July 14, 2025 • 13 mins
If your marketing feels busy but not effective, you might be making a few common missteps without even realizing it. In this episode, I walk through five marketing mistakes that could be holding back your growth, from targeting too broad of an audience to spreading your efforts thin across too many platforms.
I’ll explain why narrowing your ideal customer avatar helps your message land better, and how talking about solutions instead of problems often misses the mark. We’ll also explore how to turn scattered marketing efforts into a more strategic, connected journey.
With simple frameworks and real-life examples, this episode will help you spot what’s not working and make small changes that lead to big improvements.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Janice Hostager (00:04):
I'm Janice Hostager.
After three decades in themarketing business and many
years of being an entrepreneur,I've learned a thing or two
about marketing.
Join me as we talk aboutmarketing, small business and
life in between.
Welcome to My Weekly Marketing.
(00:33):
Several years ago my husband andI moved to a college town in
Wisconsin and I fell in lovewith a 1920s colonial house I
found.
My husband, not so much.
He's a turnkey residence kindof guy, and to say that this
house needed some work was anunderstatement.
Literally every room of thehouse had an issue, mostly
smaller issues, but literallyevery room had something going
(00:55):
wrong with it.
But because my husband wasworking on finishing his
doctoral dissertation, workingfull-time and trying to get
tenure at the university, a lotof the fixing up fell on me, who
can barely hammer a nailstraight.
So my lifeline was calling mydad, who lived in another state.
He was incredibly handy andtypically walked me through the
(01:17):
steps to do any number of things, from replacing double-hung
window weights to changing out alight fixture.
But after telling me how to doit, he would usually say be
careful so you don't do thisthing.
And then he lists the commonmistakes that people make when
they're doing it.
And honestly, I probably makethose mistakes anyway, and
(01:38):
sometimes I didn't even realizeI made the error until the light
didn't work or the windowdidn't close.
That's how I see marketing too.
It's easy to make commonmistakes and sometimes you don't
even know that you've actuallymade the mistake at all, until
it's too late.
Over the years, I've worked witha lot of small business owners
and I tend to see the sameerrors over and over again no
(02:01):
judgment.
There's a reason why there arecommon marketing mistakes.
After all, marketing is abouttesting, revising and trying
again.
I wanted to hit on these fivecommon marketing mistakes and
how to fix them, and be sure tostay to the end to find out how
to get a couple of free toolsthat will help you out.
So, before we get started, askyourself this question.
(02:22):
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 orfive, it could be that you're
falling into one of these traps.
So here are the five mostcommon mistakes I see business
owners make.
Mistake number one not gettingnarrow enough with your ideal
customer avatar.
Why is it a problem?
(02:43):
When you try to market toeveryone, everyone tunes out.
Your ideal customer avatar, orICA, is a fictitious person that
is the best customer for eachoffer.
I have a free download fordetermining who that is for you
and I'll put the link in theshow notes, but it is scary to
go narrow, I get it.
It feels a little unwise tofocus so tightly on a single
(03:06):
avatar when you really want tosell to anyone with a credit
card.
But remember, your ICA is yourgoal.
Others will come along.
Let me tell you the story of theretailer 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
(03:27):
she lives, what she reads, whatshe likes to do on weekends,
they'll tell you quote moststores cater to a broad base of
customers or specialize in aproduct category.
We specialize in one customerand we offer her everything from
clothes to bed linens, tofurniture, to soap.
They've even named their avatarJulia.
(03:47):
So when they're looking atpurchasing for their stores, or
even paint colors or clothing ordishes, they ask themselves is
this what Julia would like?
That's the power of an idealcustomer avatar.
And let me tell you it worksfor this successful retailer.
But here's the thing, I alsoshop at Anthropologie, even
(04:08):
though I don't make as muchmoney 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'ma horrible gardener and I
rarely drink at all.
So even though they havedetermined their avatar, anyone
is welcome in the store.
They won't turn me away and notaccept my purchases.
(04:29):
But when their ideal customercomes in, that person will feel
like the store was made just forthem.
That's the idea behind anavatar.
You will leave some people out.
Nobody sells to everyone butyou get to decide who that is
and that will attract thatparticular ICA like a magnet.
