Make Your Marketing Habit Forming

By John Jantsch
Posted Saturday, August 21, 2004

If you want to make an impact on your target market, you must get them in the habit of seeing and hearing your marketing message or offer.

That's one of the challenges for the small business owner. How do you create a big enough noise without breaking the bank.

Two academic marketing terms are useful here: Reach and Frequency.

Generally the idea is to strike a balance between “reaching” enough of your target market “frequently” enough to make an impact.

But, for most small business owners, this type of formula thinking isn’t very helpful.

For the small business owner frequency is much more important than reach. Focus on a smaller number of prospects but hit them many times.

Before they ever react to your message, they must get in the habit of putting it on their radar screen. See, they’ve never heard of you, so it is unlikely they will want to hear from you…until they believe you aren’t going to go away.

Think of the way they currently buy what you do or even get information about what you do as a "bad habit." Now what must you do to break a bad habit. You've got to get them to want to break that habit and one of the best ways is through repeated suggestions of a better way.

Here is what I am suggesting you do. Pick out the smallest universe of prospects that you can. Think only your best prospects and narrow the number from there.

Mail these prospects some form of direct response letter or postcard. (That means something that offers them a free report or evaluation)

Then…mail them essentially the same thing 3 more times over the next few months.

Here is what my experience tells me will happen. Whatever your response on the first mailing, you can anticipate that you will get about the same response on the next and the next. Repetition helps build trust and begins the process of reformulating your prospects buying habits.

Find an offer or message that works and stick with it. One of the killers of effective marketing is that the creator of the marketing gets tired of the message way before most of the audience even hears it. Stick with it and be repetitive.

Just remember, old habits die hard.

About the Author
John Jantsch is a marketing coach and the author of Referral Flood - How to create a flood of new business without spending one dime on advertising. You can get more information at (http://www.ReferralFlood.com) or by sending a blank email to mailto:subscribe@ducttapemarketing.com