How This One Silly Mistake Is Simply KILLING Your Marketing!

I want to tell you about a mistake I've observed that most businesses and marketers make while planning their marketing activities.

Whether it's running ads, partnering with influencers, or posting organic content, this mistake is simply killing their marketing efforts—and it may be happening to you as well.

In the next 4 minutes, I’ll show you what this mistake is and how you can ensure results with any marketing activity by simply fixing it.

[Note: As you read, if you find yourself making this mistake, trust me, it will change your perspective on marketing forever. Because in the end, you’re selling to human beings.]

All right, let’s get into it.

The reason we do marketing is straightforward: to get people to know our brand and convert them into paying customers.

Often, we think our product solves everyone's problem, and therefore, everyone is our audience. We believe there’s no need to have any audience biases.

Makes sense, right? If everybody is our audience, we’ll make more impact and more money.

BUT… Reality Check -> That doesn’t happen. IT’S FAKE.

You’re simply going down a rabbit hole and burning money, thinking you’ll make money by selling to everyone.

Some of you might argue saying...

“Brands like Coca-Cola market to everyone, and they make money out of it. How can you say they are wasting money on mass marketing?”

Good question.

The answer is that they are a well-established brand with millions of dollars in ad budgets. They can blanket the whole market without worrying about losing money.

Let’s be honest; we don’t have millions of dollars in ad budgets, right? (At least, I don’t, and if you’re reading this, then probably you don’t either.)

To make money from our marketing, we need to speak to an audience that is willing and able to buy our product. Let me share a short story to demonstrate this.

In the 1960s, a motivational speaker who ran seminars selling his courses noticed a common theme in his audience. Most of his attendees were men with crew cuts (the haircuts done by army men). He noted this pattern.

The next month, before a seminar in Denver, he took a different approach that ended up increasing attendance.

Two weeks before the seminar, he visited multiple barber shops in Denver and asked the barbers to share the addresses and names of people who had recently gotten crew cuts (he paid for this information).

Once he had the addresses and names, he ran a direct mail campaign to those addresses, including a promotional offer for his seminar.

Guess what happened…

He dramatically boosted attendance.

The reason? He was targeting people who were able, willing, and wanted to buy his product.

That’s the key to maximizing ROI in marketing, and this is what most businesses ignore.

Remember, every business has an audience. Even local general stores, dentists, chiropractors, and carpenters have an audience.

Now you understand that we must only sell to people who are willing and able to buy our product. But that’s just the first half of the story.

The second half is understanding who your audience is:

• Who will buy this product?
• How do they communicate with each other?
• What are their dreams, desires, pains, and fears about our particular product?

You need to understand this before you sell your product.

Because once you understand who your audience is, the results will automatically improve your ads.

Think of it this way: When a person sees your ad or content, they must tell themselves...

“Ahh, this person understands me... I am currently facing this problem, and this person identifies it... they understand me perfectly.”

“This is the person I can trust.”

Now you might be asking, “How the hell do we understand our customers, especially in this online cluttered market where everyone is fighting for attention?”

Don’t worry.

I have shared six steps that you can use to identify who your audience is as fast as possible.

Step 1: Check Your Existing Reviews & Feedback

Every business has a goldmine of customer insights! Yet, many don’t utilize them effectively.

Gather feedback from your existing customers. Ask questions like:

• How was the product?
• Did you like it?
• What would you like to see more of in this product?
• What was missing in this product?
• What features need to be added to make this better?

Additional questions:

• What are your thoughts about the product?
• How did you feel while using it?
• What do you like about this product?
• What didn’t you like about this product?

Gathering feedback gives you insights into the problems you're solving and the desires of your customers.

Step 2: Check Your Competitor's Product Reviews

This might sound crazy, but trust me, it’s one of the best ways to understand your customers and how they speak (especially if you’re starting out or have insufficient data from your own customers).

Read your competitors' reviews and understand how their customers feel about their products. Pay attention to the language they use and how they communicate with each other. This can provide deeper insights into the market you're selling in.

Step 3: Check Product Reviews on Marketplaces like Amazon

One of my favourite ways to understand an audience is by reading feedback and comments on Amazon.

The best part? You get to see the most honest and brutal comments from your target audience.

For example, while researching for an e-commerce brand selling graphic T-shirts, I clicked on the best-selling T-shirt and learned why it was good and why it wasn’t.

Try it yourself and see what insights you can gather about your market and product.

Step 4: See, Read, and Understand Comments on Social Media Channels

Social media channels like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook are treasure troves of customer insights.

Read the comments under posts, reels, and videos related to your market. Take a close look at the conversations and sentiments being shared. This can be your own content or even your competitors'.

Step 5: Copy & Paste All of These into a Spreadsheet

This final step is crucial. Document and store all the conversations, feedback, reviews, and comments you observed in one place.

Storing everything in one place serves as a reference and eliminates any confusion when planning marketing campaigns. You can use Google Docs or Excel sheets—whatever you prefer.

Remember, you need to sell to audiences who are willing and able to buy your product. To do that, you need to understand them first. It’s key to your marketing success.

If you find these steps overwhelming, feel free to DM me. I’ll happily help you out.

Best,

Aaron

P.S. The story I shared above is real. The only catch is I forgot the person’s name. Anyway, I hope the story helped you understand the power of having audience biases.