That's the power of goingnarrow.
(04:50):
Okay, moving along.
Mistake number two (04:53):
talking about the product instead of the
problem.
People don't buy products, theybuy solutions.
Look, I get it.
You have an amazing product orservice and you know it can help
people.
But I like to think about theold adage from Theodore
Roosevelt who said people don'tcare how much you know until
(05:13):
they know how much you care.
That's true in sales too.
If they know you understand theproblem they have and the pain
they feel, they're going to be awhole lot more receptive to the
solution you have.
In copywriting, there's aformula I like to use called
AIDA, a-i-d-a.
It stands for Attention,interest, desire, action.
I use this whenever I'm writingany kind of copy, for any ad,
(05:37):
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 theproblem they're experiencing,
something like, are youfrustrated with low Instagram
engagement or counting caloriesand you're still not losing
weight?
These problem-focused headlineswill hook their attention of
(05:59):
the person who is strugglingwith that problem.
Perfect.
Next is interest.
At this point, it's tell memore.
They want to know how you'dhelp them.
This is a good place to putfacts.
Pique their interest byproviding information that's
relevant and engaging.
This could involve sharingstatistics or stories that
(06:19):
connect with their needs.
Then desire.
Now it's time to focus onbuilding a strong desire for
your product or service.
You need to highlight thebenefits and how it can solve
their problem or fulfill theirdesires.
Paint a picture of what theirlife will look like after buying
your offer.
Something like you'll neverneed to count calories again
(06:41):
with this new method.
And then, finally, action.
This final stage encouragesthem to take a specific action,
such as making a purchase orsigning up for your freebie.
This is where you can provide aclear call to action.
So did you notice how far alongI got before I started talking
about the offer?
It wasn't until the desirestage of the process.
(07:03):
When you hit first on theirproblem and the pain you solve,
it will get people's attentionfaster than talking about your
solution.
Also, there are a number ofcopywriting solutions.
That's just the one I use mostoften, but with any of them, if
you can lead with thetransformation you provide,
you'll get their attention andkeep it.
Okay.
(07:23):
Moving along to mistake numberthree: trying to be on every
social media platform.
Why is that a problem?
Because it dilutes effort andcauses overwhelm.
When I opened my first business, a design firm, I jumped on
every social media platform thatexisted at the time and I
immediately regretted it.
Why?
(07:43):
Because overwhelm is the realenemy of a small business owner
and because my ideal customerisn't on every platform.
So why am I spending time andmoney if you have a team
creating content for you on thewrong customer?
No matter who you are, you onlyhave a finite number of hours
in the day and finite money inthe bank.
(08:05):
Business is all aboutidentifying your ICA and
focusing on that one avatar foreach offer.
For social media, I recommendonly one to two platforms.
The one where your ICA spendsthe most time.
If you're not sure whatplatform that is, you may have
to test a few to see where theyare, but then settle on those
one to two platforms and focusyour energy there.
(08:27):
And here's another tip.
We spend a lot of time tryingto reach new audiences with
social media.
Remember to start with theaudience that you already own
your email list before divinginto trends.
The adage never build on rentedland applies to growing a huge
social media audience that couldgo away overnight with one
(08:47):
tweak of an algorithm.
I have seen it happen.
Focus more time on drivingtraffic to your website, your
offer and your email list.
Okay, mistake number four: ignoring data and analytics. (08:57):
undefined
Oof, why is it a problem?
Because you can't improve whatyou don't measure.
I am definitely not a numbersgirl, 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 ofwhat's working and what's not
(09:17):
working, and we can't makedecisions without that
information.
Checking analytics can besomething that's easy to forget.
That's why I put an analyticsreport day on my calendar for my
own business and for each of myfractional CMO clients.
Here's what I pay attention toLook at Google Analytics or
other analytics platforms to seewebsite traffic.
(09:40):
Look at the total visitors thatyou've had, the top pages that's
drawing them in, visitors thatyou've had the top pages that's
drawing them in.
And the traffic sources.
Where are they finding you Onsearch, social email or
something else?
Then, email performance.
Take a look at the open rate.
Are your subject lines grabbingattention?
