The most common cause of business failure is not talking to customers enough.

How often have you heard, "We tried that, sent out a brochure – no-one responded"?

Customers mostly respond to a new supplier or customer or product on the seventh to ninth contact, that's a fact repeatedly proven by research. Sending out one brochure is a proven way to fail.

People aren't hanging around waiting impatiently for the next marketing message, poised ready to respond. In fact –just like you – they are overwhelmed and resistant.

The first time they hear something, they ignore it. And the second time. And the third. And the fourth.

Repetition of your marketing message is essential: persistence pays off.

When do you start to break through? That depends on the number of channels the message is coming through, and – to borrow a web analogy – the number of links.

Channels

If you show me the same ad on TV over and over, yes you will break through, though my evaluation of your message will be clouded by annoyance.

Suppose though I see just a couple of TV ads, and a press ad, and I read an article about you, then someone I know says something about you. Now you are moving towards break through in a much more positive context.

A message delivered via multiple channels will be much more powerful that the same message delivered repeatedly via the same channel.

Links

A channel is simply a communication medium.

A link is a connection a client makes and maintains. Friends, family and work colleagues are links. A magazine I subscribe to, a website I keep in my favourites list, these are links. I seek them out and engage with them because I want to. I value them.

Links are the most powerful form of channel. Instead of using a disruptive media to blast through a wall of indifference they use established trust and preference to imply recommendation.

Repetition, multiple channels and links together deliver the most powerful marketing message and of them repetition is the least dispensable.

If you haven't told them at least seven times recently, that's the reason they are not buying.