5 Marketing Mistakes That Are Sabotaging Your Growth

Several years ago my husband and I moved to a college town in Wisconsin and I fell in love with a 1920s colonial house I found . My husband, not so much . He's a turnkey residence kind of guy , and to say that this house needed some work was an understatement .

Literally every room of the house had an issue , mostly smaller issues , but literally every room had something going wrong with it . But because my husband was working on finishing his doctoral dissertation , working full-time and trying to get tenure at the university , a lot of the fixing up fell on me , who can barely hammer a nail straight .

So my lifeline was calling my dad , who lived in another state . He was incredibly handy and typically walked me through the steps to do any number of things , from replacing double-hung window weights to changing out a light fixture . But after telling me how to do it , he would usually say be careful so you don't do this thing .

And then he lists the common mistakes that people make when they're doing it . And honestly , I probably make those mistakes anyway , and sometimes I didn't even realize I made the error until the light didn't work or the window didn't close . That's how I see marketing too .

It's easy to make common mistakes and sometimes you don't even know that you've actually made the mistake at all , until it's too late . Over the years , I've worked with a lot of small business owners and I tend to see the same errors over and over again no judgment . There's a reason why there are common marketing mistakes .

After all , marketing is about testing , revising and trying again . I wanted to hit on these five common marketing mistakes and how to fix them , and be sure to stay to the end to find out how to get a couple of free tools that will help you out . So , before we get started , ask yourself this question .

On a scale from one to five, how effective is the marketing that you're doing right now ? If it's less than a four or five , it could be that you're falling into one of these traps . So here are the five most common mistakes I see business owners make

. Mistake number one not getting narrow enough with your ideal customer avatar . Why is it a problem ? When you try to market to everyone, everyone tunes out . Your ideal customer avatar , or ICA , is a fictitious person that is the best customer for each offer .

I have a free download for determining who that is for you and I'll put the link in the show notes , but it is scary to go narrow , I get it . It feels a little unwise to focus so tightly on a single avatar when you really want to sell to anyone with a credit card . But remember, your ICA is your goal . Others will come along .

Let me tell you the story of the retailer Anthropologie . They , like many big retailers , know exactly who their avatar is . They know she is well-traveled , she spends a lot of money where she lives , what she reads , what she likes to do on weekends , they'll tell you quote most stores cater to a broad base of customers or specialize in a product category .

We specialize in one customer and we offer her everything from clothes to bed linens , to furniture , to soap . They've even named their avatar Julia . So when they're looking at purchasing for their stores , or even paint colors or clothing or dishes , they ask themselves is this what Julia would like ? That's the power of an ideal customer avatar .

And let me tell you it works for this successful retailer . But here's the thing, I also shop at Anthropologie , even though I don't make as much money as their avatar , and I'm older than their avatar . So does my daughter . Their avatar likes cooking , gardening and wine . I kind of like to cook , but I'm a horrible gardener and I rarely drink at all .

So even though they have determined their avatar , anyone is welcome in the store . They won't turn me away and not accept my purchases . But when their ideal customer comes in , that person will feel like the store was made just for them . That's the idea behind an avatar . You will leave some people out .

Nobody sells to everyone but you get to decide who that is and that will attract that particular ICA like a magnet . That's the power of going narrow . Okay , moving along . Mistake number two: talking about the product instead of the problem . People don't buy products , they buy solutions . Look , I get it .

You have an amazing product or service and you know it can help people . But I like to think about the old adage from Theodore Roosevelt who said people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care . That's true in sales too .

If they know you understand the problem they have and the pain they feel , they're going to be a whole lot more receptive to the solution you have . In copywriting, there's a formula I like to use called AIDA , a-i-d-a . It stands for Attention , interest , desire , action . I use this whenever I'm writing any kind of copy , for any ad , for any landing page , etc .

So here's what it stands for, the attention phase . You need to get their attention . That could easily just be the problem they're experiencing , something like , are you frustrated with low Instagram engagement or counting calories and you're still not losing weight ? These problem-focused headlines will hook their attention of the person who is struggling with that problem .

Perfect . Next is interest . At this point , it's tell me more . They want to know how you'd help them . This is a good place to put facts . Pique their interest by providing information that's relevant and engaging . This could involve sharing statistics or stories that connect with their needs . Then desire .

Now it's time to focus on building a strong desire for your product or service . You need to highlight the benefits and how it can solve their problem or fulfill their desires . Paint a picture of what their life will look like after buying your offer . Something like you'll never need to count calories again with this new method . And then , finally , action .