How's the click-through rate?
(10:01):
Are people clicking on it andgoing to your website and
engaging with your content?
And what's the unsubscribe ratelike?
Are you losing subscribersafter a specific type of content
?
Those are all really goodthings to know.
Next, social media engagement.
What are your top performingposts?
How is your follower growth?
Are you gaining or losing?
(10:22):
And how many of your posts areactually driving traffic to your
website?
Next, sales and leads.
Take a look at new leads orsubscribers.
Did your lead magnet or call toaction work?
Did your conversions work?
Did a campaign or a piece ofcontent result in a sale?
And then, of course, if you'rerunning ads, you want to pay
(10:45):
attention to the analytics forthat and the return on
investment that you're getting.
Getting in the habit ofchecking this data will help
your marketing stay on track andhelp 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 doingit and put it on your calendar
and it's done.
(11:05):
Right, all right.
Mistake number five, the lastone, doing random acts of
marketing, which means you don'thave a strategy.
Why is it a problem?
This leads to burnout,confusion and wasted time and
money.
I see this so often with smallbusinesses.
So if this is you, you're notalone.
(11:25):
Without a marketing strategy,we tend to do whatever seems
like we'll bring in business.
You might run an ad, do socialmedia and maybe attend a
networking event or maybe sendout a press release, but none of
those are going to be part ofan orchestrated effort and sales
are unlikely to happen withouta plan in place.
It kind of just becomesmarketing soup.
(11:48):
Every tactic should support astage of the customer journey.
Create a clear, consistentstrategy using my Trail to the
Sale framework.
This framework is built onsomething that doesn't change
the customer's journey.
It's not based on trends, it'snot based on tactics.
It's based on research andhuman behavior.
It's focused on how people buyand the steps they take at every
(12:11):
step of their journey, fromdiscovering they have a problem
until they buy and refer toothers.
I have a free download for thatand I'll put the link to that
one in the show notes for todayas well.
Okay, so I hope I've hit onsomething that you're doing and
that this has helped.
As I said earlier, no shame,this is just more about
(12:32):
awareness and knowing where toturn next.
We have all made one or more ofthese mistakes.
For more information aboutanything we talked about today,
including the free downloads,visit myweeklymarketingcom.
Forward slash 116.
That's episode 116.
Thank you so much for joiningme today.
I'll see you next time.
(12:53):
Bye for now.
I'm Janice Hostager.
After three decades in themarketing business and many
years of being an entrepreneur,I've learned a thing or two
about marketing.
Join me as we talk aboutmarketing, small business and
life in between.
Welcome to My Weekly Marketing.
(00:33):
Several years ago my husband andI moved to a college town in
Wisconsin and I fell in lovewith a 1920s colonial house I
found.
My husband, not so much.
He's a turnkey residence kindof guy, and to say that this
house needed some work was anunderstatement.
Literally every room of thehouse had an issue, mostly
smaller issues, but literallyevery room had something going
(00:55):
wrong with it.
But because my husband wasworking on finishing his
doctoral dissertation, workingfull-time and trying to get
tenure at the university, a lotof the fixing up fell on me, who
can barely hammer a nailstraight.
So my lifeline was calling mydad, who lived in another state.
He was incredibly handy andtypically walked me through the
(01:17):
steps to do any number of things, from replacing double-hung
window weights to changing out alight fixture.
But after telling me how to doit, he would usually say be
careful so you don't do thisthing.
And then he lists the commonmistakes that people make when
they're doing it.
And honestly, I probably makethose mistakes anyway, and
(01:38):
sometimes I didn't even realizeI made the error until the light
didn't work or the windowdidn't close.
That's how I see marketing too.
It's easy to make commonmistakes and sometimes you don't
even know that you've actuallymade the mistake at all, until
it's too late.
Over the years, I've worked witha lot of small business owners
and I tend to see the sameerrors over and over again no
(02:01):
judgment.
There's a reason why there arecommon marketing mistakes.
After all, marketing is abouttesting, revising and trying
again.
I wanted to hit on these fivecommon marketing mistakes and
how to fix them, and be sure tostay to the end to find out how
to get a couple of free toolsthat will help you out.
