Are You Committed To A Marketing Plan?

When you are tempted to abandon your marketing plan too quickly, think of this:

1. The first time a man looks at an ad, he doesn’t see it.
2. The second time, he doesn’t notice it.
3. The third time, he is conscious of its existence.
4. The fourth time, he faintly remembers having seen it.
5. The fifth time, he reads the ad.
6. The sixth time, he turns up his nose at it.
7. The seventh time, he reads it through and says, “Oh, brother!”
8. The eighth time, he says, “Here’s that confounded thing again!”
9. The ninth time, he wonders whether it amounts to anything.
10. The tenth time, he will ask his neighbor if he has tried it.
11. The eleventh time, he wonders how the advertiser makes it pay.
12. The twelfth time, he thinks it must be a good thing.
13. The thirteenth time, he thinks it might be worth something.
14. The fourteenth time, he remembers that he wanted such a thing for a long time.
15. The fifteenth time, he is tantalized because he cannot afford to buy it.
16. The sixteenth time, he thinks he will buy it someday.
17. the seventeenth time, he makes a memorandum of it.
18. The eighteenth time, he swears at his poverty.
19. The nineteenth time, he counts his money carefully.
20. The twentieth time he sees the ad, he buys the article or instructs his wife to do so.

This was written by Thomas Smith of London in 1885, as quoted in Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson.

I just started this book, and so far, it makes a lot of sense. It doesn’t do any good to keep switching your marketing plan. That just confuses your customers.

This is why I am not a great fan of doing a huge blog redesign either. Your customers want you to be consistent. If I change my blog’s design, I usually do it in small increments. I try to leave the big picture alone.

I like the 20 items above. It’s a good reminder to stick to a plan. Sometimes it takes a long time before your marketing begins to show results.