When I work with my coaching clients this is one subject I like to bring up very early because a lot of money can be wasted by not understanding the difference between Reach & Frequency. These two terms are often used by Sales Reps to assist in selling their marketing product. Basically reach is the number of people that will see your marketing message, whereas frequency is about how many times they will see it.
The million-dollar question
Is it better to make contact with 80 potential clients one time (reach), or is it better to make contact with only 20 potential clients four times (frequency)? A Sales Rep will tell you that they are both as important as each other; however, they are wrong. I’ll say that again – they are wrong because:
Reach without frequency = Wasted money
Building Relationships
Marketing is about building a long-term relationship with your potential clients. Therefore it is vital for your marketing message to be consistent and repetitive, to the point of almost being boring. The more often you share your marketing message with a potential client – the frequency – the more chance you have of them responding.
One newspaper, radio or even an online ad, with a broad distribution, is a waste of money.
Yes, you may receive telephone calls or online enquiries on the publication day, especially if you have a strong call to action, but you will receive a better response if you run a similar ad numerous times.
Think About This
Have you read the newspaper today, or did you watch television yesterday? Did you read an article online this morning? If so, can you recall any advertisements?
Only advertisements with frequency will be remembered, the others will be lost, unless of course they were unique and made an emotional connection in some way, or you happen to be the perfect target market and the message spoke directly to you.
To give you a good example of frequency; there’s a business in the Atherton Tablelands called Golden Drop Winery, and they have been advertising on television for years.
I think I could repeat their television commercial word-for-word because I have seen it so many times. But here’s the amazing thing: I don’t think I have ever seen their television commercial on before 11 pm. Advertising on late night television is cheap, and because it’s cheap they can repeat their television commercial over and over again, and their ad has never changed, it’s been the same ad for over a decade.
Now if they went for reach they could have advertised during Master Chef, the only problem would have been their budget; it would have exhausted after one or two commercials.
Reach is very expensive, whereas frequency is less expensive, but you need to find the happy medium between the two. Of course, if you have the budget of Coca-Cola you can smash reach and frequency, but small business owners don’t have that size budget.
Listen To The Farmer
Here’s an analogy for you to consider: imagine a farmer with 500 fruit trees. The trees need to be fertilised twice each year for them to produce fruit, but the farmer only has enough fertiliser to feed them all once. What should the farmer do?
Should the farmer put fertiliser on all 500 trees once (reach), produce NO fruit for the season, or fertilise 250 trees twice (frequency), producing fruit on 250 trees? Of course the farmer will choose option two, as fruit from 250 trees is better than no fruit from 500 trees. Fruit puts money on the table and so will frequency.
Narrow The Market
So the next time you’re considering doing any form of advertising, consider a smaller narrower market and deliver your message often instead of trying to market to the masses, most of which may not be your potential clients.
Another benefit of frequency is it gives you a chance to Test and Measure your message with different headlines, offers and calls to action; therefore it’s a double bonus.
Works The Same Way Online
If you have an online business and all your marketing is online, change the terminology to suit what works best for you.
Frequency and Reach still work the same way on Facebook and other online platforms. You can narrow or broaden your audience by age, location, occupation and many other parameters, and then you select your budget.
Are you going to smash your whole budget in one day to 100,000 people (reach), or will you narrow your audience to 10,000 people, or less, and spread your budget out over seven-days, hitting the same people multiple times (frequency)?
Next week will be part three in this short series of You Can't Polish A Poo - Who Is Educating You?
I hope you get something from this weeks blog / Five Minute Friday podcast and if you have any questions please email me at
It's No Secret Business Conference
On the 17th and 18th of August 2018. I will be holding a 2-Day It's No Secret Business Conference in Cairns and this year's theme is 'Communication, Persuasion and Influence'. My Keynote Speaker is David M Frees from Pennsylvania, who was also my guest on Podcast Episode 2. Bookings are NOW OPEN and for more details please visit my EVENTS page. (Limited to 50 attendees) If you have any concerns about making a booking please email me directly.
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First 16 Pages of My Book – It’s No Secret There’s Money in Small Business.
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