Success in most businesses, especially online, rely on selling, and your success is often limited by how well you can market yourself.

A marketing principle most business owners today are not familiar with is “the rule of 7“.

In marketing, the rule of 7 assumes that your prospects need to come across your offer at least 7 times before they will take action or purchase what you’re selling.

7 is the barest minimum; it could be 100 times, even more, but don’t stop letting people know about your offer until they’ve seen it at least 7 times.

While it can be hard to pinpoint exactly how many offers you’re being exposed to daily, Jay Walker-Smith, of Yankelovich Consumer Research, says it has gone from around 500 ads in the 1970s to over 5,000 ads today.

With email, Twitter, Facebook, social media in general, and other forms of media, it is easy to see how we’re bombarded with ads today; even in our mobile apps, there are ads. We have ads on our favorite websites. There are ads everywhere.

We’ve become so accustomed to these ads, so used to them, that we barely even notice they exist any more.

Your Solution is the Rule of 7

When it comes to being bombarded with adverts and offers, you are not alone.

Your target customers are facing the exact same problem, and today it takes more than having just the right offer to make sales.

The solution is to follow the rule of 7 of marketing; you can call it “the rule of 20” or “the rule of 100” or whatever works for you, but the idea behind is is pretty simple; don’t just reach out to your prospects once and forget about it. Reach out to them as many times as is necessary to make the sales.

How to Leverage the Rule of 7 in Your Marketing

1. Build a List

Whether your business is online or offline, start building a list of prospects and potential customers who give you permission to reach out to them.

Online, this is as simple as building an email newsletter. Offline, it’s as simple as having a database of your prospects’ mobile numbers, email addresses, home/office addresses, etc.

2. Appear Everywhere Your Prospects Are

Ensure you’re everywhere your prospects are; this includes events they attend, blogs they read, newsletters they follow, etc.

Don’t just restrict yourself to your platform; leverage other peoples’ platform to get your prospects to notice you.

3. Get Your Message Across Using Every Form of Media Possible

Use text, audio, video, images and anything else you can think of and afford to use.

4. Get Your Message Across Using Every Medium Possible

Use your website, your blog, your social media accounts, your newsletter, adverts and any other medium you can.

Conclusion

If your business relies on selling to people, you want to be everywhere they are; when they start to see your offer everywhere, it slowly starts to become a part of their subconscious. Desire for it gradually builds up, and they take action sooner or later.

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