One of the reasons that we love interactive marketing so much is the speed with which we can create, update, and maintain website content, email marketing pieces — items that will potentially reach hundreds or thousands of people in the blink of an eye.
The unfortunate part is that this love of speed often carries over into the production and implementation process and can lead to careless mistakes that do exponentially more damage than the two hour delay of doing extra testing or proofreading ever would.
And, let’s be honest, we’ve all fallen into this ‘trap’ at some point or another. We sacrifice our process in order for faster delivery. We proofread the content or do all of the beta testing by ourselves… and something eventually slips through (CNN Sloppy Mistake | ESPN Sloppy Mistake).
Some of these common avoidable mistakes include:
- Missing images
- Broken links
- Incorrect grammar
- Typos
Not only are these embarrassing mistakes when they make it into the live environment, but they are damaging mistakes. Unless you are a huge mega-brand, you run the risk of driving away your users since these mistakes are completely unprofessional looking. They also often destroy or end the user’s experience with your marketing piece. A broken link or poor proofreading will often lead to a closed page or a deleted email message.
Avoiding these small disasters is actually fairly simple…
- Don’t let speed blind you
- Let your extended team members (copywriters, proofreaders, testers) do their jobs
- Stick to the process that you originally defined and don’t try to cut corners
The development and implementation processes that you have defined should help keep you on track. These processes are the foundation of a successful interactive project. Keeping them close in hand or mind and making sure to constantly revise them as you continue to learn more will lead to the right pieces of the puzzle being put into place at the right time.
Don’t let these sloppy mistakes damage your marketing or your brand.
