Quick & Dirty - Frequency Vs Amplitude

Zack Greenfield • October 3, 2020
We're going to go over something. That's just a constant conversation around here that you all need to be paying attention to. And that is the difference between frequency in your marketing and amplitude. And I'm going to tell you all what's the right way to go.

This one's going to go quick because there's not much to say about it. It's pretty much a straight answer, but there are two approaches to marketing. There is some people that go for amplitude, which is like, you know, big project and a lot of impact. And it's kind of like you shoot your whole shot there. And then the other strategy, which is the one that I tend to recommend more, especially for local businesses, small businesses and businesses that are trying to launch and get the message out is to take a frequency approach. Now, the differences between the two things can be dramatic in terms of workflow, when you set yourself up and you're trying to go for, you know, this big effort and get this, you know, gigantic thing out. And a great example of that, where I see people getting really bogged down is just writing on an email. 

So they think they've got to come up with this long, big email. So it has a lot of amplitude and all these different messages, a lot of different calls to actions and they're highlighting three or four different products or services and all this other stuff. And a lot of that ends up just being really overwhelming on the person, you know, on the customer side of the prospect side, that's receiving it. It's just too much. And, um, the other thing is from a work standpoint, you're putting in this gigantic effort and the tends to bog down the entire marketing process. And it might take you a week or two weeks to refine this email, which I see all the time, which seems crazy, but that's what ends up happening. And it's just lost time, you know? So the better approach, and what I recommend you do is to go for a frequency model, especially with the level of noise that there is today. 

If you think about marketing, or if you think about your prospects and their lives, right? Think about the grading analogy would be, you know, when you're thumbing through Instagram, that's kind of like the feed, right? Think about the feed of your prospect's life. It's not just Instagram that they're feeding on, right? Or they're thumbing through. They've got a lot of other things in their lives that are coming out that like in the stream, they've got work stuff and kid stuff and family stuff, relationship stuff, and bills and expenses, and, you know, managing, you know, getting their car fixed and all these things are streaming at them all the time, including what's on their smartphone and their computers. Right? So contents coming at them as well. So where do you fit into all that? 

It's like it's one and done. And it really slows down your ability to keep present with that prospect. And in today's marketing, I recommend that you go for a presence approach, which means that you, you send out bite-size bits in more of a story format that can be consumed easily, that doesn't overwhelm the prospect, but keeps you top of mind. Right? So if you think about it, that way that you want to take up Headspace, then the way to do that is to be present, right? And you want to be present as much as possible so that when the person's ready to make that buying decision, your top of mind, and they're going to get ahold of you, you know, click or call or whatever the call to action is. But if you don't stay top of mind and you do that, this one shot and say 10 days goes by and they haven't heard from you, and then this need comes up for what you offer. 

And they just can't remember. There was like, yeah, I remember that one company sent me something and it was like two weeks ago or a week ago, but I don't really, you know, I don't know who it was. I'm just going to search for a new thing. Right. And then you kind of lost them. But if you stay with, with, um, with steady, consistent story-based advertising campaigns, email campaigns, um, you know, social media con you know, content posting and so forth, and they dropped some YouTube videos, whatever the strategy is, it doesn't matter. It's better to do them small and frequent than big. And, uh, just, you know, kind of one and done, which is exactly why I like to do these videos here real tight, real short, because it's easier for me workload wise, I get them out. We do a couple in a row. 

We set them up for like a couple of weeks. We know they're going to drop. They get converted and syndicated and all these other places, and everybody wins. You guys get great information, you know, from behind the scenes of what we've learned. And it doesn't bog down us on the production side because we're just making little bites. So go ahead and make bites. Think about how to get some continuity there, take up the Headspace in your prospects minds, as best as you can. And don't get bogged down with your marketing.
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