Lesson 1: Be consistent with your advertising.

When you have an ongoing advertising plan, then you’re not so overly picky and fearful of creating the “perfect ad”. You get to tell your story over time. It’s not a make it or break it ad buy. It’s branding. It’s winning the hearts of all those people who need you 6 months from now…not today. When you buy advertising in one-time shots…you create a “make it or break it” scenario. It’s a losing situation. You’re nervous (this better work, damnit!) and you’re ad writer’s nervous (oh, shit – I better make this work). When you put yourself into this predicament, you and your ad writer will be stiff, uncreative, and nit-pick every single word of the advertising copy. Not good.

So, be consistent with your advertising. When you have your local business ads out there consistently, you’re much more willing to…