Instant Gratification

By Stacy Karacostas

Just the other day, I was driving through the little commercial district in my neighborhood, when it happened again…

I suddenly noticed what appeared to be a nice, new print shop. It had a big, brightly painted sign and a pretty good sized storefront too. But when I mentioned it to my husband, he just laughed and said “Where have you been? That shop has been in this neighborhood as long as we have.”

Sometimes it seems hard to believe that I can drive down the same road a few times a week—or even every day—and never notice something so obvious.

Of course, with the amount of information we are bombarded with daily, it really isn’t so surprising. Some things are just bound to catch your eye, or your attention, better than others.

Now think about how this affects your marketing or advertising efforts…

Recent statistics show that a potential customer has to see your ad an average of seven times before they even notice it. That’s right—seven times just to notice your ad is there. Then about another seven times before they might think about taking action.

So you have to get your message in front of your audience an average of 14 times before they might even think about getting in touch. And that is a tough pill to swallow for most small businesses. Why?

Because we live in a world that is driven by a need for instant gratification.

From drive-thrus, to credit cards, diet pills and cold medicine, the majority of Americans insist on getting results right away—or at least really darn quick. But there is nothing fast, exciting or sexy about putting your name and message in front of someone over and over again.

The result? Most small business marketing campaigns are developed and executed with an eye towards getting customers in the door right now. And most fail miserably.

I’ve seen clients place a $1000 ad two times, then quit when they didn’t get any response. Or spend their entire marketing budget on a half-page Yellow Pages Ad that brings in a handful of clients at best. Then there was the client who insisted direct mail would not work for them. But when they had tried it, they had sent out just one letter.

What did all of these strategies have in common?

They didn’t get in front of their customers enough times to even get noticed—let alone drive sales.

If you really want your marketing and sales campaigns to be wildly successful, you can’t be focused on getting instant results. Instead, think of marketing your business as being a lot like growing a garden…

Once you plant the seeds, you have to keep watering regularly or the plants just won’t grow. And you can’t expect to have ripe vegetables tomorrow.

In fact, it has often been said that a mediocre marketing campaign executed on a regular basis is 100 times more effective than a fantastic campaign executed once or twice.

Successful Real Estate agents are pros at this kind of marketing, which they even call “farming”. Basically, they start mailing post cards, newsletters, etc. to the same folks on a regular basis. And they keep it up for months—or even years—at a time.

You see, they know that eventually someone on their mailing list is likely to need their services. And whose name is that person going to remember??? The one they’ve been seeing twice a month for the past year—of course!

So the next time you are planning to do some marketing, think like a farmer. And keep these few simple rules in mind…

• It is better to take out 10 small ads than one big one
• One sales letter or postcard by itself—no matter how well written—rarely gets good results
• Look for repeatable ways to stay in front of your customers like newsletters, greeting cards, or magazine articles
• Monthly is good, weekly is better
• Mixing and matching strategies leads to better results (try using a postcard to drive business to your Website. Or a combination of email, direct mail and classified ads to promote your new service. The options are endless.)
• Frequency and consistency are critical to success
• Commit to any new strategy for a minimum of six-months

The bottom line? When you focus on marketing and growing your business over time, you reap a much bigger harvest in the end. So just stay positive, and stay active. It will pay off!

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