How many of you receive more than 200 e-mail messages per day? How many of you receive more than 50 text messages per day? How many of you read more than 200 entries on social media platforms per day? Add to that radio and TV messages, Internet pop-ups, banner ads, product packages, direct mail promotions and other “input” and you have a perfect recipe for sensory overload. Studies have shown that while most people think they can multi-task well, nearly all of them showed reduced focus and performance standards on tests that required them to concentrate on as many as three tasks at once. The tasks got completed eventually, but not always with the level of quality required, and in approximately the same amount of elapsed time as would have passed if they had done each task individually in serial fashion. So where’s the gain?
With that many messages coming into our consciousness, none of them receive the attention they deserve, to the point where we actually spend as much energy prioritizing them as we do comprehending them and acting upon them.
Too many choices, too much information, not enough filtering or discrimination between input sources leads to inaction, dilutes the impact of each message, and slows progress and productivity. As marketers, we need to constantly be aware of the environment in which our customers and prospects function. Bombarding them with messages doesn’t necessarily lead to action, but does lead to saturation, and that saturation point is far more quickly reached today than it was even two years ago.
That’s actually good news for intelligent marketers. It means that spending more money on higher insertion frequency, broader media buys, longer ad schedules, and higher print and circulation runs won’t get the desired results, and that knowledge allows us to focus on greater message positioning, greater relevance, tighter targeting, higher impact, and better value in our communications. Less is more, and better is less.
Make it perfect, make it relevant, make it resonate, make it accessible on many platforms and through many channels to allow for preference, but don’t bombard or carpet-bomb in order to achieve penetration – the shields are up and it won’t work!
Spend the savings in increased production value, higher creativity, better thought processes, higher levels of innovation, originality and transparency – it will pay off ten-fold in the long run.
If you think this makes sense, or would like more information on this topic or others, Pick up a copy of “The Marketing Doctor’s Survival Notes” – a great addition to your professional library.
