Why Frequency Matters in Marketing
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In all forms of marketing and advertising, frequency refers to the number of times an advertisement will be viewed by your target audience within a period of time (typically monthly). Frequency is used frequently by television advertisers, radio, direct mail marketers and digital marketers.
Frequency matters because advertising messages work on multiple exposures. In fact, the Rule of 7 states that a prospect needs to be exposed to an advertiser's message at least 7 times before they'll take action. Unfortunately, most accounting firms fall well short of seven exposures (even across several mediums).
In direct mail, direct mail frequency is the number of times you send out a direct mail campaign monthly. And if you send out two direct mail campaigns per month, your frequency is two. According to the American Marketing Association, a good rule of thumb is to reach your target audience every 21 days. And most direct mail campaigns do not generate responses until you've sent it out three times. In some cases, customers need to see the same message 11 times before they take action.
Given the limited budgets that most accounting firms operate with, frequency works when you target your audience narrowly and hit them like chinese water torture. For example, suppose your target audience is as follows:
- Target is dentists
- Sole proprietors
- Sales less than $2M
- 1-3 counties near you
In this case, we would target this very small target audience 5-7 times within a six month span. We would also supplement this effort with a niche website focused towards dental practices, support it with Google Ads, 15-25 Google Reviews, blogging and 3-4 social media posts per month. The combination of these efforts might increase the frequency to give them a fighting chance to break through the clutter. Although targeted, this approach typically takes 2-3 years to work effectively.
To learn more about why frequency matters in marketing, visit the articles below:
Marketing Requires More Frequency to be Effective
