The Rule of 7 – Why multiple marketing impressions matter

Marketing Impression

Today we are going to talk about The Rule of 7 and Why Multiple Marketing Impressions Matter.

Which is an old well-known marketing rule that takes an average of 7 touchpoints. With your company before the average consumer of your products or services will buy from you.

Touchpoints can take any form;

• direct mail
• online ads
• website visits
• google maps searches
• email newsletters
• social media
• radio spots
• previous text
• a phone call to your business
• etc.

So on average, before they buy, consumers need to see or interact with your company 7 times or more.

That is evidence of why you should be diversifying your marketing efforts to increase your potential touchpoints.

Now let’s look at what touchpoint platforms your prospects might be using and another reason why you should diversify your marketing.

And one of those touchpoints maybe how your customer service team interacted with them already.

So we all know that a fast, friendly, empathetic, and knowledgeable customer service team is a key fundamental ingredient of any successful company.

It is probably the single most important touchpoint your prospects will have in their decision on whether to move forward and do business with you or not.

So that’s touchpoint #1 to invest your time and energy into improving. We talk more about investing in the customer experience in episode #4 – The #1 marketing tip of all time. Put that on your list to listen to later, perhaps.

For now, let’s not only talk about where all those other touchpoints might happen so you can dedicate attention and resources to them but also WHY it’s so important to diversify where you greet your prospects and generate leads from.

And the WHY is because you have enormous risk with many of these touchpoints that must be mitigated.

You don’t OWN most of these platforms that your company needs to be seen on.

You do NOT own Google…

Or Yelp…

Or Facebook…

Or YouTube…

Or Home Advisor, Angie’s List, Solar Reviews, etc.

Not too long ago, it used to be that you built your Facebook business page, poured time, effort, and money into it to get seen and interact with your local communities, to grow your business organically. Still, then in just one day, Facebook said, “nope, no more.” If you want to be seen on their platform, you must pay for it.

Google ads are constantly evolving, and they’re letting their machine learning take control of the keywords you use and don’t use.

It’s an auction-style market whose prices you have no control of and get more expensive every year.

Lead generation companies like home advisor, Angi (formerly Angie’s list), solar reviews, and others are in control of the prices for your leads.

It’s more than okay to work with these platforms. It’s essential to grow your company and meet your prospects where they are, but what we’re saying is putting all of your eggs into any one touchpoint can be very dangerous.

They’ll have way too much power over your business.

So you need to diversify where your company gets seen and generate leads to protect your business and create multiple potential touchpoints to meet prospects where they are.

Now let’s look at three touchpoints that you DO own and should be pouring lots of effort into to optimize them to be the best they can be.

You DO own and control the quality of your customer service. Your service techs and customer service reps should be highly trained and entirely on board to provide the best and friendliest service possible.

You DO own your email list and how engaged it is. Get your newsletter going, stay connected to previous customers to grow repeat business, reviews, and referrals.

You DO own your referral program.

Have you defined it?

Have you described how you promote it?

Have you automated it?

We talk more about this in episode #11, how to grow your biz by staying connected.

And lastly, you DO own your lead-generating website.

Have you got your website dialed in for search engines and consumers?

Is it the best it can be at converting visitors into leads?

Does it provide information for people in all stages of the buyer’s journey?

Is your website working as hard as you do to generate leads, or is it just a digital brochure not performing for you?

Are you tracking the data to make better decisions?

Your company’s bottom line needs to be seen in many places to meet your prospects where they are and allow them to investigate your company on several platforms.

In summary, you need to invest time, energy, and money to cast a wide net and allow for multiple marketing touchpoints.

But you also need to be steering a large part of those efforts toward the touchpoint assets that you own to control more of your destiny and rely less on the whims of these other platforms.

Alright, I hope that helped some of you. Thanks for sharing your time and attention with us today.

Good luck out there, and create a great day!