So why do prospects need to hear your message so many times before taking action? If you are doing your marketing well, you are targeting the right people; your ideal customers. You have created powerful marketing materials that use language your target audience relates to. You speak to their major problems and how you can solve them. Why don’t they jump to their feet and grab what you have to offer the first time they see your message?

1. Noise

In today’s world, people are being bombarded with messages constantly. It is truly difficult to get past all this noise and be heard.

The first few times someone sees your message its likely it won’t completely register with them. We all have marketing blinders we’ve built up over time – otherwise we’d be overwhelmed with the constant noise from businesses clamoring to be heard.

It’s no different with your prospects. They’re not sitting around waiting for you to show up. They’re busy living their lives and you may not even be a blip on their radar.

2. They don’t need you … yet

Even if you’ve closely targeted the right people, they may not need your product or service today. And if they only see your marketing message once, it’s not likely they’ll remember you tomorrow or next week or next year when they suddenly do need you. When it comes to marketing out of sight is definitely out of mind.

This is true even when your target audience is a business. When I was doing marketing research for my copywriting business, one manager told me when he needs copywriting he’s most likely to go to the one whose flyer just arrived on his desk. He doesn’t want to dig through his list of contacts to find one.

3. They’re worried about the price

In these troubled economic times, price may very well be an issue. However, objections about price are usually code for “I’m not really sure I need/want your product”. If someone really wants what you have to offer, it’s amazing how quickly they’ll figure out how to pay for it.

If a prospect sees your message and is interested but worried about money, it just means you haven’t quite convinced them of the value of your offer. The good news is you’ve gotten past the noise. If they continue to see powerful marketing messages from you, they may get closer to seeing your value and forgetting about their price concerns. That’s why you need to keep marketing.

4. The main reason: they don’t know, like and trust you

The real reason people don’t buy the first time they run across your marketing message is they don’t know you from a hole in the ground. Remember what I said about noise. It’s not just there are too many messages; there are too many messages that aren’t true.

Do you take every commercial, flyer or email marketing message at face value? Or do you have your own personal BS meter that’s shouting “yea, right” when someone makes a claim? Of course you do. I do to. If someone wants to sell to me, they need to prove they can do what they say.

This is the real truth about the Rule of Seven. It takes time for people to get to know you – remember your name, your offer, your message. Once they know you, they need time to get to like you – and your business. Over time, they’ll eventually start to trust you. Once they trust you – trust that you’re honest and provide true value – then, and only then, will they be ready to buy.

How long does this process take? Probably not in seven contacts. It really depends; it depends on the value of your offer, how badly they need it and how many charlatans they’ve run across before.

How do you use the Rule of Seven in your marketing plan?

First, never rely on only one type of marketing method. Even if you are getting stellar results today, that might change in the future. Think of internet marketing. Email used to be much more effective than it is today. That’s why the spammers got involved. Now with spam filters, it’s harder for legitimate marketing to get through.

The same may be true of other marketing methods. Some factor outside your control may change how easily you can reach your prospects. So even if you have discovered a method that is getting you all the customers you can handle, add a couple of other tools to your marketing toolbox to ensure you don’t get blindsided by unexpected changes.

The Rule of Seven is why “information marketing” is so effective. By providing free information to your prospects on a regular basis, you are building a solid relationship. Information offered in a newsletter or blog doesn’t set off alarms because it’s not a sales pitch; it’s a genuine attempt to educate and help.

Finally, simplify or automate the process as best you can. Too many entrepreneurs only market sporadically because they are “too busy” to market themselves. Then they wonder why they don’t have enough clients. Set aside regular times to engage in marketing activities, even when you’re busy. If you continue marketing even when you’re busy, you’ll have fewer slow times.

Andrea J. Stenberg

That orange symbol is the icon for an RSS feed. What the heck is an RSS feed you ask? The acronym RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is a way for you to subscribe to a blog.

Why would you want to subscribe to a blog?

Consider the blogs you currently like to follow. If you’re not using RSS you have to bookmark them and click on the link each time you want to see new content. After waiting for your web browser to load the page, you may discover that you’re not interested in today’s article or worse, there may be no new article.

Why is that a problem? It isn’t if you only read a small handful of blogs. On the other hand, if you subscribe to dozens or even hundreds (I know one person who subscribes to over 700) you don’t have time for that. It would take too long. RSS solves the problem.

In order to subscribe to an RSS feed you need an RSS feed reader. Your feed reader pulls new content from the sites you subscribe to. Instead of having to visit each site, you now have a list of all new articles. You can see at a glance which sites have new content and which articles you are interested in reading.

And RSS is not limited to blog posts. You can subscribe to music, spoken word recordings, video.

Feed Readers

Where do you get a feed reader? Most feed readers are free. You can download a feed readers and install it on your computer. I currently use Wizz RSS which is a plug-in for Mozilla Firefox, the web browser I use. I like it because it has all my RSS feeds down the left side of my browser and I can see at a glance when there’s new content.

The downside of Wizz RSS is I can only see my subscribed feeds from my computer. If I’m using someone else’s computer I can’t see my subscribed blogs. Since I rarely use anything other than my laptop, that’s not an issue for me. For people who work from an office as well as home, this could end up being a big drawback.

The big downside to Wizz RSS for me is that I don’t get all my new articles in one at-a-glance list. While feeds with new content are bolded, I have to click on each blog title to see the actual titles. I also get some slowing down of my internet connection when Wizz RSS is downloading new content.

An alternative is to use a web based feed reader. A popular one is Bloglines. It lets you access your subscribed feeds from whatever computer you’re on. While I’ve never used it myself, I understand you can also share feeds with other people and see what feeds others subscribe. If you want to experiment with subscribing to feeds do a Google search for RSS feed readers, pick one and give it a try.

Most blogs also offer an email subscription option. However, I you’re like me you already get too much email. I get several hundred emails a day. I did set up my email program to automatically send email newsletters to a separate folder so my inbox doesn’t look too full. But adding blogs to the pile of incoming emails would be overwhelming. That’s why I love RSS.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed about RSS, don’t be. The best way to get to understand this is to jump in and give it a try. Around this time last year I was subscribing to my first RSS feed. Now a year later I’ve subscribed to dozens of feeds, have my own blog and am able to explain RSS. If I can do it, you can too.

Andrea J. Stenberg