Your Fortune is in the Follow Up!

Would you blow your entire annual marketing budget on just one ad to run once during the Superbowl?

Of course you wouldn’t. You know that people seeing your message just once wouldn’t be enough.

Then why do we tend to spend our time and dollars on single-shot marketing, rather than repeated messages?

The answer is… most folks just don’t know any better. Or, perhaps it seems boring to repeat your message over and over and over and over.

But the truth is, your fortune is in the follow up!

This past weekend I went to hear direct marketing master Bill Glazer (my marketing mentor who runs Glazer-Kennedy Inner Circle (along with Dan Kennedy) speak at a conference here in Los Angeles. During his talk, he shared with the audience how he spent the last few decades of his life running Baltimore’s #1 retail men’s clothing store, Gage Menswear, along with his late father.

Bill talked about one of his first direct mail campaigns, and how during the planning stages he announced to his dad that they were going to mail a special promotional offer to the same list not once, not twice, but three times. His father was appalled and yelled at Bill that he was crazy and was wasting their money!

Bill persisted and mailed all three pieces of the campaign. Well, their results revealed that mailing the exact same offer three times not only increased their response, it DOUBLED their response! Pop was floored, and he sure was delighted with the flurry of sales that came in. From that point on he also trusted Bill with their marketing dollars.

It’s simple… people are inundated with messages every day. Last statistic I heard was each of us sees over 3,700 distinct messages a day! That means you need to repeat yourself over and over if you’re going to break through the clutter, actually get their attention, get them to read or listen AND get them to respond.

Your assignment is to now look at all areas of your marketing and advertising in your business, and see where you need to add some follow up.

Some quick places to look at:

Your Ezines – Are you publishing your ezine enough? Once a month just doesn’t cut it anymore. You should be reaching out and “touching” your prospects and customers at least once a week, if not more. (If you’re running out of ideas or you’re not sure how to do this without bugging folks, my ezine system takes care of that for you!)

Teleseminars and Live Events – When promoting events, you’re going to need many more than one or two announcements or mailings. As a general rule, when I’m really trying to fill up a teleseminar (phone seminar) I sent out at least three emails dedicated to the promotion. For live events, you need dozens of messages, and well ahead of time. Most of the trainers I know start marketing no less than six months ahead of any live event they’re hosting!

One-on-One Marketing – If you cold call or mail out letters to prospects, how many times are you following up? Don’t be afraid to call or mail again. I myself have finally responded to an offer after I’ve been contacted several times, and was glad the vendor took the initiative to follow up.

Advertising – Instead of blowing your budget on a few large ads per year, try running a smaller ad much more often! Also most publications, both online and offline, will usually give you big discounts for purchasing more than one ad at a time. (I do this with ads in my own ezine, Straight Shooter Marketing.)

Remember, many marketing experts who test all these strategies say that repetition is the key. So don’t even feel you have to be creative with your marketing – just saying or mailing the same thing over and over is better than not saying it or mailing it again.