Top 5 Online Marketing Mistakes: Learn From Your Competitors

Wouldn't it be great if you could learn all your lessons from other people's mistakes? Well, when it comes to internet marketing, you're in luck. Learning from your competition's mistakes is one of the best ways to improve your online presence. Not only do you get some free tips, but you also avoid making costly mistakes of your own.

Make a list of your top competitors and visit their websites. You may want to take some notes during this process to keep in mind what you learned.

Successful websites are successful for various reasons, but there are essentially five mistakes that online businesses make most often. Pull up your competitors' sites and see if they have fallen prey to any of these common errors:

Disorganization -- If you have trouble finding what you are looking for, the website may not be organized well. And if you are having trouble, then the customer most definitely is. Organize your website with the customer's needs and tendencies in mind. Menus should be clear and navigation to products should be simple.

Irrelevant Content or Graphics -- If you hired a professional web designer, be sure that any graphics they included on your site are relevant to your product. If you design it yourself, avoid the temptation to include the image of a laughing family or field of flowers just to liven things up. Use the space effectively. Hire a professional freelance writer to compose your content. You may be the best salesperson in your industry, but a writer is trained to target your content and make the most of your site's wording.

Poor Quality Content -- Your website is not just your opportunity to sell your product or service. It is your one-on-one chance to sell yourself or your brand to a captive audience. So be sure that what you are saying is correct and effective. Hire a professional writer to add interesting articles related to your brand that a potential customer would be interested in reading. For example, if you sell life insurance, you may want to include articles on living trusts or Medicare policy changes. While free article sites are useful, keep in mind that you are competing with countless other internet businesses for the same customers. Original content will do more to draw clients back to your site and to identify you as an expert in your field.

Lack of Incentives -- Your website may contain great content and superb navigation, but most people will not return to it after the first visit without some sort of incentive. Use ebooks, reports, how-to guides, software, training manuals, and giveaways to keep people coming back. If they get something out of each visit, they will bookmark you for future reference.

Not Keeping in Touch -- After a customer visits your website, you must keep in touch to turn them into a loyal buyer. A newsletter or ezine is a great way to do this. Place a sign-up box on every page of your website and promote the newsletter as a way to get something for nothing. When visitors opt in to receive the newsletter or ezine, they will get an automatic reminder of you and your brand in their inbox every week. Include links to specific products and special promotions in every issue. Also let them know when new articles appear on your website.

After visiting your competitors' sites, make notes about which ones are making these common errors. They are losing customers with every click. Now that you know what you need to do with your own site, take whatever action is necessary to avoid learning the same lesson twice.