In marketing, it’s OK to repeat yourself. Really. It’s OK to repeat yourself.
Important newsflash: using messaging once, or covering a topic in a blog post once, or executing a brilliant marketing strategy once, does not make it off-limits for the rest of all time.
As humans, we tend to get bored with things that we experience on a regular basis, whether it’s eating at the same place for lunch every day, listening to the same songs on the way to work on your way home, watching Star Wars 76 times in a row without break (well, OK, maybe that’s going a little far–it IS a classic after all). And by extension, we assume that others around us are likewise tired of those things, just because we may be.
And that’s where we’re wrong.
Indulge me for a minute here. If I’ve eaten Blueberry Pop-Tarts every morning for a month, and have you over for brunch one weekend, I can’t just assume YOU won’t want Blueberry Pop-Tarts too. You probably haven’t had one every day like I have (they were on sale at Costco, so cut me some slack here) Heck, for all I know you’ve NEVER experienced the wonderful deliciousness that is a Blueberry Pop-Tart. The fact that I remember all the Pop-Tarts served in my house doesn’t have any correlation to whether or not you are sick of Pop-Tarts. In fact, you may like coming to my house specifically FOR the Pop-Tarts.
Similarly, when it comes to marketing, it’s actually beneficial to continue to repeat and reinforce messaging to your audience over an extended period of time.
We’ve all heard the stunning statistics regarding how many messages we’re subjected to every day (the last Yankelovich number I saw indicated that we each see upwards of 5,000 messages per day). Personally, I’m doing well to recall 10 of them on a good day, and I’m actually IN marketing.
Clearly, for any of us to expect stellar and instantaneous customer response just because we’ve done a great job launching our latest brilliant marketing message into that chaotic maelstrom likely qualifies as a workable definition of insanity.
Instead, you need to repeat. What’s that old rule about the format of good presentations? Something like “Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell them. Tell ‘em what you want to tell ‘em. Then, in closing, tell ‘em what you just told them.” In other words, repeat. And then repeat again.
So don’t be afraid to repurpose your blog posts, tweeting snippets, posting bits on FaceBook and LinkedIn. For that matter, don’t shy away from rewriting content over and over again, putting a fresh spin on it and making it into a new publication. Take that awesome image you’re running in your Display Network campaign and slather it across your homepage (or vice versa). The odds are overwhelmingly in your favor that your customers haven’t seen it… or if they have, they may need to see it again.
It’s OK to repeat yourself. Really. it’s OK to repeat yourself.
Happy small business marketing,
Theron & Katie
At Urban Sherpa Marketing Co. we offer marketing advisory, strategic planning, and services for small business and startups. Our goal is to make high-quality marketing possible for every business, no matter the size. Think of us as your outsourced marketing department, strategic marketing adviser, or even your phone-a-friend marketing lifeline. Our goals is to help you grow your business without blowing the bank.
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