Effective frequency is key to your relationships. In fact, three to nine times is the ideal range. But if you want to achieve the best results you have to know which body parts to engage and how to do it.

Now that I have your undivided attention let's start over. Over the years, marketers have turned to the studies conducted by psychologists that determine how many times a person must be exposed to a message in order for that individual to really see or hear the message. Anywhere from three to nine times was the result. The marketing world calls this effective frequency.

Most companies rely on traditional broadcast marketing to attain the effective frequency of three to nine times. To increase their advertising impact, companies search for touchpoints in more and more areas. Think billboards, telephones, email, fax machines, magazines, yellow pages, sales letters, brochures, business cards, online banner ads, television, radio, clothing, etc. Any blank space in front of a pair of eyeballs is fair game.

Does this still work? You tell me. Each day you see thousands of ads. How many grab your attention because of their relevancy to your life? The sheer volume of unsolicited sales pitches invading our personal space has made us numb to the message and annoyed with the lack of value.

Despite these challenges you still need to get your name and message in front of your prospects three to nine times.

But for your touchpoints to truly be effective, you need more than eyeballs. This is what Brian Clark discussed in Copyblogger about a week ago and it resonated. Clark pointed out three other important, but often overlooked, body parts that your messaging must capture for you to get a positive response.

You need brains-prospects who are actively engaged in your material.

You need hearts-prospects who believe in your message and feel an attachment to your name.

You need mouths-prospects who will discuss and share your information with their network.

How do you get these body parts?

Incorporate good content in your touchpoints. You will engage those body parts that can deliver great results.

Here's a sample scenario illustrating the use of nine content-laden touchpoints.

You place an advertisement in ABC publication (one) but instead of broadcasting your name, your ad offers free, helpful information on your Web site (two) to the viewer in the form of a buyer's guide (three). You also run an advertorial in the same publication (four) with a similar offer. You launch an extremely specialized letter campaign (five) and some of recipients are also readers of ABC publication. Attached to your letter is a case study or success story emphasizing a solution to the reader's current problems (six). You also let the reader know you will be contacting them by phone (seven) to discuss their questions. You follow up each phone call with a letter thanking them for their time (eight). Included with your letter is an article (nine) that your prospect finds helpful.

Increased lead generation with higher quality prospects? Yes, definitely. More work? Yeah, that to. Of course you could continue with same old advertising as usual. But these days that just doesn't work anymore.



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