“When you change marketing strategies, you lose all the frequency you’ve worked so hard to attain. And you have to start over.” ~ Seth Godin
One thing about marketing that is for certain is that it is difficult to change someone’s mind.
Therefore, a brutal reality of marketing today is that you have to “show up” with frequency. Everyone is busy and inattentive. You can see from simple click behavior online that people spend less than ten seconds on pages all the time. You do it also. With the world at your fingertips, you can click around with breathtaking speed. You can’t even remember where you have been because of such choice and ease on the information highway.
Thus, to break through the noise, frequency of your name, your message and your content is necessary. It does many things. It works whether you are sending direct mail every month, an email newsletter every week or blogging every day. Frequency tells your audience that you own a certain position in the market space and are abreast of current trends and expertise.
Continual touch points also remind people to think of you when they are ready. You can’t force readiness just because you are eager to sell. People get to readiness from many different factors – their own developing desire, social currency, an emergency, a fight with their current provider.
When they are ready, the question becomes whether you are frequent enough to be their choice. Every time you provide a touch point and remain consistent with your marketing channel, you are building the asset of frequency in the mind of your prospective buyers. Thus, your sales pipeline may be largely unseen. But it is there.
There might be five thousand email recipients who are not responding now, but who will raise their hand in three months or a year. You might not be relevant to them right now, but if you cut out the frequency, you have lowered a form of trust that has been built up.
Amateurs cut out the frequency. They flit to the new shiny marketing strategy and miss the steady business that comes from persistence in a marketing approach. And if you do likewise, don’t wonder about the ups, downs and uncertainties of your sales. You weren’t frequent. You didn’t invest or did the simple act of showing up with substance consistently over time. It would have won you new business, but the fact that you can’t measure it easily can get your eye off of a working strategy.
While it can be tempting to continually change your marketing strategies, don’t do it. There are so many new gimmicks out there. Pick a strategy that connects with your audience and know that it is an investment you have to make which may take a long time. Your buyers will raise their hands over time.
That’s the magic of frequency. In a world where things are changing so quickly, people are the same. They like seeing something regularly in case they need it later. If you’re not there, then they either forget or move on to your competitor who had the simple awareness to show up consistently.
What is the marketing strategy that you would commit to over the next two years to get the benefits of steady new customers?
