Who’s minding the store? Wait, where is the store? These days as often as not, it’s riding around in customers’ pockets in the shape of their smart phones. Brick and mortar outlets, along with the advertising strategies that go with them, simply won’t translate literally into the digital landscape. Although this is by no means breaking news, it’s surprising how often advertisers forget it. The one thing that holds true across all sales fronts is how important it is to match the message with the medium.

Online advertising blunders are legion, and there are nearly as many blogs that will gleefully itemize them, but here we focus on three of the most common mistakes to avoid. Start by eliminating these, and reap the positive results.

Creating ads instead of campaigns

We live in a storied world now. Everybody and their parrot has a blog. Most online purchases include a parade of comments from both satisfied and irate customers. Even our household appliances weigh in with collaborative data. Every online action comes with multiple viewpoints.

Similarly, a single ad can never tell the entire story. If you have 10 points to make about a product, create 10 ads. Better yet, link those ads into a story, which will promote better use of the data to inform customers’ decisions.

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