Have you ever made a purchase online and then had a bad experience with the vendor? Perhaps you paid a little too much for the product, and the shipping was really expensive, or the online store didn’t have what you were looking for, or the delivery was really slow. All of these are frustrating, and it’s the vendor’s responsibility to make you feel safe and comfortable with your purchase. That’s why, as an online marketer, you must be careful not to make the same mistakes repeatedly. It is important to take the time to learn from others’ experiences in order to create a better user experience for yourself.

Here are nine of the most common online marketing mistakes that can be easily avoided. So you can rest assured that your customers will always have a positive experience when buying from you.

1. Lack of Targeted Marketing

You may be tempted to shout out to your entire audience when promoting your product, but that’s not how targeted marketing works. Let’s say your product is a software solution for marketeers. A marketer may be familiar with your product, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be interested in it. You can use targeted marketing to narrow down your audience to people who are more likely to be interested in what you have to offer. One of the best ways to do this is through personalized marketing. With personalized marketing, you will provide the vendor with a detailed profile of the person you want to purchase the product from. This can include information such as the person’s email address, what they’re interested in, and what previous purchases they’ve made. By narrowing down your audience, you’ll be able to communicate with them more effectively and offer them something that will make them want to hear from you.

2. Publishing Without Care

When you publish a blog post on your website, there is a good chance that you’ll get traffic from search engines. However, that doesn’t mean that every single visitor will be a potential customer. Some of those people will just be passing through. You need to take the time to validate every visitor. To do this, use tools like Google Analytics to track the behavior of your visitors. This will help you identify people who are likely to be interested in your product or service and those who aren’t. It’s also a good idea to explore using Google Adwords to gain additional insights into the nature of your target audience. Just remember that every visitor is not a potential customer, so take some time to figure out how you can improve the experience for those who are.

3. Publishing Irrelevant Content

When you publish content on your website, you’re essentially giving away free advertising space. This means that your content has the potential to be relevant to a large audience. However, that doesn’t mean that every single piece of content will be equally effective. In the same way that you would work to ensure the quality of the products you offer, you should do the same with your content. Choose only the best content to publish, and make sure to regularly update your website with new, compelling material. When you do this, you’ll be able to drive more traffic to your site and, eventually, make more sales.

4. Over-Stressing The Product

If your product is particularly unique and has a lot of potential, there is a chance that you’ll end up over-stressing it in your marketing material. When you do this, you’re essentially doing yourself a disservice. Instead of encouraging your product’s uniqueness, which can be a good thing, you’re using it as a crutch to make up for inadequate copy. When you are writing content for your website, don’t just focus on what your product is, but also focus on what it isn’t. In other words, talk about the features that make your product special and unique, but don’t forget to mention the things that it doesn’t have. For example, is it a diet product or a weight loss product? Does it help with SEO, or does it take care of that for you? These are all questions you should be able to easily find the answers to if your product isn’t already described accurately in your marketing copy.

5. Not Testing Your Marketing Materials

If you’ve ever shopped on a store’s website and then been asked to fill out a survey about your experience, you’ll know how important it is to test your marketing materials before you publish them. This is especially important when using the same copy and design for different audiences, as different cultures will respond more to different styles and approaches. To ensure that your marketing doesn’t go to waste, you should always test different phrases and words to see which ones get the best results. You can also use tools like Google Keyword Planner to get an idea of how many people are searching for various topics and phrases related to your product. By using Google Analytics, you’ll be able to track the results of your various tests and determine which phrases and words are bringing you the most qualified customers.

6. No Social Media Engagement

If you don’t have a presence on social media, you’re losing out on the opportunity to connect with your audience there. One of the best things about social media is that it allows you to connect with people who have shared similar interests. If you don’t have a presence there yet, it’s high time you got started. You can use platforms like Twitter and Facebook to find and engage with potential customers. Simply take a few minutes to create a profile on these channels and get started sharing valuable content. Soon, you’ll see your engagement levels rise, as people will begin to notice and value your content.

7. Not Tracking The Basics

What do you get when you put a tracking code on a website? You get traffic, of course! Without the tracking code, you wouldn’t know if you were getting any traffic at all, as there’s no way to tell whether or not someone has actually visited your site. Having a tracking code on your site isn’t just for showing off to potential customers; it allows you to track the basic performance of your site, like how many people are coming back and what time of day they’re visiting.

8. Ignoring The Pre-Order/Pre-Sale Process

This one may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many websites ignore this step. When someone decides to pre-order a product, it means they’re intending to have it shipped to them as soon as it becomes available. To be able to do this, they’ll need to provide the vendor with some form of payment, which could be anything from a credit card to a wire transfer. While this may not seem like a mistake at first, you should always remember that this is how you get paid, so you should treat this process with the utmost seriousness. If you ignore this step, you may find yourself holding a lot of useless inventory.

9. Publishing Without Planning

Now, this may sound like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many companies forget about planning when they publish. For instance, if you’ve ever been to amazon.com and clicked on a book’s link, only to find that the book wasn’t yet available for purchase, you’ll know how frustrating it can be. To avoid this, make sure that you’ve planned your content strategy for the month, and try not to publish content without careful consideration.

These are just a few of the most common mistakes that you, as an online marketer, can avoid. With careful planning and research, you’ll be able to create a good user experience for your customers and gain more sales.