Even though mobile sales are outstripping PC sales, and over half of social media users are using mobile – and probably one third to half of your audience is using mobile to read your email messages, so many marketers are making serious mobile marketing mistakes. Thankfully, you can avoid these issues if you think ahead. Here are ten common mistakes to avoid:

1. Creating Complicated Opt-in Processes – You can always get more information from customers later, but creating an easy and streamlined opt-in process is super important with mobile. When a customer is using a finger instead of a keyboard to click boxes and type in information, they will become frustrated if the procedure is too complicated. Make it easy; remember that less is more.

2. Not Ensuring Links Work for Mobile – When you send any email link, it’s imperative that you assume it will be read on a mobile device and that the link works no matter which device your audience member is using. Can the user click through easily and then does the website work well using any device? Can the user get around the navigation?

3. Not Being Targeted in Your Actions – Know why you’re sending any message or putting any content up for anyone to consume, and know to whom you’re sending it. You can use your email and website metrics to determine which devices your audience uses so that you can ensure that any user using any device can access the info and understands why they should.

4. Not Understanding Laws, Rules and Regulations – Like with most things to do with marketing, there are laws, rules and regulations. Ensure that you become familiar with these laws so that you don’t break any of them. Opt-in regulations and privacy concerns are important to most people, and they should be to you too.

5. Using Too Much Text for the Space – Remember the size of most mobile devices is about 3.3 inches of space. If that small space is overrun with text and your user has to stretch and scroll around to read the content, they’re going to get frustrated and give up. There are ways to optimize your content within the code to ensure that it automatically adjusts based on the device your audience is using.

6. Not Creating Ongoing Value for Customers – As important as access is creating value. When you create an app, for example, if you don’t want to lose that customer eventually it’s important to remind the user about the app by offering updates, extensions and more to anyone who has downloaded it. The value of a long-term customer cannot be underestimated.

7. Not Knowing Your Purpose before Sending a Message – Any message must have a point for being. Is it to get more opt-ins? Is it to get more sales? What is the purpose of the message and how can you be sure that your audience understands the purpose quickly?

8. Building an App without a Planning for Marketing – Apps are a great way to involve yourself in the mobile marketing landscape; however, creating an app is like creating a whole other business. You not only need to create the app, but you also need a marketing plan for the app if you want to be successful.

9. Not Having Clear Calls to Action – Once you know the purpose of a message, it’s imperative that you craft clear calls to action. Sometimes you may need to test different CTAs to find out which works best for your audience.

10. Treating Mobile as a Separate Entity – While mobile is a huge consideration and should be for anyone who wants to market online today, it’s also important to remember that mobile devices are simply tools with which to access your content. Much like different browsers, different devices have different code requirements. Thankfully, though, by using HTML5 and responsive coding, you can make your websites work for all devices seamlessly.

Avoiding these common mobile marketing mistakes will help you become a winner in the online marketing game, which is increasingly becoming more mobile. Don’t avoid the statistics when bringing your marketing campaigns into the present. Otherwise you’re going to be leaving money on the table.

Successful mobile marketers share many characteristics with other successful marketers – such as the ability to stay ahead of their market, understanding their audience, knowing their niche inside and out, and then knowing how to impart their message onto the world in a unique way that resonates with their audience.

1. They Listen to Their Audience – No marketer worth their salt will ignore their audience. Everything they do is about the audience, from product creation, to services they choose to provide, to promotions they push out to their audience. It’s all about them, so they find ways to listen from watching via social media, to surveys, to being involved with the community.

2. They Know How to Be Authentic – Successful people in general seem to draw others to them in a way that seems almost supernatural. But, the truth is, they just know how to appear authentic. You can appear authentic too by actually being authentically you. If you’re not sure who that is yet, devote some time to self-discovery.

3. They Use Personalization – All marketing works better when it’s more personal. What’s more is that it doesn’t matter that people know that a lot of personalization is now automated. Consumers still respond better to personalization. So, the more personal you can be with your audience, the more successful you will be.

4. They Ensure Each Message Is Relevant – Don’t just send out messages to get a message sent out. This is a mistake that content-centric marketing often causes. You do want a lot of content on a regular basis, but you also want content that has a point with a relevant message.

5. They Are Always Unique – This isn’t to say you can’t use PLR or get ideas from others, but you must put your own unique and personalized touch on every bit of content that you put out to the world along with your products and services.

6. They Update Content Consistently – Sending out content on a consistent and expected basis is one of the keys to maintaining audience appeal. If that content is also relevant, speaks to the audience, and has a point, you’ll be even more compelling and successful.

7. They Make It Simple for Their Audience – Mobile devices are harder to use than a PC since mostly people are using fingers on a small keypad or more commonly a touchpad. Asking your audience to enter too much information will only cause them to stall in their purchases and consumption of your content.

8. They Pay Attention to Trends – Successful mobile marketers keep one ear to the ground at all times in order to pay specific attention to niche trends in regard to mobile marketing. They read industry news, learn all they can about mobile marketing and how it affects their niche and their audience.

9. They Are Mobile Obsessed – Instead of making mobile an afterthought, successful mobile markets are focused first on mobile and then everything else. After all, good design is good design. If it works well on mobile it will work well via PCs too.

If you want to be a highly successful mobile marketer, it’s imperative to incorporate these nine habits into your life as a mobile marketer. In fact, most of these habits can be important for any type of marketing.