I have read several reports lately that state that a
prospective customer has to see your ad on an average
of seven times before they will buy from you. Does this
mean that you can run your ad in one publication seven
times and expect to start receiving orders?

I don't think so. The more different publications you can get
your advertising in the better. What you are trying to do is
achieve name recognition. The more often and more different
places a person sees your ad the more apt he/she is to remember it.

This also doesn't mean that you can pick out seven different
publications and run one ad in each and start receiving orders.
There is very little chance that one person will read all seven
of the publications that you pick out.

You should pick out several publications, the number doesn't
really matter, and start advertising on a regular basis, every
week, every month etc. Once your prospects start seeing your
ads appearing week in, week out and month in and month out
they will come to recognize you as an established business
and be more inclined to order from you.

You also need to be selective in the type of publication you
choose to advertise in. If you are selling something to
sportsmen you will need to select sports magazines and if you
are selling to mail order dealers select mail order
publications, etc.

Do not scatter your ads willy nilly. Be selective. Zero in on your
audience, as in using a rifle rather than a shot gun. You are
trying to achieve name recognition within a very specific
audience, and once you do that you can see your orders start
to increase.

Everyone has heard of Bill Gates and Micro Soft. Just the names
sell computers. It is recognition such as this that you are
trying to achieve through your advertising. Persistant,
consistant, advertising will achieve that for you.

John Watson

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John writes a weekly column for his hometown newspaper.
You may read some of his stories at: http://go.to/backfence
You may contact John direct at: backfence@www.com