Your Marketing Message: Be Clear, Consistent, Constant, and Relentless

Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of Guerrilla Marketing & 62 Free Ways to Grow Your Business Profits, says it takes over nine clear exposures to your marketing message for a prospect to move from apathy to purchasing. The problem lies in the fact that they pay attention to only every third market message they see. Therefore, it requires 27 exposures for your marketing message to get through to each and every person in your target market! 

Every experienced marketer knows that you can’t give up on a prospect just because they did not respond to your first marketing attempt.  Prospects are very busy with their personal challenges and other pressing life issues.  Your message is just another ad that flashes in front of them without so much as a second glance. 

Don't Let Your Marketing Message Become Clutter

It is difficult to get their attention and delivery your message. It is estimated that the average person is bombarded by over 3,000 to 4,000 marketing messages everyday.  Now that’s clutter! 

Try this exercise to understand the extent of the clutter problem. Take one hour out of your typical day and count how many marketing images you are exposed to. This could be anything from a logo on a pair of shoes to the auto company nameplate on your car.  Any image that any business enterprise has printed to remind you of them is eligible.  Also include any other entities as well such as churches, groups, schools, and other organizations. Tally your count up after an hour and see where you stand; the results will stagger you. 

The problem with all this clutter is that your message you spent a lot of time and money on can get lost in the market. So how do you cut threw this mess to reach the buyer and affect their decision making process?   

The answer is that your small business marketing message must be clear, consistent, constant, and relentless. This all begins with the quality of your marketing message.  Is it crystal clear to your target market exactly what you do, what you offer, and how it will benefit their lives?  You may know what you're talking about, but does your target?   

Test Your Marketing Message

Carefully craft your message over time through a process of testing, measurement, and evaluation.  Try several different approaches to your message and test them against each other to see which performs better. Then, duplicate the results across the rest of your marketing.  

Your marketing message is too important to be left to intuition or the opinion of a few employees, close family members, or friends. Your prospects and customers have the ultimate say on what they want to hear. So, let them tell you what will cut through the clutter to get their attention. 

Commit to Consistency

What can you do to improve your marketing? Committing to consistency and repetition is the best way.  Failing to be consistent with the message quality and frequency can put all of your marketing efforts at risk. Inconsistencies can confuse prospects and clients to the point where they don’t fell comfortable with your company.  

It is very common that business owners will fall into a trap of believing that they can run marketing offers once in awhile.  They run ads one week and don’t run them again because the ads didn’t meet their expectations. They forget or are ignorant to the fact that frequency is a major factor in marketing success. 

Sometimes they get lucky and find a message that works and draws in a little new business. With this success in hand, they often become complacent and pull back their marketing because they believe the success will continue from this one victory. They forgot that the only constant in business is change and, without marketing, eventually business will slow down. 

They will become their own worst enemy by not continuing to consistently capitalize on the message that worked.  They have the best intentions to market on a regular basis; however, because of a lack of planning they throw an advertisement here or there.  This small business marketing strategy only lead to minimal results and wasted dollars invested. Only a consistent deliver can create outstanding marketing results. 

Constantly and Relentlessly Market Your Business

Being constant is another key component of this principle.  As we touched on earlier, repetition brings marketing success.  Creating an impression takes many, many exposures to your message.  That’s exactly why you will see or hear the same annoying commercial over and over.  Even though it may annoy you, it’s doing its job by leaving a significant impression on you.   

Adopting a constant posture in your marketing doesn’t mean sticking with one tactic using a single delivery method.  It is important to take your clear and consistent message and spread it through other forms of delivery to the same target, intelligently.  A prime example of this is the discount department stores.  You see their ads on TV, hear their radio spots, receive their direct mail coupons, and find their inserts in your newspaper.  They make themselves ubiquitous in your life through a constant barrage of marketing messages aimed only at you to take action.  You may not always give them your full attention, but they leave an impression that is part of your decision making process. 

Being constant is the twin sister of being relentless.  Never giving up is a virtue of successful small business marketing strategy.  Those who get discouraged and fall into the incompetence trap don’t become successful. It’s that simple. What only pays is a dogged determination that moves a business forward and marketing is no exception.   

To be relentless doesn’t mean being rude or overbearing.  It is simply keeping your product and service offering tastefully in front of the prospects and clients without intruding.  This can be a delicate balancing act for any marketer.  You want to be familiar without being obnoxious.