It takes 7 contacts before you reach someone.
No matter what action you want that “someone” to take (Buy this! Donate here! Read now!), it takes an average of 7 exposures for that person to take the action. Exposures can include many things: a phone call, an email newsletter, a Twitter update, a brochure.
The idea of “7 contacts” is important information for anyone running a private practice. Why?
Because it directly impacts your marketing strategy!
There are two basic (but vital!) ingredients for a successful “7 contacts” marketing strategy: 1) Use multiple tools and approaches (both offline and online) and 2) Be consistent.
Multiple Tools & Approaches
This is a fairly simple concept to understand–you need to use different types of tools and approaches in order to reach the most people. Depending on your business and your clients, this may include a combination of offline and online strategies.
It’s important to try and use the same tools your client uses. If you sell products online, it makes more sense to use primarily online marketing tools. But if you have a local service-oriented business, you’ll want to include more offline strategies in your approach.
Examples of offline strategies include:
- Brochures
- Business Cards
- Face-to-face meetings
- Workshops and inservices
- Press releases
- Articles in local papers
- Networking gatherings
Online strategies you can use include:
- Blogs
- Website
- YouTube videos
- Email newsletter
Consistency
You can have the fanciest tools in the world, but if you don’t use them (and use them consistently), they won’t get you any new business.
It’s important to devote time each day, week, or month on marketing your business. Even if you need to schedule time in your calendar, this is a task that needs to happen on a regular basis.
There are many ways in which you can spend your time. You may work on developing new workshops or marketing materials. Maybe you’ll be connecting with your “audience” online via Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Perhaps you’ll attend a networking event or give an in-service. Or you may think through and plan changes to your overall strategy.
When it comes to your marketing strategy, what tools and tips have been the most helpful for you? Leave a comment below–you never know who’ll find it useful!
orcid.org/0000-0001-8665-1493
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
hi Kimberly its a great post for how to start Marketing Strategy.I like very much thanks for share
Thanks Kimberly! I needed a post like this right now.
Hi Kimberly, I recently subscribed to your blog and am really enjoying your posts. You are right on with this one. One of the things that has helped my practice flourish is persistance. Keeping track of who I am expecting a phone call or e-mail response from and following up with them if they don’t call or e-mail me back has been a very successful strategy. It gets me closer to that magic # 7 every time I do it. Thanks again for your excellent articles!
Great tools! I agree with all of this. Online Marketing strategy is a great way to reach a wider audience, blogs, websites and social media are effective tools for business success. The rise of social media and the popularity of SEO give the opportunity for businesses to make their business products and services more visible online.
One marketing channel that a lot of businesses forget about is trade shows. If your business sells thousand to hundred thousand dollar products and services then trade show is something they should consider.
The reason being no one will purchase a $10,000 product via an add to cart button. It takes phone calls, meetings or human interaction before closing the deal.
So it depends on what type of business you’re running. Not all marketing strategies will work for all businesses.
Hey buddy, being grateful as you posted such a useful and informative post. These gonna help others for sure. I would like to save it. Thanks a lot for sharing your great thoughts. Keep posting, looking forward to more from you
Thank you for sharing such a useful blog with us. It is really a very informative blog.That help us in learning more about online marketing strategy that how we can grow our business by doing such a simple steps on our social media and on our websites. I will make sure that i will surely follow this steps.
You must log in to post a comment.