Most brands don’t have a testing problem. They have a targeting problem.
In this episode, Jordan is joined by Pilothouse strategist Chris Richards to break down why “marketing to everyone” is quietly killing performance — and what to do instead.
The reality: growth doesn’t come from more creative, more tests, or more spend. It comes from choosing the right customer and building your entire system around them.
We get into how to actually define personas, why most brands get stuck in “tactical spinning,” and how the wrong customer at the top of funnel can break everything downstream — from ads to landing pages to email.
If your performance feels inconsistent, this is likely where things are going wrong.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why targeting multiple personas at once weakens your results
- How to identify the most profitable customer to focus on
- The biggest mistake brands make when scaling “winning” ads
- How to align ads, landing pages, and email around one persona
- What metrics actually matter when validating your targeting
00:00 Why most brands struggle to grow
00:41 Why specificity beats broad targeting
01:53 What persona strategy actually looks like
03:14 Building personas from segments + behavior
04:34 Why you shouldn’t target everyone at once
05:33 Real example: choosing the right customer
07:52 The problem with “tactical spinning”
10:12 How the wrong customer breaks retention
13:04 How to measure if you’re targeting right
16:21 Aligning ads, landing pages, and email
Work with Pilothouse: https://www.pilothouse.co/get-in-touch?utm_source=dtc&utm_medium=podcast&utm_content=e&rPodcast
Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DTCPodcast
Subscribe to DTC: https://www.directtoconsumer.co/
Listen to DTC Podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dtcpodcast
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