Audience and Frequency Talk

To be perfectly honest with you, I was in the middle of writing a 3 part series on the 3 R Formula for Advertising Success and I’ve decided to switch things up a bit.

First off, the 3 parter was turning into a 4, 5 or 6 part series and while the information is important, I have other important information and stories to share.

So today, I’m going to dig in and give you the 2nd and 3rd R’s in the formula which goes like this:

Right Message + Right Audience x Right Number of Times = Success

Once you know what the Right Message needs to be, you need to deliver it to the Right Audience.

Now, more than ever in human history, there are more options to deliver your message, but unless you deliver it to the Right Audience, you are wasting your time and money.

I work in both the digital media and traditional media worlds and have seen marketers flock to digital online advertising as they reduce their involvement with the traditional.   The thinking is:

With digital media marketing, I can pinpoint the delivery of my ads to precisely the Right Audience and track everything!

Nice theory, but it’s really just a hyped sales pitch. And it’s one part of the 3 R’s Formula for Advertising Success.

Digital Media can deliver ads to highly targeted audiences.  But there are plenty of flaws.  Sometimes the targeting is too narrow. Sometimes the targeting is too broad. Sometimes people click on an ad by accident.  Sometimes the people running the campaigns are amateurs or they don’t understand the differences in “boosted posts”, “dark posts” and well, you get the idea.

A couple years ago, I noticed a company that specialized in Social Media Marketing was doing a terrible job but they were getting paid big bucks by their clients who didn’t know any better.  This stuff happens.

I’m not against digital media marketing, I just want to warn you that it’s not the only way to reach your Right Audience with your Right Message.  So let’s define what the Right Audience is and then you can decide which advertising mediums to consider.

When I am working with a business owner and I ask them, who they want to reach, too many will say “Everyone!”

So I dig deeper.

Think about the big, mass appeal companies.  Walmart, McDonald’s, Google, Amazon to name a few.

While Walmart and McDonald’s have become leaders in their respective businesses, there are plenty of people who will never go to Walmart and plenty who won’t go to McDonald’s.  Google and Amazon seem to be taking over the world, but there are still plenty of people who avoid them at all costs.

Reaching the Right Audience with your Right Message is a two part exercise.

Part one begins with you.  Who is going to buy what You are selling?  Teenagers don’t buy adult diapers.  Vegan’s don’t buy hamburgers. You get what I’m saying…

Part two of reaching the Right Audience is finding the advertising vehicle that matches part one.  In other words, first determine who your best customers are and then get your Right Message on the advertising medium that will effectively reach your best customers.

Last week I had a conversation with an organization that is looking for volunteers to deliver meals at lunch time to home bound residents.  I asked, “Who are your best driver’s now?” and the answer was people between the ages of 50 and 70.  While they have some volunteer drivers in their 20’s and 30’s, they are not as stable as the older ones.  It’s nothing against them, but in reality, we are going to be more successful recruiting older drivers for this organization.

There are a few advertising options available for reaching this age group and it happens that the most cost effective is going to be my radio station, WOWO radio.

The last part of this 3 R Formula for Advertising Success is the Right Number of times. Remember:

Right Message + Right Audience x Right Number of Times = Success

In this changing media world, I see the Right Number part of this formula being abused.

The Right Number should apply to each individual advertising medium you are using.  Don’t add up the total number of TV ads, and Radio ads, count each broadcast channel separately.

In the radio business we often operate with the idea of getting a “3 frequency”.  The theory is that it takes 3 times for a person to hear a message before it sinks in.  Using insider ratings data, advertising sales people can tell you how many ads it will take to achieve this, but I have a simpler method that I’ll share one day.

Buying one radio ad or one TV ad, or one newspaper ad or one Facebook ad is never recommended. The highest frequency of one ad is always one.

However, I’ve also seen the opposite.  Too many ads delivered too frequently.  That’s because of not understanding the process or using an automated system that over-delivers to not enough people.

I see this over-delivery on screens, for example watching a TV show on demand that has limited commercials but the same commercials every time.  Or another offender is digital display ads that have three or four or more ads on the same page for the same product, company or service.

Determining the Right Number of Times your Right Message needs to be delivered to the Right Audience is the difference between building a positive relationship with your customers or annoying them to the point where they avoid you.

When you are considering inviting people to spend money with you, you need to talk to marketing professionals who understand this entire advertising formula and how to apply it to you and your business.

If you are in Northeast Indiana and want that kind of help, reach out to me.

Here’s links to the other two articles in this series: