Is Frequency Still Relevant in a Digital World?
If you have kids, you know that frequency works.
If you are a manager, you know that saying a message one time does not work with employees.
There is an inherent value to frequency. Parenting, managing, selling, marketing are not one-shot propositions. Sometimes one ad works, sometimes people win the lottery and sometimes you catch a big fish — but usually the one time has a lot of one times piled up against it.
The logic goes like this: “Frequency breeds familiarity, and familiarity breed trust.” We like to buy from people we trust and from trusted brands.
So what about in the digital world? Well, there is the well-agreed-to rule of seven, but who knows if that is correct. I’d say with all the clutter, the frequency number should be 10 to 20 times.
Where my thinking differs from most is that I believe the buy should be level for the entire year. That way you make sure you supply the reach frequency to the right audience when they are ready to buy into your message, not when you are trying to sell.
Front-loading campaigns works in TV and traditional advertising, but in digital the front load is really a front, learning load. Because you can optimize a digital campaign throughout the year, it make sense to keep running and measuring your frequency with your audience.
Most like to spend time talking about what people need to hear; the smart marketer asks, “How many times do they need to hear it?”
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.