So, before we get started, askyourself this question.
(02:22):
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 orfive, it could be that you're
falling into one of these traps.
So here are the five mostcommon mistakes I see business
owners make.
Mistake number one not gettingnarrow enough with your ideal
customer avatar.
Why is it a problem?
(02:43):
When you try to market toeveryone, everyone tunes out.
Your ideal customer avatar, orICA, is a fictitious person that
is the best customer for eachoffer.
I have a free download fordetermining who that is for you
and I'll put the link in theshow notes, but it is scary to
go narrow, I get it.
It feels a little unwise tofocus so tightly on a single
(03:06):
avatar when you really want tosell to anyone with a credit
card.
But remember, your ICA is yourgoal.
Others will come along.
Let me tell you the story of theretailer 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
(03:27):
she lives, what she reads, whatshe likes to do on weekends,
they'll tell you quote moststores cater to a broad base of
customers or specialize in aproduct category.
We specialize in one customerand we offer her everything from
clothes to bed linens, tofurniture, to soap.
They've even named their avatarJulia.
(03:47):
So when they're looking atpurchasing for their stores, or
even paint colors or clothing ordishes, they ask themselves is
this what Julia would like?
That's the power of an idealcustomer avatar.
And let me tell you it worksfor this successful retailer.
But here's the thing, I alsoshop at Anthropologie, even
(04:08):
though I don't make as muchmoney 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'ma horrible gardener and I
rarely drink at all.
So even though they havedetermined their avatar, anyone
is welcome in the store.
They won't turn me away and notaccept my purchases.
(04:29):
But when their ideal customercomes in, that person will feel
like the store was made just forthem.
That's the idea behind anavatar.
You will leave some people out.
Nobody sells to everyone butyou get to decide who that is
and that will attract thatparticular ICA like a magnet.
That's the power of goingnarrow.
(04:50):
Okay, moving along.
Mistake number two (04:53):
talking about the product instead of the
problem.
People don't buy products, theybuy solutions.
Look, I get it.
You have an amazing product orservice and you know it can help
people.
But I like to think about theold adage from Theodore
Roosevelt who said people don'tcare how much you know until
(05:13):
they know how much you care.
That's true in sales too.
If they know you understand theproblem they have and the pain
they feel, they're going to be awhole lot more receptive to the
solution you have.
In copywriting, there's aformula I like to use called
AIDA, a-i-d-a.
It stands for Attention,interest, desire, action.
I use this whenever I'm writingany kind of copy, for any ad,
(05:37):
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 theproblem they're experiencing,
something like, are youfrustrated with low Instagram
engagement or counting caloriesand you're still not losing
weight?
These problem-focused headlineswill hook their attention of
(05:59):
the person who is strugglingwith that problem.
Perfect.
Next is interest.
At this point, it's tell memore.
They want to know how you'dhelp them.
This is a good place to putfacts.
Pique their interest byproviding information that's
relevant and engaging.
This could involve sharingstatistics or stories that
(06:19):
connect with their needs.
Then desire.
Now it's time to focus onbuilding a strong desire for
your product or service.
You need to highlight thebenefits and how it can solve
their problem or fulfill theirdesires.
Paint a picture of what theirlife will look like after buying
your offer.
Something like you'll neverneed to count calories again
(06:41):
with this new method.
And then, finally, action.
This final stage encouragesthem to take a specific action,
such as making a purchase orsigning up for your freebie.
This is where you can provide aclear call to action.
So did you notice how far alongI got before I started talking
about the offer?
It wasn't until the desirestage of the process.
(07:03):
When you hit first on theirproblem and the pain you solve,
it will get people's attentionfaster than talking about your
solution.
Also, there are a number ofcopywriting solutions.
That's just the one I use mostoften, but with any of them, if
you can lead with thetransformation you provide,
you'll get their attention andkeep it.
Okay.
(07:23):
Moving along to mistake numberthree: trying to be on every
social media platform.
Why is that a problem?
Because it dilutes effort andcauses overwhelm.
When I opened my first business, a design firm, I jumped on
every social media platform thatexisted at the time and I
immediately regretted it.
Why?
