"We tried a marketing campaign, but it didn't work."

"I made up a nice brochure and mailed it out, but nothing happened."

"We tried PR -- it didn't get us anything."

All too often, it's just like they (or you) said it: you did try it... once. Forgive me if I'm breaking bad news, but in the game of marketing and business development, hardly anything works if you do it only once.

I believe you already know this. Guys especially know how easily the marketplace can ignore or reject someone. They've been experiencing it since the first time they asked out the cheerleader in high school and got the cold shoulder. So, guys: Did any of us stop trying to date, give up on romance, because the first girl we asked out said no? Then why are so many of us trying out a marketing tack once -- and then abandoning it?

You also know that once doesn't work because you know how many times you've seen the same commercial, or the same ad, or gotten the same annoying solicitation mailer. You know that the big players, the organizations with the giant budgets, are going to come at you again and again. They understand, as do we all, that they need to get their message in front of you seven times before you even notice it -- much less act on it.

As small businesspeople, we can't afford to even play this game, much less compete effectively in it. We can't buy our way to name recognition with advertising. And let's stop dreaming that they're going to save that slick brochure we sent them last winter, or rip out that ad we placed a year ago, until they are ready to hire our services.

But we can achieve repetition -- and don't kid yourself, achieving it is essential to success -- in our own way. The small-size professional practice way. Which means the low-budget, high-value-to-audience way. We can create a system to get ourselves out there often enough, to be in front of their eyeballs when they are ready and receptive, because they need our services.

So let's resolve to get something basic and simple out into the marketplace as often as we can -- once a month ideally.

I suspect some readers are now thinking one of the following : "Write something every month?... I can't do that/I can't afford that/I don't have time/No one is interested/I have no one to send it to/It's too complicated/I don't have enough material to work from.."

But it turns out that this marketing stuff only feels hard when we start with old-school thinking, when we go back to believing that marketing is something only the professionals can do, with those black-magic secrets they learned in MBA school.

No. We can do it successfully too, and on our terms. Here's how:

• We'll build our marketing around simple, everyday kinds of communications - like regular emails, postcards and letters.
• All we need to say in them is very short, simple, elementary bits of information, insight or advice that the marketplace needs to know. As in, "Five Ways to Save On Taxes Next Year," with five suggestions and no more than one sentence explaining the basics of each one.
• We'll send these simple pieces as often as makes sense, to as many people as makes sense. We won't kill ourselves trying to do more. Because when we do, we usually either freeze or fail.

When we follow this plan, we're making it easier on ourselves, so we are far more likely to get it done -- and repeat it on a regular basis.

Repetition: it's the key to marketing and growth. Once we sell ourselves on the idea of doing it often but easily, we've conquered our toughest customer: ourselves.

Return to Public Relations 101

NED STEELE speaks to audiences of busy people in professional services who want a fresh way to look at business development and marketing. He is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice and Awaken The Marketer In You, to be published in 2007, from which this article is adapted. For more useful tips, go to http://www.mediaimpact.biz/tips.asp. To book his presentation "Awaken The Marketer In You…. even if it's the last thing you want to do!" for your next event, email to: info@mediaimpact.biz