The 5/15/60 Second Rule for Marketing

We live in a fast pace world. Everyone has to do more with their limited time. There are countless more things demanding their attention. It has been found that people now tend to spend their time multi-tasking to keep up with it all. Have a think about what you have to do in your day; do you sit with multiple tabs open on your browser, while checking status updates on your smartphone, meanwhile the tv or radio is going in the background? I know I do. Living such busy lives it is not that surprising that a lot of marketing fails to grab peoples attention theses days. So how do you to grab enough of peoples’ interest to make a sale? Let me tell you about my 5/15/60 second rule.

Now let me say that I’m not a marketing guru. I don’t have a fancy degree in communication, though I’ve done a few papers, nor have I put this rule under extensive double blind testing to prove its’ effectiveness. This rule is just something I’ve figured out from working in all forms of retail since the 80’s. It seems to be a good rule of thumb guide to how people react to advertising these days, where the most effective points are to make your pitch and how to close the sale. So lets break down these 60 seconds

0-5 Seconds

This is your hook period. This is where you get them interested enough to find out more about what you are offering. If you’ve not got peoples attention when five seconds are up, they will be on to the next thing. It doesn’t have to be the whole sales pitch, just the hook. It can be a simple open ended question “You want to have more lush lawns during the dry summer months?” It could be a tease offer “Want to save $$ on your next oil change?” It can even be an interesting graphic or photo that both captures the eye and perks peoples interest. The key thing here is to make them to want to find out more. In marketing lingo we would call this the “headline.” Think of it like reading a newspaper (if you still remember that) – you don’t read every article – you scan the pages and only read those articles that seem to interest you. How do you know – if the headline does not contain something of interest then you keep skimming.

5-15 Seconds

This is where to make the deal with the potential client. You offer them the answer to the question you asked, the justification for the tease, the reason why you used that image. It has to be the one key reason why you have created this marketing in the first place. Why? You have just 10 seconds to drive home one fact before people move on. I know it’s hard to narrow things down to just the one selling point but look at how the big retailers advertise. On tv advertising the biggest deal is the lead, in print it’s on the front page in big bright colours. In those ten seconds make sure you have driven the point home To take the newspaper analogy further – it’s like the opening paragraph. You know by the end of the first paragraph whether this article is going to be useful – and if not you move on.

15-60 Seconds

These 45 seconds is where you close the deal. You provide additional information to support your offer. You add other deals or options to give them even more reason to come to you. Give out one or two glowing testimonials of how great your product or service is from other happy customers. Well planed, those many seconds can convert a person who was unsure about taking up your offer into a believer.

60+ Seconds

By now, if you were going to make the sale you have done it. If you have any other information to give out, like terms and conditions, this is when people will read it. You can still make more advertising pitches here, just don’t expect to make the deal at this late point. Instead use the time to re-enforce your company image, off secondary deals that might intrigue the buyer, talk about related goods/services that you’re not discounting but might be of interest. Most of all smile and think about how well you have used these 60 seconds.

Now this is just an overview of the 5/15/60 second rule. The fact is, that to make it work you need to sit down and really think about how you are going to pitch your marketing. It’s not an easy thing to do, so why not make use of us to help you. Book some time with us at Copy Express and we will work with you to make sure you make use of every advertising second you have.