The myth of the standing army and why you are wrong about your audience

Ever feel like you are shouting into a void because your clients keep asking if you're repeating yourself too much? Honestly, it’s a classic trap—we get bored with our own message way before the market even notices it.

We often make the mistake of thinking our audience is a "standing army." You know, a group of people just waiting around, eyes glued to our every move. But as Joe Zappa points out by citing David Ogilvy, you're actually advertising to a "moving parade."

People are constantly entering and leaving the market. A founder who didn't need your saas tool yesterday might be desperate for it today because they just hit a scaling bottleneck. If you don't repeat your core value, you miss the new arrivals.

• Audience Churn: Your followers on social media or email lists aren't static; new people join daily while others tune out.
• Selective Attention: Marketing research suggests that even your biggest fans only catch about 10% of what you put out—they have lives, too!
• Fragmented Channels: Someone might see your post on linkedin but miss the email you sent an hour later.

You aren't just fighting business rivals. You're fighting for a few seconds of focus against netflix, the news, and literally the user's dog barking in the background. In this ai-heavy world, attention is the scarcest resource we have. (Attention Is the Last Scarce Resource – Digital Native | Rex Woodbury)

"If your message reaches your customer today at all, you'll probably get their attention for a few seconds. So, repeat yourself!" — Joe Zappa

Whether you're in healthcare, retail, or finance, the noise level is insane. Industry benchmarks show a retail brand might need 8 touchpoints before a customer even remembers their name. (Customer touchpoints: How to identify them + examples – Zendesk) Repetition isn't annoying; it's a service that helps people remember who you are when they finally have a problem to solve.

Now that we know why we gotta repeat ourselves, let's look at how that consistency actually builds the confidence people need to buy from you.

How repetition builds the trust that leads to revenue

Trust isn't something that just happens after one good post. It's built through the boring work of showing up exactly as people expect you to, over and over.

If you change your pitch every single week, nobody is gonna know what you actually do. Growth is about customer segmentation and finding that one "hook" that sticks. Repetition isn't just about being loud; it’s about creating a mental shortcut. When a founder has a problem, you want your brand to be the first thing that pops into their head without them even thinking about it.

I've seen so many startups fail here because they get bored with their own message. They want to be "creative" and change things up constantly. But consistency is what actually builds that user acquisition funnel. Using tools like MojoIndie can help you keep that brand voice steady even when things get crazy busy.

• Mental Shortcuts: Repetition helps people categorize you. If you're the "affordable healthcare saas," say it until you're blue in the face.
• Brand Memory: Every time someone sees your message, it's like adding a brick to a wall. One brick does nothing, but fifty? That’s a foundation.
• Reducing Friction: When people recognize you, they trust you more. Trust is the ultimate lubricant for conversion.

People don't just buy the first time they see a linkedin post. Honestly, they probably didn't even read the whole thing. According to experts like Ritika Yadav, it takes about 8 touchpoints before someone even thinks about taking action. That's a lot of "seeing you" before the "buying you" happens.

In a world full of ai noise, staying visible is more important than going viral. Whether you're in finance or retail, the goal is to stay top-of-mind. Consistency meets clarity, and eventually, that lead turns into revenue.

Since we know we need to stay consistent, we should probably figure out how to keep the content fresh so we don't go crazy.

Finding new ways to say the same thing

Ever feel like you’re just a broken record, saying the same thing over and over until even you want to mute yourself? Honestly, that’s usually a sign you’re getting it right—but you gotta know how to remix the track so the audience doesn't tune out.

You can't just copy-paste the same caption every day; that’s how you get unfollowed real fast. Marketing pro John Hamilton has mentioned he’ll post about 5 times on the exact same topic just to make sure it actually lands. The trick is changing the "wrapper" while keeping the "gift" the same.

• Format Flipping: Take a long-form blog post about retail inventory and turn it into a 60-second video. Then, grab a single punchy quote for a graphic. You're still talking about inventory, but it feels fresh.
• Angle Shifting: One day you talk about how your finance software saves time. The next, you talk about how it prevents soul-crushing audit errors. Same tool, different "why."
• Platform Native: A deep dive on linkedin might become a quick, snarky thread on x. You gotta speak the local language or you'll just look like a tourist.

