Use repetition to achieve marketing ambition

When it comes to marketing, in order to be seen or heard, you have to keep repeating yourself. You cannot rely on just one activity to attract enquiries or make sales.

So how does marketing repetition work in practice? Here are three examples based on typical accountancy marketing activities:

Organising a seminar or event:

1. Send an invitation, a printed invite is likely to generate more response.
2. Later on send one, possibly two, emails as a reminder.
3. Promote the seminar on your website under the firm news section.
4. Mention on social media, posting something about the seminar once or twice a week, ideally incorporating images and photos relevant to the event.
5. Consider placing an advert in the local paper or relevant trade journal if you want to attract a wider audience.
6. Phone your target list, who you haven’t had responses from, to check they have received the invite and to personally invite them to attend.
7. On the day of the event, have someone taking photos and posting onto your social media accounts. Ideally tag anyone who is attending the event, so that you extend your social media reach to their connections as well.

Using telemarketing to generate leads:

1. Send a letter (not email) to your target audience, offering something they may be interested in, e.g. a free tax health check, review of their accounting system for MTD etc.
2. Make a follow-up phone call a week or so later to confirm receipt and to see if they would like to book an appointment/free review etc.
3. If they cannot recall seeing the letter, offer to resend or email it to them and try to book a convenient time to call again to see if they are interested. They will now have your firm name in their head, so are likely to be more receptive to receiving marketing communications from you.
4. If they say they are not interested at this time, ask if they would like to receive your newsletter, as a means of staying in touch and giving them an ongoing reminder as to who your firm is and how you help people/businesses like them.
5. If they ask to be taken off your marketing list, you should do this straight away, making a note of the date they asked to be taken off and ideally give a reason why.

Adverts in parish or town magazines:

1. Try to appear in every (or most) issues, be that weekly, monthly or quarterly. Adverts generate more response when they keep reappearing.
2. Change the message or service you are advertising, but retain the branding. Just having a generic advert which lists everything you do, is not going to be very inspiring.
3. Similar adverts could also be used on your social media pages, to help create brand recognition and to extend the reach of your advert to a wider audience.

Marketing is about being in the right place at the right time, plus an element of luck! By repeating the activity and using other forms of communication to get across your message, you will increase the likelihood of your target prospect responding to your efforts.