The rule of seven is a well-known adage among marketers. It states that it takes at least seven repeated exposures to a brand’s messaging before a customer will take action.

Of course, back when the rule of seven was conceived, the media landscape was entirely different, and brand exposure took place primarily via ad impressions in print, on billboards or in broadcast media. But today, we operate in a multi-channel, omni-media universe in which brand exposures happen not only by way of ads in traditional media outlets, but more so, and perhaps more significantly, in digital channels ranging from e-mail to social advertising to content marketing, where conversion rates can be tracked and measured.

Digital channels have, as such, become crowded, fast-moving spaces, and with the volume of information consumption set to exceed 15 hours per day by 2015, modern marketers need to inflate the rule of seven to reflect the times. More media channels + more information = more brand exposures required for customers to take action.

How to Boost Your Conversion Rate

Conversions are the prime indicator of a customer taking an action. The more customers you can convert from an ad, an e-mail, a blog post or a social promotion, the closer you’ll be to achieving your goals as a marketer, to driving leads and, ultimately, to increasing sales.

Driving conversions requires a varied marketing mix that emphasizes repeated impressions in numerous digital channels. But avoiding customer overload is tricky. According to comScore, the average person is served over 1,700 banner ads per month, and according to Solve Media, they are more likely to complete Navy Seal training than click a banner ad, which typically converts at only 0.1%.

Add PPC ads to your mix and you may gain an additional 2% conversion rate. And e-mail campaigns can amplify your conversion rate to the tune of 5% on average. But if you’re looking to make a significant impact you’ll need to add something far more impactful: social promotions. Social promotions like contests and sweepstakes can drive up your conversions to a whopping 73% (based on aggregated data from Strutta-powered promotions). And if you multiply that by multiple promotions, you’ve got yourself a very effective channel for driving leads and conversions.

Why Promotions Drive Conversions

Contests and sweepstakes are a compelling way to drive conversions for numerous reasons. Not only do they give your customers a chance to win great prizes, but they also get them engaging creatively with your brand, particularly if you’re running contests involving user-generated content, public voting and sharing incentives.

Contests and sweepstakes invite fans to get involved in your brand experience. Engaging campaigns can give fans an outlet to share their passion, and give you a means to attract new social followers and sales leads while driving engagement levels up. The best social promotions can go viral and become an integral part of the collective social experience.

Even better, social promotions boost your fan base, which pays off both in the short term - with conversions - and in the long term - with sales. According to eMarketer, 56% of fans will like a Facebook page to gain access to contests and giveaways. And research from Incentivibe based on case studies of over 100 landing pages with over a million visitor interactions showed that running a $500 giveaway on a landing page increased e-mail subscribers by 700% over landing pages without contests.

There are many ways to turn all the “Likes” you can generate by running a promotion into business for your company. In fact, according to Gartner Research, about 20% of shoppers prefer buying products through a brand’s Facebook page compared to its website.

How Often Should You Run Promotions?

We already know that customer action requires far more than seven brand exposures, but when it comes to promotions, many brands stop at only one or two per year.

In today’s crowded landscape, you need to run a promotion every one to two months to generate the kind of brand exposure and engagement you’ll need to achieve continuous lead generation, fan engagement and customer referrals.

Running on-going promotions will:

• Give you a steady supply of new social media followers
• Boost friend referrals and allow you to reward your brand ambassadors individually
• Generate steady buzz about your brand
• Give you access to user-generated content
• Allow you to convert likes into leads

As a marketer, you have many options available in your toolkit to create campaigns that will increase the exposure of your brand messaging. But at the end of the day, it only makes sense to choose a vehicle that will get you the best ROI, over and over again.

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