Exaggerating. Most people expect advertising to be overblown and inflated, so surprise your readers and be honest. Put your best foot forward and shamelessly emphasize your strengths, but don't do more than that. Keep it real and get real attention.

Saying too much. Excessive wordiness puts a burden on reader that can be lethal for marketing. Read through your copy again: could you say same thing with fewer words? Try rewriting with a 25% cut in word count to inject new life into your pitch.

Not getting reader moving. The entire point of advertising is to motivate your customer to do something, so are you telling them what that is? End your pitch with a direct appeal. Tell your customers to call, visit or look at your website. If you're not giving them orders, you can't expect them to start marching.

Reduce it to a single sentence. Do you really know what you want to say? You might be surprised - try phrasing your entire piece into one simple sentence. Can you do it, or are you insisting that your message is too in-depth? Taking your point down to a single statement can give your copy new focus and clarity.

One thought per sentence. Sentences and paragraphs are different things. Avoid long, complex sentences built up of multiple thoughts. Keep your sentences to one thought each, keep them short and simple, and use your paragraphs for complex ideas.

When in doubt, cut it out. Every writer has written perfect sentence that just doesn't play along well with others. Hemingway was right - kill your darlings. If you can't figure out how to ease that bit of poetry in with rest of your marketing piece, cut it completely and don't look back. Be merciless. You'll be surprised how often that's best solution.