Levin’s Law on Cheap and Easy Marketing Mediums

As few as fifteen years ago, many communications platforms that we rely on today barely existed, or didn’t exist at all. The web was just getting started (thanks to Netscape), only people in educational institutions had email, and forget about blogs, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Now, it is safe to say that most businesses are using the web, email, and maybe even some social media in their marketing mix.

And why not?

They are inexpensive and fairly easy to use. But those same attributes also make them easy for anyone to use. Your prospects and customers are also the prospects and customers of many other businesses, which are using the same online tools. That amounts to a deluge of emails, a crowded blog space, and a saturated social media platform all competing for the attention of the same clients.

So here is Levin’s Law: There is an inverse relationship between the price of a marketing medium and the effectiveness of that vehicle as a whole. If the medium is cheap, then everyone uses it, your customers and prospects get bombarded, and don’t pay a whole lot of attention to it. As a result, your marketing message can get lost in the shuffle. (Note that Levin’s Law only applies after the first year a medium has been in place.)

Don’t get me wrong; I do think that email marketing, social media, and so on, can be very effective and cost efficient (remember the words “as a whole” in Levin’s Law). In fact, I would say that most companies should be employing these tools. But because Levin’s Law could be working against you, consider the following:

• Put as much effort into preparing your online marketing efforts as you would into more traditional and costly marketing options. Marketing takes time; you can’t force creativity.

 • Make sure that your content is very compelling. Here is a simple way to tell—ask yourself, “Is this something that my prospects and clients will eagerly want to read?” 

• Keep the tools sharp. Best practices in online marketing are constantly evolving. 

 • As the use of traditional media (TV, radio, print, direct mail, etc.) has declined, reconsider these outlets, since you will have a better chance of standing out from the crowd.

There is no magic pill in marketing, regardless of the cost of the medium. Success in marketing depends, and always will, on hitting the right audience with a compelling message.