Patience. That is an interesting concept in today’s world. With the internet, text messaging, blackberries, I-Phones, etc; the world wants information and results at the touch of a button and at lightning fast speed. Businesses even want immediate reactions and results from their marketing and advertising campaigns; but what they are forgetting is that the human mind still works at the same speed. Just because potential customers have information at lightning speed, it doesn’t mean that they make buying decisions at lightning speed. Businesses need to have patience.
Patience in Marketing
There is an article by Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of Guerilla Marketing, which includes a list of what your prospects thinks each time that they look at your ad.
“The first time a man looks at an advertisement, he does not see it.
The second time, he does not notice it.
The third time, he is conscious of its existence.
The fourth time, he faintly remembers having seen it before.
The fifth time, he reads it.
The sixth time, he turns up his nose at it.
The seventh time, he reads it through and says, “Oh brother!”
The eighth time, he says, “Here’s that confounded thing again!”
The ninth time, he wonders if it amounts to anything.
The tenth time, he asks his neighbor if he has tried it.
The eleventh time, he wonders how the advertiser makes it pay.
The twelfth time, he thinks it must be a good thing.
The thirteenth time, he thinks perhaps it might be worth something.
The fourteenth time, he remembers wanting such a thing a long time.
The fifteenth time, he is tantalized because he cannot afford to buy it.
The sixteenth time, he thinks he will buy it some day.
The seventeenth time, he makes a memorandum to buy it.
The eighteenth time, he swears at his poverty.
The nineteenth time, he counts his money carefully.
The twentieth time he sees the ad, he buys what it is offering. “
Even though this list was written by Thomas Smith of London in 1885 – it still holds true today.
The reason?
Just as we stated earlier, no matter how advanced technology and the way receive information becomes, the human mind still operates the same way.
Importance of Patience
We can’t stress enough the importance of having patience in your marketing campaign. Let a great campaign do its job and you will get the results that you want; it might just take a little bit longer than looking up tomorrow’s weather on the internet.