Marketing can be a challenging part of business, and many times, it takes a decent amount of trial and error to learn the best way to market yourself and your business. Add to the mix the uniqueness of every business, industry and target audience, and you’re looking at a lot of trial and error before you find a successful set of marketing activities.

To help new marketers learn from common mistakes before they make them on their own, I’ve compiled a list of 38 marketing mistakes that many people make but are entirely avoidable…and will help you market your business more successfully.

Common Marketing Mistakes

1. Not being prepared with a marketing plan, unique selling proposition and budget.

2. Targeting everyone instead of focusing on a specific target audience.

3. Misrepresenting your experience and making unsubstantiated claims.

4. Being inconsistent with your marketing message.

5. Ignoring your existing paying clients and only marketing to the unknown.

6. Not listening to feedback on your marketing activities.

7. Following the competition instead of creating your own place in the market.

8. Not following up with leads quickly.

9. Not editing/proofreading your copy before going public.

10. Underestimating customer service and the power of word of mouth.

11. Not having business cards on you at all times.

Online Marketing Mistakes

12. Forgetting to test your site across various platforms and browsers.

13. Not updating your site design or content, ever.

14. Assuming SEO will take care of itself.

15. Ignoring the needs of your target audience when writing your site content.

16. Not including easy-to-find contact information.

17. Blanketing your business web site with ads that distract from your core message.

18. Copying content from competitors’ web sites.

19. Not providing an informative and engaging About page.

Email Marketing Mistakes

20. Sending messages to people who have not opted in.

21. Selling your subscribers’ contact information.

22. Blatantly spamming by sending unrelated and unwanted messages.

23. Not testing HTML emails in many types of email clients.

24. Making it hard to subscribe or to unsubscribe.

25. Not including a specific call to action in every email.

26. Not testing email personalization to avoid tags.

27. Over packing your emails with competing messages.

28. Underestimating your subject line.

29. Leaving the copywriting as an afterthought.

30. Ignoring your statistics and failing to tailor your messages accordingly.

Social Media Marketing Mistakes

31. Ignoring your online reputation.

32. Forgetting it’s a marathon, not a sprint and cramming in too much, too fast.

33. Not updating your profiles regularly and keeping them consistent.

34. Focusing on sales instead of forming real relationships.

35. Overlooking the importance of conversations.

36. Not having a recognizable image across social media.

37. Not updating your blog on a regular basis.

38. Trying to be everywhere, all the time.

What marketing blunders would you add to this list?

This article brought to you by your friends at Absolute Customer Solutions. We keep you informed.