By Patrick Sharpe, psharpe@lessitermedia.com
VP of Audience Development, Lessiter Media
In today’s rapidly evolving marketing world, most of us know one message, one time will not be effective. Marketing has become much more complicated and competitive for that to work.
The Rule of 7 is one of the oldest principles in marketing, which says it takes an average of seven exposures to your marketing message before a prospect will make a purchase.
We understand that from a psychological perspective, the more we see something, the more easily we can remember it. What’s more complicated for us marketers is knowing what exactly is the minimum number of touchpoints needed to influence a potential customer. Too few and we fail to build enough recognition and trust, too many and we'll see a diminishing return on our marketing investment.
But the number seven is debatable today, and perhaps even outdated. However, the fundamentals behind the rule are still very much relevant and shouldn’t be disregarded.
Since we know of no studies that can tell us precisely what our own “Rule of 7” should be today, we must experiment and determine that number ourselves. It might be 7, 17, or even 27.
One thing is for certain, your marketing results will significantly benefit with repeated messaging. Do it smartly and make the effort to determine your magic number of touchpoints. It’ll increase your revenue, save on marketing expenses and improve your customer’s overall experience.
Below are a couple of “must do’s” to help determine your marketing frequency “sweet spot."
