The mediaant.com is a media discovery platform where one can find rates and details for more than200,000 options Ranging from online,offline and nontraditional. It has been used by more than 2 million advertisers over last 5 years.

1.starting too early
Don’t try to launch the product with an advertising aid. Drawing from the book "universal principles of design", the product spends a significant time during the introduction phase. The awareness at this stage comes from being present in the sales channel. For e.g.an online product should show up in seo searches and an offline product should have a shelf presence. These presences might be limited but nevertheless important to understand the consumers, proposition and product fit.

Any attempt to advertise during this stage,might not give the best roi.In our experience,about 18% of the total market can be addressed in this phase.

Initially use whatever is free and impacts your distribution and ease of availability. For online products and apps availability translates to seo and aso. 15% of the users are early adopters, the best way to market your business to them is through effective content on your website and in different social media platforms. Few free sales channels are facebook, twitter,linkedin, google+, and pinterest. Don't miss a free pr opportunity. Most of the successful startups came to limelight either Through word of mouth or successful pr coverage.

1.Awareness is not same as sales
Another common fallacy among startups approaching marketing is the lack of understanding between awareness and buying.The common buying cycle of awareness to trial is completely forgotten. Many startup brands believe that moment a potential user/consumer will know of his/her product,it will immediately translate into sales.Unfortunately, these startups end up with disappointment. A common man is aware of thousands of brands but not necessarily will buy all of them. Awareness leads to Preference and that leads to trial.

The chart below shows an industry average of awareness to trial.

2.Your friends and families are not the best people to test campaigns
A common joke that goes around in advertising community is that boss's wife should see the ad for campaign to be successful. Don't measure the quality of an ad by how much your friends and families have liked it. People get driven by humor. Like ability and effectiveness of ads can be diametrically opposite. Show the ad to your users and experts. Use digital platforms to gauge the ad impact.

While short term impact can be measured from traffic increase and trials, long term impact can be measured in terms of enhanced brand searches, brand mentions etc

3.Only evaluating short term benefit
Advertising has both short and long term impact. Have different parameters to measure both. While short term impact can be measured from traffic increase and trials,long term impact can be measured in terms of enhanced brand searches, brand Mentions etc. Measures like change in perception and increase in awareness are also measures for long term impact But unlikely a startup will have that kind of money and time to measure it.

4.Not investing in creative
There is a reason why creative guys are so much in demand. One might not have heard of a great media planner but is quite likely to be aware of piyush pandey or prasoon joshi. Message is what drives an advertising campaign.

If i have to put a number,advertising is 80% message 20% media selection. Media vehicle(digital, radio, print etc.)Are message carriers and not the message themselves. Give people good reason to try out your product a good message can make up forin efficiencies in media selection. Unfortunately,it does n't work the other way.

5.Chasing competition and ignoring substitute
Startups come into being to solve an existing problem in a much efficient way. It is difficult to find solution for a problem that has never been addressed. Google was better than yellow pages and uber was better than "on call taxi" services. While Designing the marketing campaigns,startups end up looking only at competition and ignoring substitutes. For zomato, while swiggy is the direct competition,cooking at home is the bigger pie where they can drive volume from. Look comprehensively at the consumer behavior before deciding on your marketing communication.

6. Lack of segmentation
Your startup can't do it all. Focus is critical! For startups,breaking your market up into addressable market segments is important. Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Not just words, not just product puffery, Not just show-window advertising. Each advertisement must say to each reader: buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit. Usually the best single-minded benefit is just one sentence.It is concise and it is powerful. It is always amazing to Me that you could distill hundreds or thousands of inputs about a product features, benefits,research,competitive insights and translate that all into one simple statement. This statement becomes the foundation of your advertising program.