How Often Do I Have To Run That Ad??

I get asked this question all the time.  More commonly, I get a complaint:  "I ran this ad, and it didn't work."  Most of the time the person is blaming the media - that just doesn't work (or doesn't work for my business).....Don't be fooled by the hype!!!
All forms of advertising media work.  If they didn't, they wouldn't exist.  The trick is to find the forms of media that best target your ideal prospects.
So, how do you make them work for you?  One of the most important (and misunderstood) concepts is CONSISTENCY.
Here's what most advertising spending patterns look like:

The company spends alot of money on a new form of advertising.  They get very little response (many times, none) so they dramatically decrease their spending.  Then, when they get desperate for business, they spend more or find a new form of media.  And, the cycle repeats.
 

Here's the problem:  Prospects need to see your message more than once before they decide to buy!
  I've seen many different numbers for this - ranging from 7 to 28 - this is the number of times someone has to see your message before they decide to buy from you.  Let's be conservative and call it 14.  If a prospect has to see your message 14 times before they buy, are you advertising consistently enough?  Or, are you never breaking through the awareness threshold? 
"Awareness" is the ability of a prospect to recognize you as the provider of a product or service they need.  If you don't advertise consistently enough for your prospects to become aware of you (and then decide to buy from you), you're wasting your money!
Here's what your advertising spending pattern SHOULD look like, for each form of media you find to be effective for your target market and message:
 

You put in a large amount of effort and money in the beginning, but over time your "Awareness" improves.  Then, it takes very little additional spend to promote a special event, product release, or just bring in additional business. 
The moral of this story is that you should never spend money on advertising unless you have the resources to commit to a long-term, consistent spending pattern.  Once you've effectively tested that form of media, you'll have enough data to make an educated decision on the effectiveness of that form of media. 
 

How long is long enough?
Again, the advice varies.  I've seen everything from 3 months to 1 year.  I, personally, wouldn't do anything in mass media for less than 3 months.  Really 6-12 months is much better.  There's just no such thing as "run it one time to test it out".  That idea will lose you a LOT of money!
Run your advertising consistently, and you'll see much better results!
To Your Success!
Emily Wright
Option Media
803.767.4817