You know how it’s hard to see your own typos when you read what you’ve written, but someone else can spot them in three seconds? Often, that’s true for our digital marketing efforts as well.

I know it’s very easy to Monday morning quarterback marketing, but sometimes I do see things that make me seriously scratch my head. Here are three such mistakes I see often in online marketing.

1. There Is No Link

Recently, my son’s principal sent out an email announcing that a video made by some students at the middle school “went viral.”

Never mind the fact that my definition of “viral” is probably wildly different from hers due to the fact that I’m in marketing and she’s in education — the email about this viral video amazingly did not contain a link to the video. Here you have a school-sanctioned email sent out to the parents of around 200 kids, and you’ve just left them hanging.

Naturally, I searched for the video and found it on YouTube, but I’d have much preferred to be able to just click on a link. How many parents didn’t think to search for it? Let’s say 50 didn’t. That’s 50 fewer eyeballs on what you want to showcase.

Think about how losing 25% of your potential audience could hurt you — and all because you didn’t do something as simple as slap in a URL. What if you’d lost 25% of 10,000 subscribers?

2. There Is Inaccurate Or Outdated Information

In trying to find a new doctor for my children, I decided on a local medical office whose website made it clear that they were accepting new patients. When I reached out, I waited around 20 minutes to be told that they were not, in fact, accepting new patients as advertised. When they asked if I’d like to be put on the waiting list, I said no. They just lost one of who knows how many potential customers.

3. There Is A Lack Of Interest In Keeping Your Business

A while back, I unsubscribed to emails from Hanna Andersson, a clothing retailer that specializes in children’s wear. In the screenshot below, you’ll note that my selected reason for unsubscribing was, “The children in my life have outgrown Hanna Anderson.” People choosing this option probably assume that the company’s product offerings are no longer relevant to them. Here’s the thing, though: The company offers women’s clothing as well. Unfortunately, they don’t tell you that when you select the “outgrown” option to unsubscribe.

This is such a huge missed opportunity. What if they’d added a message to the effect of: “Before you go, did you know that we also offer Women’s sizes?”

Final Thoughts

Those are all big marketing fails. They’re also very common ones in some form or fashion — info isn’t there, or it’s inaccurate, or no one is thinking about ways to salvage a relationship. Every single thing like that affects your marketing efforts and brand reputation, because it impacts the way (potential) customers feel about you.

Article by Julie Joyce as seen on MarketingLand.com