What Samuel Johnson Teaches us About Marketing

I recently came across a great quote from the 18th century writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson. While I don't think he had modern B2B tech marketing in mind when he said it, it immediately struck a chord with me:

"People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed" - Samuel Johnson

How often in your marketing work do you or others around you feel you need to change up your language, try a fresh approach, use different words, or teach prospects everything there is to know about your product in 10 words or less? I know I've seen this countless times where executives, content marketers, copywriters, paid specialists, etc. feel they can't keep using the same words and graphics over and over again, or they just want to add a few more "key" features and ideas. They fear people will think it is monotonous and lose interest and, thus want to "mix it up" and try something new.

While I have no problem with trying new messages or new designs, continually changing things up goes against what Samuel Johnson is trying to teach us, and will not help achieve your goals.

Marketing and the rule of seven

The rule of seven is an old advertising adage from the 1930's that states that audiences need to see or hear a message at least seven times before they take action. Whether seven is the magic number or not, the core idea is that before your prospects will engage, they need to hear about your product multiple times and likely through multiple mediums. Much as you are unlikely to see a commercial or read a billboard and immediately go buy that product, b2b prospects need to be reminded multiple times about a product or service before they engage.

This rule is even more true today with information overload and the thousands of messages that we are bombarded with every day across every platform we interact with. I bet you've already seen at least a hundred advertisements or promotions today - how many of them do you actually remember? And for those brands you do remember seeing, can you remember what they do or why you would use them? My guess is that you only remember seeing brands you already knew, or potentially a new brand with a simple, consistent message that you've likely seen a few times now.

The key idea here is that the more that your prospects see your message, the more likely they are to remember it. And the easiest way to get them to remember something is to consistently repeat the same, or very similar, messages about who you are - or more importantly, what they can achieve with you.

A key goal of your marketing communications work should be reminding people who you are and what you do.

Your goal is to be seen enough times that prospects start to recognize your name, remember what you do, and then - when they are ready - engage with you.

Clarity & Consistency > Completeness

However, just because you want your prospect to see your message seven or more times doesn't mean you need to develop seven or more completely different messages or pitches about your product with the hopes that one of them resonates with your prospect. Nor does it mean you need to have a suite of messages that thoroughly convey every aspect of who your company is and what you do.

Instead, you should be developing a clear, consistent message about the most important points from the customer's point of view (see more about developing positioning and messaging here) and continually repeating that message to your prospects. Yes, you can certainly vary the graphics and some word choices, but getting back to Samuel Johnson's quote, your goal here is to remind people who you are and what you do, so that they become more familiar with, and confident in, your brand.

As Jay Conrad Levinson wrote in his seminal book Guerrilla Marketing: "Consistency breeds familiarity, familiarity breeds confidence, and confidence breeds sales."

As prospects come to recognize your brand and, more importantly, become familiar with what you do thanks to the consistency and clarity of your messages, they will have more confidence in engaging with you when the time is right for them. At that point they will engage with you - typically via your website - to learn more about your company, your products, your customers, etc. Trying to convey all of that in your communications programs will just confuse your prospects.

But I'm bored with these slides!

Over my career I have created dozens of presentations for CEOs and other executives to deliver at conferences, company events, board meetings, investor pitches, prospect meetings, etc. And more than once I've had a CEO tell me they are getting bored of the slides they are using over and over again, and that we need to change it up. Confronted with this, I build on the ideas above to point out that while you - the presenter - may be seeing and presenting the same material multiple times and potentially "getting bored" of it, your audience is not; for several reasons:

1. New audiences - just because you've presented the same slides multiple times in a row doesn't mean the audience has seen it. Each conference or sales pitch usually includes new audience members, or people who don't remember the last time you presented it. If you have a carefully crafted clear presentation, don't mistake the fact that you are presenting it again and again with the fact that the audience is likely seeing it for the first time.
2. People forget - while the oft-quoted stat that people only remember 10% of what they read has been widely debunked, the overall idea of the rule of seven holds true for presentations as well. How often have you walked out of a presentation and immediately forgotten large parts of what the presenter said? Even at a monthly company all-hands meeting it is not a bad idea to repeat really important points month after month so that employees truly internalize and remember what you are saying.
3. Repetition shows value - if people see you continually focus on one or a few key points, not only are they more likely to remember them, they will also come to believe that those points are really important. I often hear presenters start by saying "if you only take away one thing from this presentation..." and then go on to ramble through dozens of loosely related ideas. Once you've identified the top 1-3 most important things you want everyone to know about your company or product, keep repeating those points. The slides and presenter should be there to support everyone in the audience walking away remembering those points rather than trying to teach the audience everything else they could possibly learn about your company or product.

My final comment to execs who chafe at presenting the slides over and over again is to remind them that while they may be getting bored of the slides, they need to think back to the first time they presented this set of slides and recapture that enthusiasm and excitement. The audience will be able to tell if you are bored with your slides - and take that as a queue for them to not really engage either.

KISS and Tell

The key takeaway here is to develop a compelling, simple message and consistently repeat this message across mediums. Whenever you are faced with an executive or a marketer who says you need to mix it up, ask if the issue is that the message truly isn't working (in which case you need to go back to your messaging and positioning work), or if that person is just getting impatient. If it is later, you can remind them that the key goal of much of your marketing communications work is to build familiarity and confidence in your brand, which comes with consistently reminding people who you are and what you can help them achieve.