Make a splash

When you're deciding how to spend you advertising budget, think of dousing, not sprinkling. You can think of your money as a bucket of water. How wet you get your prospects is the same as how many times they hear your ad. You can lightly, politely flick water onto 100 people--they'll have a few drops of wetness on their shirt. Or you can slosh the bucket onto 10 people, leaving them to shake their heads like wet dogs. Which is the better use of your money? I always pick sloppy wet. You can convince 100% of the people 10% of the way, or you can convince 10% of the people 100% of the way. The advertising cost is the same. What's the point of leaving someone 10% convinced? (I'm paraphrasing Roy Williams, wizardofads.com)

I know people get nervous because "everybody" is a great prospect for them, and "everybody" needs to hear, see, drive by my ad. Nope. You don't need to touch "everybody", but you need to convince everyone you touch. Focus. Don't spray and pray. You have a great story to tell. Take your time and tell it well.

One ad here, one ad there. One week on this station, next month on that station. Please don't do that! No one will get a chance to really get to know you and what you offer. Pick some people--and let go of the rest. Then work your tail off to education, persuade and enchant those people. An example--if you happen to be working with radio (and I hope you are), you might start with a schedule that's 10 ads each week, 2 weeks each month. When you can add to that budget, don't flip to another station with the extra budget. Instead, max out the first station before you add another. Increase to 3 weeks/month or every week. Get up to 20 ads each week (that 20 is based on a generalization--your business might require more frequency depending on a lot of factors like how many competitors you have, how long your buying cycle is, etc.). Then, when you've maxed out that station, add another.

A downpour makes an impression.