Top 10 Mistakes New Digital Marketers Make (And How to Fix Them)

Have you ever felt lost when trying to grow your business online?

You’re not alone!

We’ve all posted content that no one seemed to see or spent money on ads that didn’t work.

Did you know that 7 out of 10 small businesses try digital marketing, but almost half aren’t happy with their results?

That’s because online marketing looks easy, but it’s actually tricky.

New apps and rules change all the time, and the pressure to “go viral” can make you feel overwhelmed.

This guide is different from others you might have read.

I will show you the real mistakes that almost everyone makes when they start out – even the ones no one talks about! Read to learn?

Let’s jump in!

The 10 Most Common Mistakes (With Fixes)

Mistake 1: Trying to Be Everywhere at Once

What happens: You create accounts on TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Pinterest.

You try your best to keep up with fresh content for each of the platforms, constantly coming up with ideas for engaging content and trying to keep up with the algorithm. The end result?

Lots of content that is just meh, and doesn’t connect with your audience.

Why It Happens: You’re afraid of missing out!

When you see others doing well on different platforms, you assume all it requires is just pushing more content and consistency, so you jump in, hoping the same will work for you.

Fix: Choose one platform that’s a good fit for your audience (where you can find your target audiences easily) and focus your attention on creating amazing content and engagement on that platform.

If your audience is mostly…	And you’re good at making…	Focus on…
Young adults (18-24)	Short videos	TikTok
Working professionals (25-34)	Written tips, industry knowledge	LinkedIn
Adults (35-45) who like visual content	Photos, visual inspiration	Instagram
Older adults (40+)	Text updates, community posts	Facebook
People with specific interests	Tutorials, longer videos	YouTube

Get good at one platform before you try another. Set a goal like “I’ll reach 1,000 followers before adding a second platform.”

Best platform for beginners?

LinkedIn works best if you sell to businesses. Instagram is better if you sell to regular people. TikTok can grow fast but you need to make new trending videos fast and on a regular basis.

Mistake 2: Focusing on the Wrong Numbers

What happens: You get excited about likes and followers instead of sales or leads. These “look good” numbers make you feel successful even when they don’t help your business grow.

Why It Happens: Likes and followers are easy to see and feel good when they go up. They’re also easier to grow than actual sales numbers.

Fix: Look at numbers that connect to your business goals. Here’s how to set up basic tracking in Google Analytics 4:

Choose 2-3 important actions you want visitors to take (like filling out a form or signing up for emails)
In Google Analytics 4, go to Configure > Events > Create Event
Name your event clearly (like “newsletter_signup”)
Under “Event conditions,” set what needs to happen (like when someone sees your “thank you” page)
Mark these as conversions in Configure > Conversions

Make a simple weekly report that shows these important numbers first. Put the “feel good” numbers at the bottom.

How to measure if your marketing is working: For each way you market your business, track this simple math: (Money Earned – Money Spent) ÷ Money Spent × 100 = ROI percentage.

Even if you can’t track exact sales, counting leads is much better than just counting likes.

Mistake 3: Skipping Research About Your Customers

What happens: You create content based on an educated guess or, even worse, your personal opinion about who your customers are. Your posts end up being too general and don’t connect with anyone specific. Few people engage or buy.

Why It Happens: Good research takes time you’d rather spend making content.

You might also think “everyone” could be your customer, which leads to bland messages that don’t really speak to anyone.

Fix: Create a clear picture of your ideal customer (customer avatar) before you make any content.

Answer these 5 simple questions:

Who are they? (Age, where they live, job, income)
What do they want? (Goals that your product or service helps with)
What problems do they have? (What frustrates them about current solutions)
Where do they learn things? (What websites, apps, or people do they follow)
Why would they choose you? (Is it price, features, or something else)

Example for someone selling a marketing tool or a software:

Who: Marketing managers at small software companies with 10-50 workers
What they want: More leads while spending less time on boring tasks
Problems: Current tools are either too expensive or too basic; hard to set up
Where they learn: Follow certain experts on LinkedIn, read specific blogs, join online groups
Why they’d choose you: Looking for affordable but powerful tools; values good support; needs to see how it saves time

Talk to at least five real customers before you finalize your strategy. What you learn will make your messages much more effective.

If you can’t talk to them in person, check forums and social media for discussions and comments, you can learn a lot from there.

When you target the wrong audience, you not only waste your time and money, but also get less engagement, which makes platforms show your content to fewer people over time.

Mistake 4: Creating Content With No Plan

What happens: You post random content whenever you feel inspired without connecting it to your business goals.

