How do we know our famous brands? Well, we’ve seen them time and time again. This can be in advertising, in stores, publications and with our colleagues, friends and family. Advertising was the way to get messages to the greatest number of people, interrupting their viewing, listening, reading or daydreaming.
Right now, there’s too much going on in our lives to be aware, let alone want more tugs on our scarce resource, attention.
So how do we trade today?
Well, we took a tried and tested model from Ready, Aim, Fire. But instead of shooting, we started talking. What I mean by this is that we start talking, listening, asking, giving and educating.
Through conversation, we still have frequency, but it is more powerful: we communicate instead of transmitting. We are learning about our market all the time and adapting to its changing needs and desires.
Frequency leads to trust. Trust leads to sales. Sales to profits. We use frequency, rather than interruption, to build awareness and permission to reach out to our leads and customers. And, this is where care is required.
Throughout our conversation, there are three things we need to exhibit for trust to develop:
Consistency Do what you say. You know the old adage about walking what you talk. It’s not always that easy!
Value Providing material that people want and will use
Attention Show interest in them, give them your attention, explicitly reward their attention, and don’t just promote what our products and services can do for them.
Consider 20 years ago, frequency meant spending big on advertising, direct mail campaigns, and the like. Not now! The frequency can be carried out by large, small and micro companies for very little money. The downside is that because everyone can do it, there is an excess of information. And, we are all selfish about how we spend our time and attention.
Every communication has to have something for the reader, the consumer of the material. Failing to do so means they lose interest and stop participating and are lost forever. Email is a primary way to deliver frequency. And here, the key is the timing of each communication. Too often and it becomes an interruption. If it’s not frequent enough, your reader will lose the thread of your overall message.
Unfortunately, there is no magic formula for determining the optimal time, so it is best to try different approaches. Twitter is another tool where you can offer frequency within 140 characters. Mixes giving information, sharing and support to generate awareness and trust.
Time for action Just reading this article is not enough! Take a moment to allocate time on your calendar to review how you build trust and sales through frequency for your business.
Copyright 2009 Karen Purves All Rights Reserved