This is a subject I keep coming back to. It is important. And we see it constantly violated.
All marketing efforts should be consistent in look, message, and text (tone, as well as exact wording of key phrases).
There are two major aspects to this.
First of all, consistency in your advertising gives you the benefit of repetition. After a while they start to notice your ads. It takes repetition to do that. Hardly anyone notices an ad the first time it appears.
It also means you won’t be competing with yourself. It can literally happen that consumers think there are two or more companies advertising in your industry when they are all you.
This consistency must apply across ALL media. Print ads, Yellow Pages, TV, radio, Internet, billboards, direct mail, etc. – they all become part of a whole, building awareness and an impression with your target market.
The second major angle is consistency through the steps of the marketing chain. That means that your website, sales materials, signage, even on-hold messages, every “touch point” continues that same look, message, and wording.
Tests have shown numbers like a 250% improvement in a website performance when this rule is followed. After all, they clicked through to your website (or entered the URL) because of the look and promise of the ad they were responding to.
Food for thought.