The Rule of 7 comes to mind whenever I talk about “persistence.”

The Rule of 7 states: To make an impact in a strangers mind, you must contact them a minimum of seven times in each 18-month period. Most people quit or give up after the first rejection. A majority of those remaining quit after try #2.
7 (seven contacts) is the secret. (Maybe even a few more … 12.)

There really is nothing magical about the number seven but you don’t want to become a nuisance. By airing out your contacts over time you eliminate much of the chance of “bugging” people. i.e. the 18 month time frame.

As long as you contact them with information they consider to be useful, you have little to fear of overdoing your welcome. The secret is to “keep on keeping on.” Preferably, with good, solid, meaningful information that is relevant to your prospects.

A popular way of keeping your name in front of your targeted audience is by clipping a meaningful article from a newspaper or magazine and stapling it to your business card. Period.

(Oh yeh, and then sending it to somebody.) You can send a simple, one-page letter that contains a column or two of easy-to-read “news”. This is affectionately known as a “newsletter.” Mine is different from your graphically correct, four-color beauties. Mine consists of a letter with some news in it. (How clever am I?)

Whatever you decide to do, it is most important that you don’t become a hit-and-run artist. This is what becomes of most would-be marketers. They start strong and fade fast. You need to select a process, or a system, and stay with it week after week, month after month, year after year. That is where we get the reputation for PERSISTENCE.

You can also send postcards. More on this later.