A prospect needs roughly seven exposures before acting; a single impression is rarely worth buying.
Advertising folklore with no firm empirical basis for the specific number. The underlying observation — that single impressions rarely convert — is sound, and the seven is decoration.
In practice
- A campaign that ran once in one channel produces nothing; the same budget spread across a quarter produces enquiries the sales team can trace.
- A charity's first letter is binned and its fourth is read, and nobody in the office can say which number did the work.
- Standing
- A durable rule of thumb with no firm empirical basis for the specific number.
- Subject
- Communication & Media
- Essay
- The folk laws of argument and attention