5 Ways to Use the Power of Repetition to Win More Customers

Understanding what makes a consumer choose your grocery store over your competitors is key to successful marketing campaigns

Both a science and an art, great marketing campaigns start with great ideas and compelling content. But that’s only part of the equation. Understanding what makes a consumer choose your grocery store over your competitors is equally important. To do this, you can either go through the painful process of learning the many principles of psychology, or apply a fundamental marketing strategy: repetition.

Repeat to Persuade

Repetition isn’t rocket science, but it is powerful and proven. To illustrate the power of repetition, how many of these phrases do you recognize?

Just do it
Got milk?
Think different
I’m lovin’ it
Because you’re worth it
It’s finger-lickin’ good

Depending on your age, you can probably name at least a few of the companies or products associated with these slogans, and that’s no accident. What you may not realize, though, is that the companies behind the marketing messages have spent millions of dollars over many years to get those slogans in your brain.

In the advertising world, the process of getting these types of marketing messages in your head is called “effective frequency.” It refers to the number of times a consumer must be exposed to an advertising message before the desired response is achieved – whether that is to purchase, or to remember a marketing message. So how many times should a message be repeated to achieve its goal? While the “rule of seven” may still hold some water, today’s marketing experts generally agree that it’s between three and five.

Tap Into the Power of Repetition

Don’t let all of your great content go unnoticed by sharing it once and moving on. Reusing images, words and messages creates familiarity, making it more likely that people will remember your brand when it comes to picking a grocery store to shop at.

Of course, not all grocery retailers can implement advertising and marketing campaigns at the scale of companies like Nike or McDonald’s. But, thanks to advanced digital marketing technology, reaching the magic effective frequency rate, and ultimately achieving “familiarity” with your brand, is easier than ever. Executing on the following five proven and effective digital marketing techniques will not only keep your brand and your message top-of-mind, but will also help increase sales and grow market share:

Reusing images, words and messages creates familiarity, making it more likely that people will remember your brand when picking a grocery store to shop at.

Start with great content. Starting with a compelling message and a robust content marketing strategy is an effective way to disseminate that message and connect with your ideal customer. In fact, on average, according to Aberdeen Research, conversion rates are six times higher for brands using content marketing than those that aren’t. Additionally, content marketing is incredibly cost-effective and offers amazing ROI. Compared with traditional marketing programs, content marketing costs 62 percent less and generates approximately three times the volume of leads. However, to make sure you’re striking all of the right chords for your brand, you’ll want to work with savvy curators and creators of content. Without a solid content foundation, subsequent efforts are pointless.
Personalize your content. Using the same one-size-fits-all promotions no longer cuts it. Today, winning over the heart of a consumer requires personalized, real-time promotions, which requires data, and lots of it. Hyper-segmentation is one of the best ways to achieve a more focused content marketing strategy. Dividing your customer base into narrow demographic criteria will help your business understand how to generate the most applicable and meaningful content your audience is looking for.
Communicate regularly. Research shows that consumers need to be exposed to your message three to five times before they take action. Remember, frequency breeds familiarity, and familiarity breeds trust. The good news for grocery marketers is that it’s easy for brands to regularly publish branded content campaigns across a variety of platforms and mediums, including social networks, owned media properties and other external websites. It also works well for mobile consumption – engaging with on-the-go shoppers.
Use multiple channels. Your potential customers are everywhere, online and off-, so you have to be too. The best marketing campaigns use a variety of marketing mediums, from local print ads, to email campaigns, to social media, to organic search and display ads. And don’t forget the power of retargeting, a digital ad strategy that delivers your ad or content to consumers on other sites they visit.
Track what works. You can’t fix what you don’t track. This means that tracking your digital marketing campaigns is a must-have. Today’s leading digital marketing experts provide clients with context at every step of the journey, so the data and insights make perfect sense. With advanced tracking tools, grocery marketers can even assess data on how their store’s digital marketing compares with its competitors.

Implementing the level of frequency necessary to build familiarity with your brand to maximize basket size and customer loyalty doesn’t have to be a Herculean task. By leveraging a combination of marketing experts and leading digital marketing technology, grocery brands have access to the tools and strategies that they need to quickly and easily use repetition to win brand loyalty from their customers.