TV’s makeup commercials befuddle me. They really do. Lingerie commercials are in the same category. I really don’t understand why they’re telling women that they need all this glam and eyelashes that could sweep the floor (oh, and don’t forget to pout with your mouth slightly open too).

I do the shopping at our house, and even though the vast majority of those at the grocery store and local Target are women, I have never seen a single woman that looks anything remotely like those in the commercials. The younger women – even teens – look nothing like the women depicted in the makeup and underwear commercials. So what gives?

I asked my wife if the mascara commercials on TV influenced what she bought. She said, “No, I just want something waterproof.”

Hm.

So who exactly are they marketing to? Are they trying to sell something that barely anyone wants? What exactly are they trying to convince us of?

4 Reasons Your Marketing May Be Missing The Mark

What you sell isn’t actually what people want – I “sell” search engine optimization (SEO) training and services. I believe that the vast majority of business owners couldn’t give a crap one way or the other about SEO and thus don’t want to buy it. I think that most others like me are trying to sell something no one wants. My customers probably just want a formula to be found by their customers, not the nuanced, nerdy techniques of getting the best link juice. (Please go ahead, tell me in the comments below!)

You Aren’t Differentiating Your Audiences – If you sell your products or services to “all” women for example, what a 20-something year old wants is probably very different than a 30-something year old. It’s likely that the latter may be married and even have kids, while the former may not be. A 40-something year old will have even different wants and desires. Trying to market to all of them with one message will fail to engage with any of them.

You Talk About Yourself Too Much – Seriously. Read your copy and if you see a lot of “we” and “I”, well, it’s boring and your customers won’t relate. “I specialize in x.” “We are your premier provider of y.” Bleah. Tell me how you can solve my problem. Anyone who does a search on Google is looking for the solution to their problem. Explain how your solutions will make my problem go away the quickest, cheapest or both.

You Try To Just “Sell” People – If people don’t understand the benefits of your product or service and how it relates to them or solves their problem, you’ll fall short. Read your copy and see if you are pushing the features or the benefits. People will buy benefits over features any day, so make sure you communicate what the benefits are before trying to just close the sale.

With 1000 choices, we consumers have lots of options when it comes to solutions to our problems. If your marketing messages are disconnected from what your customers really want, then what’s the point? Flush your marketing dollars down the tubes.

What’s your biggest marketing problem? Tell me below.