Reach and Frequency are advertising terms. It is also an issue I discuss with my urologist. But, I digress.

As we all know, reach is the number of different people who are exposed to an advertising message at least once.
Frequency is the number of times they are exposed to that same message.
A related term is coverage, which is the potential number of people exposed to a message.

As we move on line, we need to re-think our approach to reach, frequency and coverage. How we attract, educate and move (notice I didn’t say sell) our audiences, is critical, in an extremely cluttered environment. The herds are thinning in the pharmaceutical sales forces, access to physicians and thought leaders is evaporating. Direct to consumer is at an all time high which is driving most docs to distraction.
The relationships we have spent years nurturing have to be approached differently. This is where currently, the disconnect is. When I speak to clients about carefully building a database or list they will need in order to have a permission based conversation with their customers, they drop off and hold the course.
They continue to hold fast to what has always worked before because of the steps involved in building a carefully garnered list of people that might have an interest in hearing from them.
Which leads us to content. Content is king. I won’t go into my usual rant about static web sites and innocuous e-mails. Most web sites are repositories of company information that sit dormant for months or years. E-mail, with no customer specific messaging, the worst offender, is the antagonistic, annoying and by far the most destructive relationship ender.
It’s like calling a client up and having nothing to say. “I’m just checking”!

Pretty soon, when your number pops up on caller ID, they will stop answering.
Before you pull the trigger on that next e-mail blast think about how your audience will receive it. No, really think about it.
Reach, frequency and coverage are just numbers, the audience you’re communicating with are not. Don’t wear out your welcome. Remember, anticipated, relevant and personal.

“The party you have reached is unavailable….. please leave a message after the tone.”