I'd like to share
some reasons you need to repeat your marketing message.
If you want your message
to stick, remember these pointers:
1. Your audience
forgets 90 percent of what they see and hear within two weeks.
Why is this so? In
the United States, we are exposed to more than 1,600 advertising, public
relations, sales promotion, and marketing messages every day. Of them,
we "see" only 80. And we really recall and take action on just
12.
There is a strong
need to repeat your message because of competition in the marketplace.
2. Your market changes
constantly.
The marketplace is
not stagnant. Because we move, because of better communication and transportation,
because we get bored, because we want new challenges, because we want
to dive into new opportunities, the market changes. And when your market
changes, you have to chase it-which means you need to repeat your message.
3. Test new ideas
on a continuing and ongoing basis. And retest old ideas.
Because your marketplace
is like an octopus-never staying in one place for long-you need to find
out how to reach it best. And you need to do it in an ongoing fashion.
Also, test old ideas that worked when you used them before. Try them again.
4. Reach out for
new business.
In 1972, 1 lost two-thirds
of my business within 60 days. One of my major accounts went bankrupt.
Another decided to walk.
Because I had not
been searching for new business, it took me almost nine months to get
even. Every week since that time, I spend a little time reaching for new
business.
5. Talk to your customers
on a regular basis.
There is no reason
for you to think that your audience remembers what your offer is. Or why,
they should respond to it.
You must promote your
offer on a continuing basis. Use multimedia. Use a combination of mail,
print, telephone, broadcast, trade shows, take-ones and other marketing
tools to let your market know what your offer is.
6. Ask for the order.
The organization,
Sales and Marketing Executives International has done a study, indicating
that 81 percent of all sales are made on the fifth call or later in the
sales process.
What this says is
that you need to ask for the order over and over again. You need to repeat
your offer, repeat the benefits, repeat the request for actions ... and
ask your prospects and customers to give you some additional business.
8. You need continuity
in the marketplace.
You are more likely
to be remembered when it's time to buy, if you are seen frequently.
9. You need continuity
of sales efforts.
No matter how you
sell-by a captive sales force, by a telemarketing unit, by a distribution
network of some type, through a retail store, or through a combination
of methods you need to have your sales force selling on a continuing basis.
Your sales team will
find it easier to close sales if you are more visible in the marketplace.
Continuity in the marketplace and continuity of sales effort tie together.