Let’s see how you can do on a simple little quiz! Fill in the blanks below.

Bye, bye Miss American _____
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was _____
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and _____
Singin’ this’ll be the day that I _____

Did you answer pie, dry, rye, die? I’m guessing you can recognize the song pretty easily as, “American Pie” by Don McLean. When was the last time you heard that song on the radio? When was the last time you had “American Pie” come up on your iPod? I’m guessing it’s been a while. Even though you probably haven’t heard it recently, you likely knew the missing words to the song. Why? Because of repetition. You’ve simply heard the song over and over again, countless times. Repetition helps your brain hold onto the words of a famous song that charted in 1972. Repetition is also key to the marketing messages of your business.

I’ve heard a few business owners complain that their radio or TV commercial didn’t generate any interest for their business. Sure, sometimes it’s a poorly worded or structured ad, but more often it’s because the ad wasn’t allowed to run long enough to generate any repetition. I’m not saying all of your commercials need to stick in your audience’s head like a hit song will, but it does takes more than a few exposures to an ad for it to “click” with a user.

The same principle applies to online ads that you might run. Whether it is a Google AdWords campaign or a Facebook post, it is repetition that will make your message stick. I’m by no means saying to make the same post on Facebook every day, but on the other hand, don’t think that making a few random posts will provide you with a successful social media presence.

Ensuring that your marketing message gets through to potential customers requires more than just thorough ads. Using a consistent tagline through your business cards, brochures, flyers, letterhead, email signatures, and anywhere else it can be used, is a big help as well.

If you see that your marketing message doesn’t seem to be catching on, before you scrap the message you are sending, look at how often you are sending out that message. Very few consumers will catch on to marketing messages at their first exposure. Keep delivering that message over and over again through a wide variety of different delivery methods.