Advertising on a Budget -- Part 3: Frequency, Frequency, Frequency
This is the third article of a three-part series. I'm illustrating
the marketing challenges of PrescottWeddings.com, a
small business. If you don't remember anything else about marketing,
remember this: Frequency is king. The more often you can get your name in front of your
potential and current customers, the more likely you will
make a sale. Depending on what study you look at, people need to see
your message anywhere from three to 27 times before they
act upon it. And, if you want to brand your business, then you need to
get it in front of your customers as often as possible. How do you think Ivory Soap, Campbell Soup and Tide all
built their brands so deeply into our minds? Through years
and years of repeatedly advertising. That's why those
brands pop into our head when we think about soap, soup
or laundry detergent. So if you want to build your brand, then you need to advertise
frequently. There's another benefit to advertising frequently. It also
helps your current customers. People like to know they made the right decision after they
purchased something. How much reassurance they need
depends on how much they spend, but everyone needs
some confirmation they made the right decision. Your
advertising can help. Studies have shown that people are more aware of car ads
after they purchased a car -- specifically car ads of the
model they bought. And they're more likely to both believe
and approve of the message. Again, because they want to
know they made the right decision. So there are many good reasons to advertise frequently.
Does that mean you have to spend a fortune? Not
necessarily. There are a few tricks you can use to get the
frequency you need at a low cost. (These are print tricks --
other advertising outlets, such as radio and online, we'll talk
about in future issues.) 1. Make your ad as small as possible. Small ads cost less.
See "Advertising on a Budget ? Part 2: Thinking Small" for
more information on shrinking your ad. 2. It's better to schedule your ads to run all at once than
spread them out. People will never remember when they
don't see your ad, only when they do. If they see your ad a lot
in one week, they're going to be under the impression you
advertise all the time because they won't remember NOT
seeing your ad other weeks. 3. Take advantage of any frequency programs your
newspaper offers. And definitely sign a contract -- don't run
ads under the open rate. Here's how it worked for PWC. The newspaper had a program called "3 For Free." If you ran
an ad three days in a row, you got the next three days for free
(the paper was published six days a week). We designed a tiny ad -- a one by two inch ad -- and we ran
it six days in a row. Then we skipped the next three weeks
and did the same thing again the next month. After a year of doing this, PWC had people coming up to her
telling her they saw her ad "all the time." Business owners
wanted to advertise on PWC because they could see the
commitment PWC had to advertising. Brides and grooms
were visiting PWC on a regular basis because they were
being "reminded" monthly. What did all this cost? About $100 a month. But, a word of caution. It takes time to build a business and
a brand. It won't happen overnight. But it will happen,
especially if you remember to keep getting your name in
front of your customers and potential customers as often as
you possibly can. Michele Pariza Wacek owns Creative Concepts and
Copywriting, a writing, marketing and creativity agency. She
offers two free e-newsletters that help subscribers combine
their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting
principles to become more successful at attracting new
clients, selling products and services and boosting
business. She can be reached at http://www.writingusa.com
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