One of the secrets of getting your message across to prospects and customers is to communicate with them at an unconscious level.

In order to do that successfully, you need to repeat the same message consistently.

In marketing terms, that means if you want to get a positive reaction from your customers, you have to be consistent and persistent with your marketing.

Businesses can easily present too many different faces to their customers and prospects. But, if you want success, you need consistency in your message, in your appearance, in your language and in your timing.

Sometimes people give up too easily. They'll say, "Oh, I tried that. It didn't work." But you've got to keep going.

Or what happens is that they get bored with their own message so they think other people are getting bored, too. So they change what they're doing, or they change their message.

The reality is that if you are utterly sick and bored with your marketing message and what you've got to say, then chances are that it's just starting to register on your customers' radar screens.

You have to repeat it over and over again.

Some research says that you have to present your sales message an average of seven times before somebody will respond to it. Other research suggests even more contact is required.

If you try once and it doesn't work, don't be surprised. You've got to keep going back in order to get that message across.

The scientific term for something that consistently triggers a specific reaction is known as 'anchoring'.

For example, some people may associate the smell of freshly baked cookies with their childhood or the taste of food with a memorable vacation. These events become anchors as they always trigger the same reaction.

Similarly in marketing, if you immediately associate a piece of music with a company's name (perhaps because it's from their television advertising) that's a very successful marketing use of anchoring - provided your feeling about it is positive of course.

The principle of anchoring is about consistently triggering the same positive response in people and you don't need a multi-million dollar advertising budget to create it.

The secret is to have something that people will easily identify with. Keep on repeating it. Make sure that it gets anchored in people's minds as having a specific meaning.

Make sure that when you're talking about your business to other people, you're describing it in the same way all the time. If you continually talk about it differently, people will get confused.

When you find a message that works, keep repeating it over and over again, so it becomes anchored with people and creates a consistent positive effect.

In marketing terms, this is what branding is about - it's having a consistent approach so that people recognize something distinctive about you, or the way you do business, that they will remember.

To make a message stick, you need to create processes and mechanisms that keep you in regular contact with prospects and customers, such as newsletters, regular mailings and scheduled meetings.

So, if you want to communicate successfully at an unconscious level, consider what you need to change so that your customers see a consistent view of all your activities.