{"id":5039,"date":"2024-10-11T15:25:13","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T19:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beomniscient.com\/?p=5039"},"modified":"2025-12-11T08:32:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T13:32:45","slug":"threshold-effects-in-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beomniscient.com\/blog\/threshold-effects-in-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"Threshold Effects in Marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I worked on freemium user acquisition at HubSpot, my team and I came up with the \u201cSurround Sound SEO\u201d<\/a> strategy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the origin story: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I noticed that one blog post converted an order of magnitude higher than the blog average, at least when looking at product signups. It was a product listicle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought, \u201cHuh, maybe I can replicate this.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I wrote some more listicles, and they converted at similar levels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then I thought more broadly. What is a user actually looking for when they search \u201cbest CRM software?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re looking to gather a list of options from which to compare and evaluate, ultimately deciding to purchase one of them. One factor that influences inclusion on that initial comparison table is the ubiquity and sentiment of mentions in a search journey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, appear zero times on the search results page for \u201cbest CRM\u201d and you\u2019re not in the conversation. Appear 1-2 times, and you\u2019re present, but not dominating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when every single page that ranks for the query mentions HubSpot as the \u201cbest CRM?\u201d You\u2019re the obvious choice. Impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an old principle behind this in advertising known as frequency<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more often someone sees an ad, the more awareness, recognition, and action occurs from the ads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, there\u2019s diminishing marginal utility after a certain number of touchpoints, and potentially even a backfire effect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recall the common sales advice that someone needs seven touches<\/a> before they respond. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At face value, this is obviously overly simplistic, but even assuming that is the average value, you have to know that going past that is likely to be ineffective or even harmful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you email me three times, I may thank you for persistence and reminding me of something I wanted to take action on. If you email me 7-10 times, I\u2019m going to hit \u201cspam.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, this concept that many touchpoints compound on each other is both obvious and broadly applicable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll show you how it works from a consumer standpoint, but I\u2019ll also walk you through some threshold effects in building SEO programs (and explain why you shouldn\u2019t just dip your toes in the water if you want to see outstanding results). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real quick, what\u2019s a threshold effect?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A threshold effect is a general concept<\/a> that refers to the point at which something happens and below which nothing (measurable) happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water remains in its liquid state as temperature increases, but once it reaches 100\u00b0C (at sea level), it rapidly transitions to steam. The threshold is the boiling point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have to saturate your muscles with creatine<\/a> for it to work. Can\u2019t just take one scoop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Snow accumulates on a mountain slope without issue, but once it exceeds a critical weight or is disturbed by a small event, an avalanche can occur. The threshold is the stability limit of the snowpack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many networks (e.g., social media platforms or marketplaces) become valuable only after<\/a> a critical number of users join. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And more germane to this essay, there are threshold effects in advertising<\/a> that reflect the minimum budget required to see any sort of results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It Just Takes Some Time<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

(…hope you <\/em>sang along<\/em><\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My co-founder David told us, on our latest podcast<\/a>, that he had been seeking information on some subject (sorry David, I can\u2019t remember what it was), and that one brand kept popping up on Google when he\u2019d search for different topics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, he noticed the brand and signed up for their product. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It works that way quite often.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very rarely do you read something so brilliant, so idiosyncratic and novel, so sticky that you immediately follow, subscribe, and reach out to the person who wrote it. I can recall only a handful of essays, podcasts, or posts I\u2019ve experienced that with over the years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the time, our buyer\u2019s journey resembles David\u2019s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You take an entry level marketing coordinator job and have to learn how to do email marketing<\/a>, so you end up on HubSpot\u2019s blog. You have to take on their social media accounts, too, so you find yourself on HubSpot\u2019s blog. You\u2019re like, \u201cthis brand seems to know a little about a lot!\u201d You learn they have an Academy with a bunch of certifications that seem popular. Now you\u2019re in their orbit. Eventually, you\u2019ll probably use their CRM.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Same thing happens on LinkedIn, or that\u2019s what I tell myself anyway when any given post of mine gets 10 likes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see Finn McKenty post some joke<\/a> about CTAs. Then you see him comment on Peep Laja\u2019s post about messaging frameworks. Then another of Finn\u2019s posts comes up in your feed, this one about how to leverage your existing ideas to build an audience on LinkedIn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, you\u2019re following Finn, and like me, paying him to teach you how to do LinkedIn better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of this as a brand awareness threshold, where below a certain point you have no mindshare. It takes several touchpoints to break through even to the point of salience, let alone affinity and action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why, to build an audience<\/a>, it takes trust, which is a function of both quality and consistency over time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

SEO Thresholds and Why Escape Velocity Matters<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In SEO, especially nowadays with Google combating an absolute flood of garbage content, you need to signal that your site is a trustworthy entity (and that your page is high quality and relevant to the query at hand). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric Schmidt once famously said<\/a>, “Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, we\u2019ll just\u2026.build a brand? What does that even mean? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(A subject for another essay perhaps)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually, it\u2019s simpler than that. Your website has to display hard to fake signals<\/a> that it is a trustworthy source on your topic surface area. This is an extreme simplification, but that boils down to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n