by Ian Crockettffice
ffice" />I enjoy writing these monthly columns and discussing some of the marketing challenges or opportunities my clients face. However, I have to remember that my readers are looking to better their marketing efforts with the information and subsequent advice. Therefore, I felt this would be a good month to write a “Back to Basics’ piece, since good marketing is all about good common sense. However, all of us have to be reminded from time to time the same way you need to remind your employees, customers and prospects what it is that separates you from the competition.
Frequency and consistency is the cornerstone of any successful marketing endeavor, whether its advertising, public relations, prospecting, direct mail or telemarketing. In other words, it’s better to target fewer prospects and impact them more times than it is reaching as many people as possible fewer times.
I’ve always used the sales analogy that if there are three buildings, would you want your reps to visit every office in all three buildings once or visit every office in one building three times. The ideal answer is the latter, Visiting every office once won’t net too many deals. However, visiting all the offices in one building three times is going to put your rep in a favorable position. They can develop relationships with individuals, begin to understand the prospects business and. how paper flows through it and have a sincere, well-thought proposal. One visit may get some information like the buyer name and. the current equipment. but closes will be rare.
The same is true in just about any marketing activity. Some people believe being creative can overcome the need for frequency. The thought process is, produce a sensational ad or commercial and then you don’t have to purchase as much media. Its wrong. Apple made a huge impact running its Orwellian-like Super Bowl ad once a number of years ago. However, the reason it was so successful wasn’t the impact it made during the Super Bowl, it was all the media attention they received for running an elaborately produced commercial in a very expensive time slot once. The attention was frequent and it consistently positioned Apple as a leading edge company.