This final stage encourages them to take a specific action , such as making a purchase or signing up for your freebie . This is where you can provide a clear call to action . So did you notice how far along I got before I started talking about the offer ? It wasn't until the desire stage of the process .

When you hit first on their problem and the pain you solve , it will get people's attention faster than talking about your solution . Also , there are a number of copywriting solutions . That's just the one I use most often , but with any of them , if you can lead with the transformation you provide , you'll get their attention and keep it . Okay .

Moving along to mistake number three: trying to be on every social media platform . Why is that a problem ? Because it dilutes effort and causes overwhelm . When I opened my first business , a design firm , I jumped on every social media platform that existed at the time and I immediately regretted it . Why ?

Because overwhelm is the real enemy of a small business owner and because my ideal customer isn't on every platform . So why am I spending time and money if you have a team creating content for you on the wrong customer ? No matter who you are , you only have a finite number of hours in the day and finite money in the bank .

Business is all about identifying your ICA and focusing on that one avatar for each offer . For social media , I recommend only one to two platforms . The one where your ICA spends the most time .

If you're not sure what platform that is , you may have to test a few to see where they are , but then settle on those one to two platforms and focus your energy there . And here's another tip . We spend a lot of time trying to reach new audiences with social media .

Remember to start with the audience that you already own your email list before diving into trends . The adage never build on rented land applies to growing a huge social media audience that could go away overnight with one tweak of an algorithm . I have seen it happen . Focus more time on driving traffic to your website , your offer and your email list .

Okay , mistake number four: ignoring data and analytics . Oof , why is it a problem ? Because you can't improve what you don't measure . I am definitely not a numbers girl , so I wanted to make sure and put this one in here , because it's the one I like to ignore too .

But the numbers tell a story of what's working and what's not working , and we can't make decisions without that information . Checking analytics can be something that's easy to forget . That's why I put an analytics report day on my calendar for my own business and for each of my fractional CMO clients .

Here's what I pay attention to Look at Google Analytics or other analytics platforms to see website traffic . Look at the total visitors that you've had , the top pages that's drawing them in , visitors that you've had the top pages that's drawing them in . And the traffic sources . Where are they finding you On search , social email or something else ?

Then , email performance . Take a look at the open rate . Are your subject lines grabbing attention ? How's the click-through rate ? Are people clicking on it and going to your website and engaging with your content ? And what's the unsubscribe rate like ? Are you losing subscribers after a specific type of content ? Those are all really good things to know .

Next , social media engagement . What are your top performing posts ? How is your follower growth ? Are you gaining or losing ? And how many of your posts are actually driving traffic to your website ? Next , sales and leads . Take a look at new leads or subscribers . Did your lead magnet or call to action work ? Did your conversions work ?

Did a campaign or a piece of content result in a sale ? And then , of course , if you're running ads , you want to pay attention to the analytics for that and the return on investment that you're getting . Getting in the habit of checking this data will help your marketing stay on track and help you know how changes that you're making are being received .

It's like brushing your teeth , just you don't have to do it twice a day . Just get in the habit of doing it and put it on your calendar and it's done . Right , all right . Mistake number five , the last one, doing random acts of marketing , which means you don't have a strategy . Why is it a problem ?

This leads to burnout , confusion and wasted time and money . I see this so often with small businesses . So if this is you , you're not alone . Without a marketing strategy , we tend to do whatever seems like we'll bring in business .

You might run an ad , do social media and maybe attend a networking event or maybe send out a press release , but none of those are going to be part of an orchestrated effort and sales are unlikely to happen without a plan in place . It kind of just becomes marketing soup . Every tactic should support a stage of the customer journey .

Create a clear , consistent strategy using my Trail to the Sale framework . This framework is built on something that doesn't change the customer's journey . It's not based on trends , it's not based on tactics . It's based on research and human behavior .

It's focused on how people buy and the steps they take at every step of their journey , from discovering they have a problem until they buy and refer to others . I have a free download for that and I'll put the link to that one in the show notes for today as well . Okay , so I hope I've hit on something that you're doing and that this has helped .

As I said earlier , no shame , this is just more about awareness and knowing where to turn next . We have all made one or more of these mistakes . For more information about anything we talked about today , including the free downloads , visit myweeklymarketingcom . Forward slash 116 . That's episode 116 .

Thank you so much for joining me today . I'll see you next time . Bye for now .