more about you and your services if she is not ready to buy at this very moment.

Only between 1% and 2% of people who view your ad are ready to buy. It is expensive to run ads only catering for this small group of people. You need to provide the viewer who is not ready to buy today, but soon will be, with a way to bond with you.

5. Your ad doesn’t provide the viewer with clear instructions on what to do next and a reason to do it without delay.

We are all conditioned throughout our lives to follow instructions. Do you provide clear instructions in your ad for the viewer to follow? And do you give the viewer a compelling reason to do so without delay?

6. Your potential client doesn’t know how to make contact with you.

As brainless as this may sound, it is unbelievable how many ads run without visible contact details. Or the ad may only display a single contact method that is not compatible with your typical client.

Raymond Schoeman is the founder and Head Course Coordinator of LaserCollege, a leading authority in aesthetic laser training. Schoeman started his career in the industry when he opened his first laser clinic in Pretoria in 2000. He is the author of two books: Textbook for Aesthetic Laser Therapy and Aesthetic Laser Treatments – Insider Secrets.