It is a well known fact in marketing that people need to see something 7 times before they take action. And in today’s world with technology and mobile devices sending us ever more messages, that magic number 7 could be even higher.

So what does this mean for you and your business?  Well, if you’re promoting something, you need to think in terms of the maximum number of opportunities you can generate for people to see your promotion.  Because of course, just because you advertise something 7 times doesn’t mean everyone will see it each time… so you have to advertise it many more times than that.

Many people think if they don’t get a response initially, then nobody’s interested. But this is not necessarily true – it’s just that they just haven’t seen it enough times yet!

Let’s imagine you’re promoting some kind of event. It could be a workshop, or a social event. You might produce a poster and put some of these up in strategic places. Perhaps you’ve printed some leaflets and distributed these. You may even have sent an email out to all those you think may be interested. And you might have mentioned it in a newsletter too. By now, you could be getting despondent that the event hasn’t attracted much interest. But potentially, people simply haven’t seen it 7 times yet.

Here’s my suggestion. Draw up a list of activities that you could do, and do each of them at least twice, some of them more often. Maybe you change the wording in order to help people see the message in a different way. You could come up with a list like this:

- Poster
- Leaflets
- Email campaign
- “Sandwich board” promotion
- Mention in newsletter
- Advert in local paper
- Press release
- Social media updates
- Article on your website
- Article on somebody else’s website or newsletter
- Word of mouth

Don’t forget to mention the benefits of attending. Why should people come along? What will they get out of it?

The other vital thing to remember is to make it clear how people need to respond. What do they need to do once they’ve seen the advert? Don’t miss the opportunity to catch them while you’ve got their attention.

So here’s a quick and easy way to get started.  Firstly (and anyone who knows me by now will know what’s coming) … you need an objective – otherwise how will you know how you’re going to achieve it and more importantly, when you’ve got there?

Your objective can be about anything you like, so long as it’s clear and precise.  For example “to generate an income of £3,000 a month by the end of this year” or “to increase my sales from 10 to 20 items a week” or “to add 100 new contacts to my email database before March”

Once you’ve decided on your objective, you can create your plan.

Step 1
Create a grid containing the months of the year across the top

Step 2
Create a list of marketing activities that can help you achieve your objective down the left hand side. This could include advertising, networking, PR, direct mail, newsletters, social media etc

Step 3
Highlight any important dates in the year that relate to your business e.g. trade shows, exhibitions, industry events, holidays, special occasions or celebrations

Step 4

Start to plot when you’re going to carry out your marketing activities (to either coincide with, avoid or complement these events in Step 3)

And voila!  You have a simple marketing plan.