Your posts don’t work together to guide people toward buying from you.

Why It Happens: Making content feels productive while planning seems less fun. Writing a quick post is easier than developing a full strategy, especially when you feel pressure to “just get something out there.”

Fix: Use this simple 3-step content plan that matches how people buy:

Step 1: Help people discover you (Make 40% of your content like this)

Helpful tips about common problems
Thoughts on industry trends
Fun content that shows your personality
Example: “5 Signs Your Marketing Isn’t Working (And What to Do)”

Step 2: Show them you’re an expert (Make 40% of your content like this)

Guides comparing different options
Stories about how you’ve helped others
Expert tips that show your unique approach
Example: “How We Helped Company X Get 43% More Customers”

Step 3: Help them decide to buy (Make 20% of your content like this)

Demos showing how your product works
Customer reviews and stories
Free trials or special offers
Example: “See How Our Tool Saves You 5 Hours Every Week”

Use a content calendar to make sure you’re creating all three types, not just focusing on one area.

Content strategy vs tactics: Strategy answers “why” you’re creating content and “what” results you expect.

Tactics are “how” you’ll do it (which platforms and formats you’ll use). Without strategy, you’re just being busy without purpose.

Mistake 5: Starting Paid Ads Too Soon

What happens: You spend a lot of money on ads before you know what messages work best, which customers are most likely to buy, or how to make good landing pages.

You waste money and feel discouraged.

Why It Happens: You feel pressure to show quick results, and paid ads seem like the fastest way. You might also think that the ad systems will automatically make your campaigns work without you understanding your audience first.

Fix: Build organic (free) growth first to inform your paid strategy. Follow these steps:

Test: Create 10-15 free posts with different messages, benefits, and calls-to-action
Analyze: Find which 2-3 posts got the most engagement and leads
Convert: Create simple landing pages based on your best-performing messages
Mini-test: Spend a small amount ($50-100) to test different audience targets
Scale: Only after finding a profitable match between audience and message, slowly increase your budget

This approach makes sure you’re not wasting money on messages that don’t work. What you learn from free posts will make your paid ads much more effective.

Free vs paid traffic: Free traffic helps you figure out what works with less risk, while paid traffic makes successful content reach more people.

They should work together – free content builds your foundation, while paid boosts your proven winners.

Mistake 6: Using Too Many Tools and Tech

What happens: You buy lots of expensive software thinking you need them all to succeed.

You spend valuable time learning complex tools instead of getting better at marketing basics while wasting money on subscriptions you barely use.

Why It Happens: There are thousands of marketing tools, and they all claim to be essential. It also feels comforting to think that the right tool will solve all your marketing problems.

Fix: Start with just a few essential tools. Here’s all you really need as a beginner:

Basic Starter Tools:

Email tool: ConvertKit or MailerLite (simpler than other options)
Analytics: Google Analytics 4 (free) + the analytics in your social media platforms
Content creation: Canva for images + Google Docs for writing
Project management: Trello or Notion (free versions)
Social scheduling: Use the free schedulers built into platforms or Buffer’s free plan

Get really good at these core tools before adding others.

For each new tool you consider, ask: “Will this save me enough time or make me enough extra money to be worth the cost and time to learn it?”

Tool overload leads to constantly switching systems without ever getting good at any of them.

Remember that good marketing depends much more on your strategy and how well you execute it than on having fancy tools.

Mistake 7: Ignoring Email Marketing

What happens: You focus only on social media and forget about email – still the best way to convert followers to customers for most businesses.

You fail to collect email addresses from interested people, leaving your success up to unpredictable social media algorithms.

Why It Happens: Social media gives you quick satisfaction through likes and comments, while email results take longer to see.

Email also seems “old fashioned” compared to newer platforms, even though it consistently performs better for sales.

Fix: Set up a simple but effective welcome email series to start building your email skills. Here’s a three-email template you can adapt:

Email #1: Welcome (Send right away)

Subject: “Welcome to [Your Brand] – Your [Benefit] Starts Here”
Content: Quick intro, remind them why they signed up, tell them what to expect
Action: Invite them to follow you on social media or check out your best resource

Email #2: Give Value (Send 2 days later)

Subject: “Here’s That [Resource/Guide/Template] I Promised You”
Content: Give them something truly useful, introduce yourself more personally
Action: Ask them to reply with their biggest challenge related to your topic

Email #3: Engage (Send 4 days later)

Subject: “Quick question about your [goal/challenge]”
Content: Share a success story, ask about their specific needs or goals
Action: Invite them to book a call, try your product, or take the next step

Put email signup forms throughout your website and social profiles, offering a specific free resource that solves a common problem.

