Frequency, frequency, frequency
According to most every “textbook” definition, marketing is a science of reach x frequency. Makes sense… Get in front of the most people you can as often as possible and you’re bound to do well. But it’s a little misleading. Reach and frequency are not equally responsible for success.
Reach is definitely the sexier of the two… To say I reached 500,000 people with my ad campaign sounds a lot more important than to talk about how often it’s running. That’s why a lot of business owners make the mistake of choosing reach over frequency. “If I put an ad in this magazine, I can reach a MILLION readers!” That’s great, but what if you can only afford to do that once? The answer is simple: your money will be completely wasted.
Frequency is MUCH more important than reach. And at the small business level where budgets are tighter and the opportunity costs of advertising are higher, it’s really the only thing that matters. If you can market to a group of 20 people 10 times each in a relatively short period of time, I guarantee that you will get much more business than marketing to a group of 200 people once.
Repetition is important, it’s how we learn and it’s how we build trust and familiarity. How did the restaurant around the corner become your favorite? They taught you over several visits that they would treat you well, serve you good food and not overcharge you. They may even remember your name when you come in. It’s the same thing with marketing a business. If you communicate an effective message multiple times across different media, it will start to sink in.
But craft the message first and the plan second and focus on frequency. Always choose frequency over reach and always mix your media as much as possible. Don’t sink all your money into running an ad in the local newspaper every week of the year. Do the ad as much as you can while still employing other tactics like direct mail, email, sponsorships, networking, events, etc. If you have company vehicles, invest in wrapping them with graphics. Before you were only in the newspaper. Now, you’re in the newspaper and you’re all over town.
Maybe you’re not reaching as far as you can in terms of population or geography but you’re reaching a smaller number of people well and you’re building a marketing machine that can be easily scaled and replicated for other areas over time.
Posted by E. Wolf
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