It's Halloween. I remember when it was purely an American tradition; when the closest it got to Australia was in an episode of The Brady Bunch.
But it seems that the event has really got traction for the current generation of teens and even business is jumping on the bandwagon (which makes a lot of sense for our local Warrandyte Lolly & Treats Shop, but not so much for Jetstar).
In the 'spirit' (get it?) of Jetstar, using a theme that actually has little to do with your core business or positioning to underpin a communication piece, and therefore with a generous dollop of hypocrisy, I thought I would share with you, on this the spookiest of days, the single most frightening thing that small business does.
They try something once, or twice, and then.....stop.
It may be an ad in the local paper. It may be a Facebok post. And it may be a bit more often than once, but it will be no way near often enough.
For marketing to be effective you need frequency.
"The more you tell, the more you sell' is a quote from the great David Ogilvy. Now, we may update it a bit for today - "The more you connect and engage with people, the closer the relationship and the eventual sale" - but it is true.
People don't notice an ad or message until they have seen it/heard it at least 7 times.
And only if the message is in the right place.
And only if it is the right message; an offer, information, motivation, that appeals to them.
You have to be consistent and give your activity time to gain traction and for the momentum to build.
And that in itself is frightening. I get it. You might spend 6 months advertising, shooting out tweets and posts, sending emails every couple of weeks....all with your fingers crossed while you hope that it is going to work, eventually.
But hope is NOT a strategy.
The way to remove the fear of failure, the fear of sticking to a marketing plan, ploughing all of your resources into it, not knowing if it is going to work is to build that marketing plan on a solid foundation of STRATEGY.
Working out beforehand exactly who you need to speak to, where you need to say it, what are the key messages, how you should go about doing it.
And then you can stay brave, over time, implementing your plan, with frequency and consistency - Knowing that you are doing the right thing. And that won't be frightening at all. 