Email marketing for beginners is especially valuable because people have specifically asked to hear from you – showing higher interest than most social media followers.

Mistake 8: Not Promoting Your Content

What happens: You spend hours making great content, then just post it once and move on to creating the next piece.

You assume good content will find its audience on its own, then wonder why few people see your work despite its quality.

Why It Happens: Creating content feels more fun and creative than promoting it, which can feel pushy or repetitive.

You also probably underestimate how much promotion is actually needed in today’s crowded online world.

Fix: Follow the 30/70 Rule – spend 30% of your time creating content and 70% promoting it. Here are five free ways to promote your content starting today:

Repurpose your content: Turn one piece into many formats (like turning a blog post into slides, a short video, and audio)
Share in communities: Post in relevant Reddit groups, Facebook groups, or Slack channels (following their rules)
Tag strategically: Mention brands or people in your content who might want to share it
Network through comments: Leave helpful comments on popular content in your field, with a gentle mention of your related content
Join roundups: Find and respond to journalists looking for expert quotes (using tools like HARO) or industry roundups

Make a promotion checklist for each piece of content and don’t consider it “done” until you’ve completed your distribution plan.

You can also try promoting on Quora (answering questions in your field), Pinterest (for visual or how-to content), and swapping newsletter mentions with other creators in your industry.

Mistake 9: Misreading Your Data

What happens: You misunderstand what your numbers mean, getting excited about metrics that don’t lead to success while missing concerning patterns.

You make decisions based on too little data or without considering important context.

Why It Happens: Analytics tools show you tons of data, making it hard to see what really matters. You also tend to focus on numbers that support what you’re already doing while ignoring data that suggests you should change.

Fix: Focus on tracking a small set of important numbers that connect directly to your business goals:

Key Numbers Worth Tracking:

Engagement Rate: (Interactions ÷ Reach) × 100 = % of people who saw your content and took action
Lead Source Performance: Which channels bring you not just the most leads, but the best quality leads?
Conversion Rate by Channel: Which traffic sources turn visitors into customers at the highest rates?
Customer Acquisition Cost: Total marketing spend ÷ number of new customers
Bounce Rate & Time on Page: Are visitors finding what they expected when they clicked?

Quick Example – The Misleading Traffic Spike: A marketing agency got excited about a 400% traffic increase after their post was featured in a newsletter.

But looking deeper, they found 90% of these visitors left within 10 seconds, generated zero leads, and came from regions they didn’t even serve. Meanwhile, they missed that a simple case study page was quietly turning 15% of its visitors into leads – three times better than their site average.

Schedule a monthly “data review” where you question your assumptions and look for evidence that your current strategy might need adjusting.

Mistake 10: Copying Others Without Understanding Why

What happens: You see successful competitors and try to copy what they’re doing without understanding the strategy behind it.

You copy surface-level things (content style, design, messaging) without the foundation that made the original effective.

Why It Happens: Successful marketing looks simple from the outside. It’s easier to imitate what you can see than to develop your own strategies based on your unique position and customer research.

Fix: Do “smart reverse-engineering” rather than blind copying. Here’s how:

Study multiple examples: Look for patterns across 3-5 successful competitors rather than copying just one
Ask “why”: Think about why a particular approach works for them – is it their audience, positioning, or something else?
Identify what NOT to copy: Some elements may only work for their specific brand or resources
Adapt to your situation: How can you apply similar principles while staying true to your unique position?
Improve, don’t imitate: Add your unique perspective to make it distinctly yours

When studying competitors, pay special attention to their customer testimonials, which reveal what their audience truly values – information you can use to make your approach different.

Is it bad to copy what successful brands do? Getting ideas from successful strategies is smart, but direct copying shows your audience you lack originality.

The best approach is to understand the principles behind successful campaigns, then apply those principles in ways that fit your brand and speak to your specific audience.

Conclusion: Everyone Makes Mistakes — But You Don’t Have to Repeat Them

Everyone makes mistakes when learning digital marketing – it’s just part of the process.

The difference between those who struggle and those who succeed isn’t avoiding mistakes completely, but learning from them quickly.

The big lessons from our top mistakes are clear: focus your efforts on one thing at a time, plan before you act, start simple, and let data guide you – but always question that data.

Remember that even “overnight success” stories usually come after years of learning behind the scenes.

Give yourself permission to start small, make mistakes, and keep improving your approach.

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