The Rule of 7: How Social Media Beats Other Forms of Marketing
It’s clear that the more contact you have with customers and prospects, the easier it is to develop and sustain sales relationships and ultimately, close more sales. Unfortunately, you’re one of thousands who are vying for your customers’ attention.
If you’ve been around marketing for a while, you’ve probably heard of the Rule of 7.
The Marketing Rule of 7 states that a prospect needs to hear the advertiser’s message at least 7 times before they’ll take action to buy that product or service. It’s a marketing maxim developed by the movie industry in the 1930s. Studio bosses discovered that a certain amount of advertising and promotion was required to compel someone to see one of their movies.
Today, unless you have a clearly-defined marketing strategy that maps out how you’ll touch that prospect at least 7 times, you significantly reduce your odds of sales success. In fact, today you might need more than those 7 times just to be heard through all the clutter that’s in people’s newsfeeds or fields of vision. What you say in these messages matters. Will it be spam or some sales pitch? Not all touches are created equal.
Social Media affords you the opportunity to touch the customer often 7 times every day! You do that by sharing content and interacting with customers and prospects. You move some of them further down the sales funnel and because you’re using a medium that touches the customer regularly, that’s how Social Media beats other forms of marketing.
Social Media marketing takes thoughtful content strategy that’s implemented in an on-going process. If you do it right, 7 can still be the magic number. These messages are not like the ones you may be using now. These messages come in the form of useful content that delights your audience. They come from stories that create an emotional connection with your customer.
Buying decisions are shaped by two things: stories told and the memories they leave behind.
Storytellers make emotional connections. You can’t create an emotional connection with interruptive advertising. If you can tell stories about what it’s like to do business with you and enlist your happy, loyal customers in the process, now you’re on your way to “touching” that prospect 7 times.
How do you tell your story? All content must speak to your brand and the ideal customer you want to reach. There are many forms of content and many mediums with which to publish it:
- Images: Tell the story of what it’s like to do business with you.
- Videos: Customer interviews and “How To” videos get you a lot of visibility and establish influence.
- Blog Posts: Write about the answers to your customers most frequently asked questions, especially those that whose questions cause them to hesitate in their purchase decision. Incorporate and illustrate the expertise your employees possess.
Keep in mind that while great stories attract new customers, your awesome content keeps your current and repeat customers coming back for more. One of the most powerful outcomes of Social Media marketing is that those who have purchased from you before can tell your story too!
We talk more passionately about things we care about than things toward which we’re ambivalent. We listen more closely to people we care about than to people we don’t know. We’re talking and listening in unprecedented numbers, and our opinions and purchasing decisions are being affected and influenced even as we shop online or stand in the store aisle and weigh our options.
Tap into this awesome resource of Social Media and touch your customer during all the stages of the buying process. 7 may be your magic number and thousands of sales to happy, loyal customers can certainly become the new rule!
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