We’ve all heard the saying “patience is a virtue,” but in marketing, it’s more than that. It’s a necessity. While scrolling through my analytics after my first viral TikTok hit, I learned this lesson firsthand in a way that transformed how I approach brand building.
The Tension Between Urgency and Reality
In today’s hyper-accelerated business environment, most executives want immediate, tangible results from their marketing investments. They expect campaigns to deliver significant ROI within weeks, if not days. I get it, I’ve been there too, refreshing my analytics dashboard hourly after a campaign launch, hoping to see the needle move dramatically.
But this urgency creates a fundamental tension with how human psychology actually works. The Rule of Seven—one of marketing’s most enduring principles—states that consumers need to encounter your message approximately seven times before it truly registers and inspires action.
This isn’t just marketing theory. I’ve watched it play out in my own business journey, sometimes painfully.
My Hard-Earned Lesson in Patience
When my first TikTok video hit one million views, I was in NYC with friends. My phone started buzzing incessantly with notifications. Ironically, this video was one I had explicitly told my team not to post—I hated how I looked and sounded. I was recovering from chronic voice loss, had leftover shampoo in my hair (forcing me into a slicked-back bun), and looked puffy. My fly was even undone!
But my partner Phillip saw potential in the content and published it anyway. Initially, I felt stressed and angry—people weren’t seeing me at my best. But as the views climbed, my frustration faded.
The video, focused on “Marketing is Storytelling,” resonated deeply. I gained followers, received glowing comments, and saw extraordinary engagement. Surely, I thought, this was my breakthrough moment.
Despite knowing better, I secretly hoped this video would be so phenomenal it would bypass the Rule of Seven entirely and make me an overnight success.
But days passed with minimal business impact. I received only 4-5 discovery calls that first week.
Had I been a business hiring an agency, I might have fired my team right then. After all, we’d been posting consistently for eight months, and one viral hit hadn’t immediately justified the investment.
When the Rule of Seven Finally Kicked In
What happened next validated everything I now teach my clients about patience in marketing.
Business truly transformed, but only 4-6 months after that viral moment. Not only did bookings increase, but the quality of brands reaching out improved dramatically. For the first time, major brands wanted to work specifically with me.
Every single client mentioned finding me online and watching multiple videos before contacting us. They weren’t shopping around, they specifically wanted to work with me because they’d formed a relationship with my content over time.
The Rule of Seven had worked exactly as intended, but on a timeline no quarterly report would have captured.
Why Most Companies Sabotage Their Own Marketing
This experience illuminates the fundamental problem with how most businesses approach marketing ROI. By demanding immediate results and changing direction when they don’t materialize, companies unwittingly reset the Rule of Seven counter for their audience.
Think about it: If a potential customer has seen your message three times, and then you completely change your approach, you’re essentially starting from zero again. Those valuable impressions are wasted.
It’s like planting seeds, getting impatient after a week, digging them up to check if they’re growing, then replanting different seeds in their place—and repeating this cycle endlessly. Nothing ever has the chance to take root.
The Invisible Journey to Brand Connection
The most critical insight about the Rule of Seven is that consumers rarely notice the process occurring. We don’t consciously think, “That’s the fourth time I’ve seen this brand, three more to go!” The connections form subconsciously, building gradually until they reach a tipping point.
As host Lauryn Bosstick told me when inviting me onto the Skinny Confidential podcast: “You kept popping up on my feed, and we would share your content among our team. Finally, I had to reach out!”
If my content had only reached Lauryn four times, she might have liked it but never taken action. And it’s impossible to measure which specific post pushed her over the edge, highlighting the core challenge of measuring precise ROI for brand building.
Branding vs. Marketing: The Fundamental Distinction
This brings us to a crucial distinction many business owners miss:
Marketing focuses on driving immediate action, targeting the bottom of the sales funnel. It’s concerned with conversion.
Branding builds long-term recognition and trust, operating at the top of the funnel. It’s about creating relationships that convert over time.
The mistake many companies make is applying bottom-of-funnel ROI expectations to top-of-funnel branding activities. They judge brand-building efforts by direct-response metrics, which is like evaluating the foundation of a house based on how well the roof keeps out rain.
The Expensive Illusion of Immediate ROI
PPC ads and other direct response tools provide clean, immediate metrics. You spend $X, you get Y clicks and Z conversions. It’s satisfying to see those clear numbers.
But these metrics create an expensive illusion: that all marketing should deliver such immediate, measurable returns. This mindset leads companies to:
- Change agencies constantly, never allowing strategies to mature
- Over-invest in bottom-funnel activities while neglecting brand building
- Waste resources by abandoning campaigns before they’ve had time to resonate
Ironically, this impatient approach often costs far more in the long run than staying consistent would have.
A Different Way to Measure Success
Instead of demanding immediate ROI from every marketing effort, consider a more nuanced approach:
For brand-building activities: Track impressions, reach, and engagement trends over months, not days or weeks. Look for gradual improvements in brand awareness surveys. Accept that the full impact may take 6+ months to materialize.
For direct-response marketing: Continue measuring immediate conversions and ROI, but recognize these activities work best when supported by strong branding.
For overall marketing health: Evaluate whether you’re creating multiple touch points across different channels, ensuring prospects encounter your message repeatedly.
The Courage to Play the Long Game
Building a brand requires something increasingly rare in business: the courage to play the long game. It means believing in your strategy even when immediate metrics don’t validate it. It means understanding that the Rule of Seven is a reflection of how human psychology actually works.
My own breakthrough came when I stopped obsessively checking daily metrics and trusted the process. We continued creating consistent, valuable content that resonated with our audience. We maintained our voice and message, allowing connections to deepen over time.
The rewards didn’t come overnight, but when they arrived, they were far more substantial and sustainable than any quick win could have been.
Your Brand Won’t Be Built in a Day
This week, I challenge you to reflect on how you’re benchmarking success. Are you expecting the impossible from your marketing efforts? Are you abandoning strategies before they’ve had time to mature?
Your brand won’t be built in a day, and no amount of pressure will accelerate the touch points your customers need before reaching out. The most valuable relationships—in marketing as in life—take time to develop.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on playing the long game in your marketing. Have you seen the Rule of Seven work in your business?
If you’re ready to invest in the longevity of social media, download my Social Media Masterclass.
xx,
Camille
PS. You can watch my Skinny Confidential Episode here!