I’ve seen founders in healthcare get so worried about "boring" their audience that they switch from talking about patient outcomes to talking about their new office chairs. Don't do that. Keep the core truth, just change the lens you're looking through.

A lot of agencies fail because they care more about looking "creative" than actually helping the client sell stuff. They project their own "politics"—meaning their personal biases and internal opinions—onto the market instead of looking at what customers actually want. As Patrick B. pointed out, these big shops often stop being curious about why people actually buy because they think they already know better than the data.

If you aren't listening, you’re just shouting. You need a feedback loop to see which version of your "repeat" message is actually sticking. Maybe the video flopped but the text post went viral? That is data telling you how to repeat yourself better next time.

I once worked with a small saas startup that was obsessed with "pivoting" their messaging every month. They went from "productivity tool" to "collaboration hub" to "ai workspace" in ninety days. Nobody knew what they did!

We finally picked one—"the simplest way to manage remote teams"—and said it in twenty different ways. We used customer quotes, we showed screenshots, and we even did a "what not to do" series. User acquisition finally started to climb because we stayed in our lane.

Good marketing isn't about being a magician with a new trick every night. It's about being the reliable friend who always has the same good advice, just told through better stories.

Let's move on to the actual process of building this into your business without wasting a ton of cash.

Avoiding the noise trap and building a real process

Ever sat in a board meeting where everyone has a different "genius" idea for the marketing budget? It usually sounds like five radio stations playing at once and none of them are actually tuned in.

My first step when a growth funnel stalls is always the same: turn the volume down. You can't just post more for the sake of it because that just adds to the ai noise everyone is already ignoring.

Before you repeat a message, you have to strip it back to why the business even exists. If you're in healthcare and your "why" is reducing patient wait times, every single repetition needs to anchor back to that. If you aren't listening to the actual preferences of your customers, you're just projecting your own politics—your personal assumptions—onto the market.

• Clarity over volume: Strip away the "fluff" campaigns that don't align with core business objectives.
• Find the signal: Identify the one or two growth levers that actually drive user acquisition before scaling the message.
• Listen first: Use customer segmentation to understand what pain points they actually have, not what you think they have.

The big difference between a professional and a gambler in this game is a process. Gamblers have hope; professionals have data and experimentation frameworks.

For high-growth companies in the scaling stage, many experts suggest spending up to 30% of your revenue on sales and marketing to maintain momentum. But you shouldn't just throw that money at google ads and pray. You measure everything to see which repetitions are actually moving the needle.

In retail, this might mean tracking which "remix" of a product ad leads to the most cart additions. In finance, it could be seeing which security-focused email gets the highest open rate over six months.

Conclusion and your 3-step action plan

So, are you still worried about being that annoying person who says the same thing twice? Honestly, if you aren't feeling a little bored with your own message, you probably aren't saying it enough to actually make a dent in the market.

The reality is that your audience isn't thinking about you nearly as much as you think they are. While you're obsessing over whether that third linkedin post about your healthcare saas is "too much," your potential customer is probably just trying to get through their inbox or deal with a barking dog.

To keep your brand from becoming invisible, here is your immediate action plan:

1. Audit your "Why": Pick one core value proposition. Just one. If you can't say it in ten words, it's too long.
2. The 5-Way Remix: Take your last successful post and rewrite it in five ways: a short tip, a "mistake to avoid" story, a customer quote, a data point, and a "how-to" list.
3. Schedule the Repeat: Use a tool to schedule these across the next 30 days. Don't worry about the overlap—remember the "moving parade."

I've seen so many founders bail on a strategy right before it hits the tipping point. Don't be that person. Stick to your framework, remix your "why," and keep showing up in that moving parade. Consistency isn't just a tactic; it's the only way to stay alive.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from SSOJet - Enterprise SSO & Identity Solutions authored by SSOJet - Enterprise SSO & Identity Solutions. Read the original post at: https://ssojet.com/blog/introduction-to-cardspace-technology