Reach and Frequency: two terms that you'll hear frequently when planning an advertising campaign, but what does it all mean and how are the concepts applied?

The concept of Reach can be simply explained as relating to the number of people that will see (or be exposed to you advertising campaign. That campaign could take many forms, whether it be by direct mail, direct selling or some other form of marketing. Frequency is the number of occasions that you expose each individual to your message.

You might think that it would be best to maximise both Reach and Frequency...and you'd be right! Unfortunately, most of us have a limited advertising budget and hence have to make decisions on how we spend that money. This leads to the dilemma that is often expressed as Reach vs Frequency.

As a general rule, it's accepted that you should ideally opt for less reach and greater frequency. The reasoning behind this is actually pretty straightforward (more so than most advertising executives would have you believe!). Quite simply, you're better to build a good rapport with a smaller set of potential customers than to try and reach many more (potential) customers on a one-off basis.

This is because, as you'll know from your own life, you're more likely to trust a company that has a good track-record and that have provided you with a consistently good service in the past. Hence, as an advertiser, your best approach is to give your customers the best possible service and then to let them know about new products and deals that you have on offer. Such customers are more likely to buy from you again and you'll also have the added advantage of being able to target your advertising more effectively: if you build up a good rapport with a customer then you'll have a better idea of their likely future requirements.

So, the next time you hear about Reach versus Frequency, always remember that reach is useless without frequency.