Gold medals are achieved in long distance races when the runners optimize a steady pace that keeps them ahead of the competition all the way to the finish line. The same strategy will bring home the prize in races against your business competitors. When planning your advertising campaigns, it’s critical to focus on a well thought-out message that is delivered consistently over time.
Marketing goals aren’t achieved through bursts of costly, short run campaigns – leave that to the Carl Lewises of the world. Instead, it’s important to maintain a steady message that keeps your business in the forefront of your customers’ minds. The short-term plan can be tempting as a way to reduce costs, however it’s much more cost-effective to regularly promote throughout the year, utilizing affordable options.
When it’s time for your customers to make buying decisions, you want your brand to be on their minds. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of competition out there. The average consumer is exposed to 5,000 advertisements per day!1 Combine that with the very short attention span of the human brain, and it’s clear that consistent messaging is critical in today’s market.
Overall, it makes better sense to develop a marketing budget that runs advertisements throughout the year, rather than overspending on one or two campaigns that will soon be forgotten. In this way, you deliver consistent branding into the marketplace. What exactly is “branding” and how does a consistent plan benefit branding? Branding is the process for creating a unique name and image for your business in consumers’ minds, primarily through advertising campaigns with an unvarying theme. The goal of branding is to establish a significant and differentiated presence that attracts and retains loyal customers. It’s the message of how your business stands out from the crowd and offers unique value to the consumer… the special something that makes you the gold medal winner in a head-to-head matchup with the competition.
The key benefit of a strong, consistent branding campaign is name recognition. Repeated messaging, month after month, slowly builds your name into your potential customers’ subconscious and long-term memories. On average, it takes a minimum of four exposures to an advertisement before a potential buyer will act. When the consumer is ready to act, make sure he or she is thinking of you! Therefore, it’s important to choose advertising that you can afford on a consistent basis, rather than over-the-top, costly campaigns that lose steam and burn out quickly.
Money Mailer offers several vehicles for low-cost advertising that advance consistent branding and messaging. The familiar red, white and blue envelope is delivered to thousands of high-value homes each month at an approximate cost of only 4₵ a home. This allows for low cost advertising throughout the year. As a bonus, businesses in the shared envelope can promote their ads at no extra cost each month through the Money Mailer app and online coupon website. Email campaigns are also available at very reasonable rates. Through the Money Mailer Email Maddy program, customized email blasts are sent on an optimized schedule to a receptive group of consumers, eager to take advantage of the coupons sent their way.
All of these affordable options give business owners a variety of avenues for participating in low-cost advertising that promote consistent branding messaging, using both digital and print platforms. What better way to benefit from the best of both worlds and to finish at the top of the competition!
1. Media Dynamics, Inc, 2014
