As with most things in life, there’s a delicate sense of balance that goes along with high frequency marketing tactics. While you want to reach every lead at exactly the right stage in the sales cycle, you don’t want to overwhelm your audience. When high frequency marketing becomes too frequent, it will backfire on you. So, how do you hit that perfect sweet spot?
Don’t Be a Telemarketer. Understand Inbound Marketing.
One of the best ways to ensure you’re using good high frequency marketing techniques is to do a serious evaluation of how your content marketing strategy is performing. We’ve posted numerous resources on the CEM blog in the past to help you ask the right questions of your content strategy. But, your success really boils down to your ability to think like an inbound marketer.
For most businesses, telemarketing, direct mail, and email spam is out. There’s a great Infographic on inbound and outbound marketing that you should see in case you need any proof.
· 200 million Americans are on the FTC “Do Not Call” list.
· 44% of direct mail is never opened.
· 91% of people who have signed up for an email listing have later unsubscribed.
Get the picture? Make sure your high frequency marketing strategies don’t resemble these old school marketing methods in the least. High frequency marketing is still good (it’s very much alive and well), but it shouldn’t resemble these old outbound marketing techniques.
CEM founder Amie Marse has a helpful post that anyone interested in starting up a high frequency marketing strategy should read before they get the ball rolling. It comes down to this: provide quality over quantity, and it really doesn’t really matter how intense your high frequency marketing is (within reason, of course!).
It’s Okay to Ask How You’re Doing.
Once you think you’ve figured out what kind of high frequency marketing strategies your audience resonates with, it’s okay to ask them how you’re doing. In fact, you should ask. Most customers aren’t going to just tell you that they’d rather see more newsletters about your widgets and less about your gadgets. You have to ask.
Dave Bui has five great suggestions on how you can go about getting feedback from your audience. While his blog post focuses more on products, the first three suggestions can easily be applied to your content strategy. Try using surveys, email marketing, and social media to get feedback on your high frequency marketing.
Get in the habit of asking your audience what they would like to hear about and how often they would like to hear it. If people are genuinely interested in what you’re selling (and at least some of them probably are), they’re likely to respond to your request and give you a few topics and suggestions to help keep your high frequency marketing effective and on track. If you’re having trouble getting the feedback you want, consider incentivizing surveys and other feedback forms.
An Essential Part of Your Content Strategy.
So, you have your high frequency marketing strategy operating from an inbound marketing perspective. You’re getting good feedback from your audience. Of course, you want to be sure you’re not overdoing it. How can you be certain? Remember:
· Focus on quality. When quality remains at the forefront, you’d be hard pressed to go wrong.
· Target the right audience. When you’re directing your efforts toward the people who care, they’re going to stick with you.
· Get feedback from that audience. Check in with your audience. Remember, content marketing is a conversation. There’s no reason to hold a “focus group” to get feedback. You should be in a continual “focus group” with your audience!
Have you overwhelmed customers with a high frequency marketing strategy? If so, how did you find out? What lessons did you learn?