Part my focus on money is learning how to make my shareware company grow. While I’m working on a new product, I’ve also come to the conclusion marketing is a big part of the problem. I’ve also decided you have invest in order to make money. I need to spend money to get my product out there and better represented.
Part of that learning process was buying a book at half price books call Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads. Its a very interesting and info packed book.
Here’s one thing I just learned while sitting on the pot. Frequency is more important than reach. It is better to reach 10% of your market 100 times than 100% of your market 10 times. He was specifically talking about radio advertising, but it is applicable to other advertising as well.
Lesson for the day. Now I’m off to look at graphic designers. I want a make over for my web site and product and I’ve realized I’m an engineer and I need an artist to make it all look good.
Frequency is very important. This is the fundamental principle behind Matress Mac’s success with Gallery furniture.
Don’t neglect ad impact, though. There are ads that I’ve seen well over 100 times where I still can’t remember the name of the company or product (most car and truck ads, for example). There are also ads that I’ve seen maybe once or twice that made such an impact on me that I still remember almost everything about the product (the Coca Cola polar bear ad with the seal).
The sweet spot is getting both memorable AND frequency. =-)
You’re exactly right. The author said ad impact and frequency were the most important.