What
percentage of people hear, view, or read a message and then act on it? How often must one be exposed to that same
message before he or she decidedly acts on it?
Advertisers,
promoters, marketers, and social media specialists wonder the answer to these
questions. The truth is it takes
millions and millions of viewings, airings, and readings of a message for even
a small percentage of the country to react.
We are
told numerous times to:
·
Go
vote
·
Not
text and drive
·
Not
smoke cancerous cigarettes
·
Consume
certain foods, products, and services
·
Embrace
a specific political position
The
results are not what we’d expect or desire.
Why is that?
First,
look at the message. What is being said
by whom to whom? Is the message clear,
timely, targeted, and filled with strong incentives to act or penalties for
inaction?
Second,
how many people are exposed to the message?
Third,
how often are people hearing the message?
Fourth,
what opposing messages are they exposed to?
Fifth, are
people overwhelmed by messages from all sides all the time that they simply
tune-out all of it?
We are
exposed to thousands of messages daily, from what we see in commercials and
advertisements to what we see in our entertainment, news content, social media,
or our conversations with friends and family.
I wonder
why if people watch Super Bowl ads, there aren’t a hundred million sales of a
product the next day. Supposedly 115
million people watched some or all of the big game and its equally important
commercials. These commercials were
talked about weeks before they aired and then analyzed immediately following
the game. Yet, despite modest spikes in
product sales, none of the advertisers said they emptied out their warehouses.
Authors
will find the same reaction with their news media exposure. Just because your book is mentioned in a
magazine or discussed on a television show means it’ll sell millions of
copies. In fact, it’s rare that any
single media outlet’s exposure would yield even thousands of book sales. But, as you collect interviews, reviews, and
guest posts across all media – TV, radio, print and online – over a sustained
period of time – you have a chance to start selling books at a reasonable
pace. What really moves books is the
word of mouth that comes when the media exposure generates book sales and those
readers then tell others about the book.
Still, from reaching even tens of millions of people through the media,
you may only sell 3,000 to 30,000 copies of your book.
Look at Sports Illustrated. It’s a well-known brand with a substantial
readership. Its famous annual swimsuit
issue typically nets 1.5 million to 2 million newsstand sales – up from a
typical week of 67,000. But given how
much exposure the issue gets in the media, shouldn’t it sell ten times that
number?
It was
featured on The Today Show, The Tonight
Show, and in every single major news outlet – numerous times – and still
less than 1% of Americans bought a copy of it.
Don’t get me wrong – this is considered a wild success by most
standards, but it’s evidence that just because a lot of people are fed a
message repeatedly doesn’t mean they will act on it.
Is it an
economics issue? A cultural one? What prevents everyone form doing what a
significant-sized group is already doing?
If two million people choose to act, why don’t 20 million more follow?
Maybe
it’s over-exposure.
Perhaps
we heard a message once too often to care.
We feel we consume the subject of the message to the point we don’t need
to go out and buy it.
Or maybe
there’s so much free content out there that keeps us busy that we don’t need to
buy a swimsuit issue. There are tons of
swimwear, model, lingerie and porn sites available at no charge.
It could
be that people have caught on that the swimsuit issue doesn’t represent
anything real. Few can wear the $500
bikini featured in the magazine.
Maybe
others are turned off to what some say is the sexist portrayal of the
magazine’s women.
You can
search for a thousand reasons why people won’t buy what you are offering. It’s a numbers game. Go out there and reach a lot of people and
hope you can penetrate their wallets.
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