If there was ever a marketing tale that’s as old as time, it’s this: The Rule of 7.
According to the Rule of 7, you need to get your message in front of your audience 7 times before they’ll feel ready to engage with you further (in the form of signing up for your email list, requesting a free chat, or giving away credit card details in the name of a sale).
This would normally be the part of the blog post where I’d break into a thorough and carefully researched overview of how the Rule of 7 came to be.
But the “where it came from” part of the Rule of 7 actually gets a little murky.
Some say that the Rule of 7 was created by marketing expert Dr. Jeffrey Lant, while others claim that movie execs coined the term around 1930 in an effort to explain how many times (on average) someone had to hear about a film before feeling ready to commit to buying a movie ticket.
Despite the kind of fuzzy founding story, the lesson behind the Rule of 7 still stands. And offers marketers and small business owners a way to think about content repurposing and how frequency breeds brand loyalty with their audience base.
How Does the Rule of 7 Work?
The Rule of 7 reflects the reality that it takes buyers a little time (and often frequent exposure with a brand) to feel ready to engage further in the form of going all-in with purchasing a product or signing on for a service.
To give this a on-the-ground example, imagine that you woke up one morning and looked out your kitchen window to see a tree in your backyard that had skipped right past not looking so good and was fully on its way to going to fall down any second.
You whip out your cellphone and pop on over to Google to search “arborists near me.” A few companies come up with your search, notably:
Company A, who you have:
- Seen driving around town in a branded pick-up truck with their name and logo on the side
- Heard about from a friend who mentioned they did solid work the last time their yard was in desperate need of some tree trimming
- Saw a printed ad for at a local gardening shop when you went there last month to pick up some seasonal petunias
- Heard about while hanging out at a local sporting event that they happened to help sponsor
And also Company B, who you have:
- Never heard of until this exact moment
As Ghostbusters once smartly asked: “Who ya gonna call?”
I’m not a mind reader, but my guess is that it’s probably not Company B.
(Unless, of course, you click over to their website and see some kind of value proposition that quickly wins you over, or a seasonal 50% off deal that makes reaching out to them feel like a no brainer. But that’s a marketing convo for another day…)
So how does the Rule of 7 work?
It works under the principle that frequency breeds familiarity, which in turn makes your audience more willing to engage with you in the moments that count. (Like when you have a Call to Action (CTA) that invites them to join an email list, purchase a product, or get on your books for services in the near future).
So Does the Rule of 7 Still Apply In Today’s Marketing Landscape?
If there was ever data to back the Rule of 7 up (and judging by the fuzzy backstory, that’s a big if), the 100-ish years that have passed since the marketing principle was first introduced make it a little suspect as a hard and fast rule.
But (and that’s a BIG but!), the marketing Rule of 7 still holds plenty of relevance as a way to structure your small business marketing plan around a need for diversification and content repurposing.
Content repurposing invites you to work smarter, not harder by cutting down on the time it takes to come up with new content ideas and put those into action.
Instead of building every new piece of content from scratch, you might take one piece of content (like a high-value blog post) and easily transform it into:
- The subject of a value-rich Instagram post or reel
- The foundation of a new “capture email addresses on autopilot” lead magnet freebie download
- A value-heavy Pinterest pin
- An attention-grabbing Tweet or Facebook post
- The subject of your next email newsletter
- The start of a webinar script
- The foundation of a new podcast episode
At this point, you may be asking:
But wait…isn’t repeating the same subject matter over and over again just kind of…boring? Or maybe even cheating?
Nope! Here’s why: Smart content repurposing helps you reach diverse audiences through diverse mediums, while cutting down significantly on the time and thought energy it would take to reach them all with 100% original content 100% of the time.
But more on that as we get into…
Why Audience Is Such a Big Deal When It Comes to the Marketing Rule of 7
It’s a mistake to think of your audience as a collective. By which I mean: it’s a mistake to assume that every member of your audience fits into a universal profile, with a universal set of wants or needs that you can fulfill by showing up on just one platform.
You can, of course, have a target audience that you plan to speak to with your marketing. (In fact, having a target audience pretty much goes beyond best practice and fully enters necessity territory.)
But that target audience is composed of individuals.
And while some of those individuals may be all about going for a long run while listening to your podcast episodes on repeat, others may prefer the shorter content of Instagram reels. While still others are so anti-social media that they only want to engage with you in blog post or email newsletter form.
By diversifying the mediums through which (and platforms on which) your content appears, you give yourself a greater chance of showing up in front of your target audience. In a format that so fully appeals to them that they’ll be willing to engage with your brand again and again and again…
Until they finally feel so comfortable with your brand and so full of trust with your value that they hand those credit card details over to seal the deal.
How to Use the Marketing Rule of 7: Avenues Where You Can Show Up for Your Audience
Once you’re sold on the idea that frequency matters when it comes to showing up for your audience in a way that wins their heart, you have to pick out a few avenues that will put you on the fast-path to boosting your visibility and conversion rate.
To hit all the audience high-notes and diversify your marketing presence, you could:
- Start crafting a killer backlog of audience-loved blog content
- Show up on multiple social networks (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and even LinkedIn) while putting the most effort into the ones that show the most return for your energy
- Invest in some paid ads through Google or social media platforms (like Instagram or Facebook)
- Create a catalogue of lead magnets and high-value freebies that attract leads on autopilot
- Put together an affiliate marketing plan that gets your product seen by connected audiences
- Consistently send out an email newsletter that balances sales pitches with high-value content
- Implement a podcast that you try to release regularly
- Offer access to a webinar or other value-centric video content that leaves your audience totally in love with your brand
To Sum It All Up: Getting the Most Bucks for Your Bang
When it comes to how to show up in front of your audience in a way that leads to conversions and clients consistently showing up in your inbox with “Can we please work together??” requests, there’s no right answer of where to start.
What works for you will largely depend on your strengths as a business owner, the talents of your hired team, and the preferences of your individual audience members (as well as a host of other factors that go well beyond your or my guessing ability).
But as the Rule of 7 tells us, it’s not about getting your marketing efforts right all the time.
Conversions come when you show up. Consistently. And in enough ways that you make it easy for your value to be seen and loved by your audience.
