Marketers, Learn to Apply the Rule of 7 : Make More Sales

The Rule of Seven is one of the oldest adages in marketing.  It generally says that a person has to see a marketing message at least seven times before that person will buy whatever is being promoted.  This could be challenging online because it takes a lot of work to get someone to visit your website to view your marketing message once let alone return to your site seven times.  So that leaves the next best thing to do which would be to repeat your marketing message seven different times seven different ways within the same website or even the same page.  Well, now I see the wheels turning in your heads. Perhaps you are wondering what if you don't deliver the marketing message exactly seven times. Don’t worry, the number seven is believed to be just a number of preference.  It could have very well have been the rule of eight or five.  What is very important about the rule is that a marketing message needs to be seen and/or heard repeatedly before the prospect will take action and actually buy the product. 

How to Make the Rule of 7 Work for You

There are reasons why you should consider the rule of seven while marketing online and offline.  The following sections discuss these reasons and how to make the rule of 7 work for you.

Clamor ( Noise )

The internet is a world wide web full of millions of sources of information all shouting through their many headlines to get your attention.  There is everything from political action groups to weight loss companies all competing at the same time to be seen and heard.  Online marketing messages are not the only commotion that your prospect encounters.  There are also hundreds sometimes thousands of offline marketing messages that your prospect comes across every day.  It has been estimated that the average person is introduced to a combination of at least 3,000 online and offline marketing messages a day.  This, of course, includes walking past labels in a grocery store, the labels on the close you wear, etc.

How can you make your message stand out among all of the noise?  Apply the rule of 7.  Repeat your marketing message as many times as possible.  Know that a prospect is going to ignore your message the first few times that they see it.  This is because we have built up a resistance to advertisements.  In fact, your prospect is not going to hear your message two out of every three times that they see it.  So, it has been suggested that the rule of 7 is really the rule of 21.  One important thing to grasp is that if your marketing message is not working it is not necessarily the message.  It could be that you just need to repeat it more often.

Just an additional note about overcoming the noise with repetition.  Repetition has been known to create familiarity which leads to liking.  This is one thing that you want to happen.  You definitely want your prospect to like your advertising and begin to have ideas of liking your product. 

Prospects May Need Your Product…Later

Don’t always think that just because a prospect does not buy from you that you have targeted the wrong group.  Chances are that you targeted the right group and it just so happens that that prospect does not need your product just yet.  This does not mean that they will not need your product later.

How does the rule of 7 help with prospects that don’t immediately need your product?  The rule of 7 helps through repetition.  Repetition helps us to memorize.  I am sure you remember as a youth repeating your multiplication tables over and over again until you had them memorized.  This is the same thing that you want to happen with your prospect.  You want them to see and/or hear your marketing message enough times that they remember it and where they can get your product.  

Products That Are A Bit Pricey

There are times when you just can’t charge a bargain cellar price for an item.  Although you might want to undersell a product it is known that part of the perceived value of a product often comes from the price.  Sometimes if you price a product too low then it will not sell as well because the perceived value is low.  So, your only option, then, is to price the item high.

How does the Rule of 7 help to sell those pricier items?  Repetition.  As mentioned earlier, repetition causes familiarity and familiarity causes like.  The more you repeat the marketing message and the value in a product the more familiar a prospect will become with that product and begin to accept its value as you have portrayed it.  Remember, through repetition the prospect not only becomes familiar with the ad and the product, but they feel more familiar with you causing trust and more likelihood that they would pay the higher price for the product.

Yours Is Just Another Marketing Message

As mentioned earlier, there are millions of messages on the internet.  Your marketing message is just one of the millions.  What I am trying to say is that in most cases your prospect will not know you any more than they know any of the other people behind marketing messages found on the internet.  Initially, they don’t know you nor do they have any reason to trust you.

How does The Rule of 7 help with trust issues between you and your prospect?  As mentioned earlier familiarity results from repetition.  Not to beat a dead horse, but the more a prospect sees your marketing message the more familiar he/she will become with you and the more they will trust you.  Repetition will set your message apart from the millions of other marketing messages.

Conclusion

The Rule of 7 is one of the oldest concepts in marketing.  Quite frankly it is one of the tried and proven.  The more a prospect sees a marketing message the more likely they are to buy the product.  Repetition increases memory of the product as well as increases the familiarity of the product.  I recommend that those who are not using repetition in their marketing messages to begin using it.  There is no doubt that using repetition in your marketing messages will increase your sales.

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