(07:43):
Because overwhelm is the realenemy of a small business owner
and because my ideal customerisn't on every platform.
So why am I spending time andmoney if you have a team
creating content for you on thewrong customer?
No matter who you are, you onlyhave a finite number of hours
in the day and finite money inthe bank.
(08:05):
Business is all aboutidentifying your ICA and
focusing on that one avatar foreach offer.
For social media, I recommendonly one to two platforms.
The one where your ICA spendsthe most time.
If you're not sure whatplatform that is, you may have
to test a few to see where theyare, but then settle on those
one to two platforms and focusyour energy there.
(08:27):
And here's another tip.
We spend a lot of time tryingto reach new audiences with
social media.
Remember to start with theaudience that you already own
your email list before divinginto trends.
The adage never build on rentedland applies to growing a huge
social media audience that couldgo away overnight with one
(08:47):
tweak of an algorithm.
I have seen it happen.
Focus more time on drivingtraffic to your website, your
offer and your email list.
Okay, mistake number four: ignoring data and analytics. (08:57):
undefined
Oof, why is it a problem?
Because you can't improve whatyou don't measure.
I am definitely not a numbersgirl, 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 ofwhat's working and what's not
(09:17):
working, and we can't makedecisions without that
information.
Checking analytics can besomething that's easy to forget.
That's why I put an analyticsreport day on my calendar for my
own business and for each of myfractional CMO clients.
Here's what I pay attention toLook at Google Analytics or
other analytics platforms to seewebsite traffic.
(09:40):
Look at the total visitors thatyou've had, the top pages that's
drawing them in, visitors thatyou've had the top pages that's
drawing them in.
And the traffic sources.
Where are they finding you Onsearch, social email or
something else?
Then, email performance.
Take a look at the open rate.
Are your subject lines grabbingattention?
How's the click-through rate?
(10:01):
Are people clicking on it andgoing to your website and
engaging with your content?
And what's the unsubscribe ratelike?
Are you losing subscribersafter a specific type of content
?
Those are all really goodthings to know.
Next, social media engagement.
What are your top performingposts?
How is your follower growth?
Are you gaining or losing?
(10:22):
And how many of your posts areactually driving traffic to your
website?
Next, sales and leads.
Take a look at new leads orsubscribers.
Did your lead magnet or call toaction work?
Did your conversions work?
Did a campaign or a piece ofcontent result in a sale?
And then, of course, if you'rerunning ads, you want to pay
(10:45):
attention to the analytics forthat and the return on
investment that you're getting.
Getting in the habit ofchecking this data will help
your marketing stay on track andhelp 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 doingit and put it on your calendar
and it's done.
(11:05):
Right, all right.
Mistake number five, the lastone, doing random acts of
marketing, which means you don'thave a strategy.
Why is it a problem?
This leads to burnout,confusion and wasted time and
money.
I see this so often with smallbusinesses.
So if this is you, you're notalone.
(11:25):
Without a marketing strategy,we tend to do whatever seems
like we'll bring in business.
You might run an ad, do socialmedia and maybe attend a
networking event or maybe sendout a press release, but none of
those are going to be part ofan orchestrated effort and sales
are unlikely to happen withouta plan in place.
It kind of just becomesmarketing soup.
(11:48):
Every tactic should support astage of the customer journey.
Create a clear, consistentstrategy using my Trail to the
Sale framework.
This framework is built onsomething that doesn't change
the customer's journey.
It's not based on trends, it'snot based on tactics.
It's based on research andhuman behavior.
It's focused on how people buyand the steps they take at every
(12:11):
step of their journey, fromdiscovering they have a problem
until they buy and refer toothers.
I have a free download for thatand I'll put the link to that
one in the show notes for todayas well.
Okay, so I hope I've hit onsomething that you're doing and
that this has helped.
As I said earlier, no shame,this is just more about
(12:32):
awareness and knowing where toturn next.
We have all made one or more ofthese mistakes.
For more information aboutanything we talked about today,
including the free downloads,visit myweeklymarketingcom.
Forward slash 116.
That's episode 116.
Thank you so much for joiningme today.
I'll see you next time.
(12:53):
Bye for now.
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