The Power of Repetition in Advertising and Marketing
YOU CAN’T succeed at most things if you try them just once.
It would be silly to say, ‘I tried playing the piano once. I wasn’t very good at it, so I gave up.’
The same thing applies to advertising and marketing your products and services.
Obviously, you can’t just sit next to your phone and wait for it to ring. You have to be proactive. You have to ‘do something’ if you want your to ring, or get people to place an order.
You need to contact your prospects and customers with an appealing offer that asks them to take immediate action.
That’s pretty basic, and I’m sure you are doing that from time to time.
But did you know that most people don’t respond to marketing offers until they have received them at least 5 times?
It’s true. Most sales are made after the 5th contact. Repetition is everything. But most small business owners and salespeople ‘stop’ and give up after the first contact.
Mary, the owner of a 3-year-old small business told us that she had very good success by delivering her marketing offer to some of her local residential neighborhoods.
She had created a simple flyer, and had placed them in the homeowners’ letterboxes.
For certain businesses, this method of delivery works well.
Mary shared that on average she got two new clients for every 100 flyers she distributed in this manner. She didn’t realize it, but we assured her that she was getting an exceptional response.
Mary was looking for some new ideas for getting even more sales.
I asked her how many times she had delivered her flyer to the local neighborhoods she had targeted.
‘Just once,’ she said. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘Well, if you are getting such great results from a marketing process, doesn’t it make sense to maximize your results from that effort?’
‘I guess so,’ she replied.
I told her that at least every 3 months, she should go right back to the same neighborhoods where she was so successful and distribute the same flyers again.
Mary was a little skeptical.
‘But I already gave everyone in those neighborhoods my flyer. If they were going to buy, wouldn’t they have already responded?’ Mary asked.
‘Absolutely not,’ I said.
This is a common and costly misconception held by many small business owners.
The fact is, most of the people who have an interest in what you are offering ‘do not’ usually respond the first time they receive your offer.
They may have every intention of doing so, but for one reason or another, they don’t respond.
They procrastinate.
They get side-tracked by something else.
They need to think about it–and then forget it.
They don’t have the money right now.
They have a million other things that they have to do first before they seriously consider your offer.
Their circumstances won’t allow them to respond now, but those circumstances may change completely in a few months.
And on and on.
I always have flyers, emails, letters, post cards, etc. of offers that I am genuinely interested in. But I put them aside with every intention that later I will study them more closely and make a decision then.
More often than not, those letters, emails, etc. eventually get misplaced or tossed.
However, those marketers that are smart enough to send me the same offer multiple times, keep bringing their offer to the top of my mind. They don’t let me forget it. Those are the offers that I eventually respond to.
And the same is true for you and your prospective customers.
Repetition is powerful.
Sending your marketing message once rarely does the trick. You need to keep reminding your prospects and customers again and again about your business, your products and your offers.
If you don’t, there’s a good chance your competition will.
Now that you know about the power of repetition, you have an incredible tool to help you grow your sales. It works.
But it only works if your message and your offer are designed to get immediate action. Send a weak or ineffective offer and it doesn’t matter how many times you send it–you’re not going to get any response.
If you want to talk over these Get More Customers options, or the other effective tactics that I have, give me a call 0414 955 743 – advice is totally free of charge.
Cheers,
John