While what I am about to talk about certainly refers to any type of marketing out there, for this particular article postcards are going to be my primary focus. The reason is because I think they provide a good example of what I am referring to. Still, I do not want anyone walking away thinking this is not going to be true for all advertisements.

The main thrust of what I am talking about here has to do largely with repetition, but more with why repetition is so needed.

The primary reason is because people are not always going to be as inclined to take something in the first time they see it. Say you send out your first batch of custom postcards. Now, most people when sorting through the mail go through the same process as I do. I sit down with my pile of mail and divide things up into two separate categories including the junk mail and the mail I need to save.

Each piece of mail initially only gets a passing glance, just enough to figure out whether or not I need to save it, and once I know my answer it gets put in the right pile. For the junk mail this means that I will only glance over at it before throwing it away. Yes, some postcards are going to be able to grab my attention in that first glance, but the majority of them are not.

Is this a fault of the postcards; not at all, because very few things will be able to grab my interest in such a short period of time. A perfectly fine color postcard is only going to get a passing glance along with all of the others before getting dumped in the trash.

This is why having more than one wave of custom postcards is needed. The first time I glance at it I will take in some specific details of the postcard, even if I am not putting much thought to it. That means the second time I get a postcard from the company I’ll take in a little more, and then a little more again.

Eventually I am going to start remembering the postcard and the company who sent it. Eventually I am going to stop to look more at the postcard to see what it has to say because it has made it through my mind enough to be well remembered.

This is what you have to keep in mind when you do your marketing. People are not always going to give you as much attention the first time you send something, but that does not mean you are not getting through to them. After enough repetition they will remember who you are, and you will see your sales go up accordingly.