Having a Birthday during the winter means there will be times when your party gets rearranged, which is exactly what happen to my daughter last weekend. So, last night my wife was whipping up meatballs for sandwiches and asked me how many I thought she should make. I said you have to make sure you have enough to cover everyone and then some.
But she cooked up a bunch of trays without figuring out the meatball to people ratio and therefore didn’t know. So, we had to count the meatballs, then consider how many each guest would eat, and then decide if we had enough to cover it.
Marketing is a lot like that
There are many things that have to be taken into consideration when it comes to a marketing campaign, but the one that is least considered and often times is the most important is frequency. Or, to put it another way, will you have enough meatballs.
You see, you can send out the best post card the world has every seen, but send it out once and you are as good a toast. Run just a few ads in the newspaper or coupon services like Valpak or Coupon Clipper and your message never gets heard.
You have to be willing to commit to a campaign that reaches enough people who are either ready to buy or can be convinced to buy with the right offer. And that can’t be done without an appropriate amount of “touches.”
I know I have said it before, but here it is again. With today’s barrage of marketing, people don’t even consume your message with less than 4 exposures. From 5-10 they might have an idea who you are, 10-15 they are starting to zero in on you and your offer, and by 20 exposures they could be ready to buy.
So, doing a one time mail drop or a half-assed newspaper or radio spot is going to be as effective as driving down the street throwing $20 dollar bills with your name and phone number on them out the window.
The key to any effective campaign is frequency. Doing a mailing? – do a drop a week for 6 weeks, doing a newspaper run? – do it every day for a month. Doing radio? – run it until people’s ears bleed.
Because nothing is going to help move the needle on a marketing campaign like frequency!
Photo Credit: Bohman