What are Your Marketing Touch-Points?

Welcome to the Dove Direct Print and Marketing Blog. Today's post, "What are Your Marketing Touch-Points?" highlights the real marketing condition consumers are experiencing, with literally thousands of brand messages coming in every day.  We all know that marketing in its best form has always been a mixture of mediums.  Thanks to the effects of the pandemic and emerging technologies, that marketing mixture is even more diverse, thus providing a degree of consumer frustration.  That said, today, most marketers will tell you that there is an information overload.  Consequently, brands and marketing teams will either invest more or decide which marketing touch-points will achieve the objectives based on budget and marketing productivity. Further, the mediums now range from radio, television, cable, print, digital publications, social media, emails, video marketing, blogs, and the list goes on.  Touch-points are areas/mediums where consumers receive the marketing messages. For television marketing to be effective in prior years, the standard train of thought was that a viewer had to experience at least seven brand ads to convert a lead or gain brand recognition.  As of late, however, most marketing experts now agree that it takes 13 touch-points (consumers experiencing the message a minimum of 13 times) to convert to a lead.  Therefore, today's looming question is understanding how many touch-points are necessary for your particular brand and product set.  Identifying the most relevant and critical touch-points is essential for any brand to create leads and conversions efficiently.

Quote of the Day: "The best marketing doesn't feel like marketing." — Tom Fishburne, Founder & CEO, Marketoonist

Know Your Customers Journey

It's one thing to understand that touch-points are a necessary formula for reaching consumers, but quite another to know their journey.  An excellent approach to understand the journey and touch-point relativity is to create an average journey map highlighting touch-points, which provides a much clearer picture of how to marry the two.  The following is an example of constructing a journey map with touch-points for consumers throughout the decision and purchasing process.

A recent study conducted by the Aberdeen Group suggests that it is imperative to insert customer touch-points into a customer journey map. Why? The study revealed that organizations developing a formal customer journey management program enjoyed a 54% greater return on their marketing investments.

It is also critical to understand the journey categories that make up the basic formulation of the customer journey, which are: Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Retention, and Advocacy.  Understanding the formulation of the journey process, a marketer can map each stage as follows.

The Awareness Stage could contain the following marketing touch-points:

• PR
• Radio, TV, and Print
• Direct Mail
• Word of Mouth
• Online Ads
• Email
• PPC

The Consideration Stage could contain the following marketing touch-points:

• Social Ads
• Reviews
• Blog
• Media
• Direct Mail

The Purchasing Stage could contain the following marketing touch-points:

• E-commerce
• Store
• Website

The Retention Stage could contain the following marketing touch-points:

• Community Forum
• Direct Mail
• FAQ Knowledge Base
• Loyalty Program

Finally, the Advocacy Stage could contain the following marketing touch-points:

• Promotions
• Blog
• Social Networks
• Newsletter

Since we are in the throes of the NBA Finals, We'll use basketball as an analogy.  As in basketball, consideration of talent is paramount to creating a successful team and equally important for a Customer Journey Touch-points Map. In other words, each touch-point should stand on its own regarding delivering the brand message. Simultaneously, each touch-point can impact the overall brand message just as there are five players on the court, i.e., the five categories mentioned above within the Customer Journey Touch-points map.

Each NBA player on the floor has various strengths and weaknesses; however, each player must play to his strengths and minimize his weaknesses to win a game.  Each player has to stand on his own when delivering his part of the game to make a difference.  Likewise, each message touch-point has to provide its intended brand message with relevancy.  Further, understanding where and how consumers respond to the various touch-points will significantly aid in planning the next steps toward the conversion or purchasing phase.

The Print Factor

You may have noticed that of the five categories: Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Retention, and Advocacy, direct mail is part of the Awareness, Consideration, and Retention categories.  How well you utilize the touch-point mediums in each category will depend on the effectiveness of each touch-point's creative and messaging content. Most marketing experts agree that print plays a vital role in awareness, engagement, conversion rates, and digital destinations.  When we say print, we are referring to technologies associated with direct mail.  That said, the success or failure of touch-point mediums will depend on what you are tracking and analyzing.

Tracking and Analyzing the Data

Data is the bottom line.  Brands cannot determine the success or failure of a marketing campaign unless they can analyze the results.  Data will determine what is working best for each touch-point in the marketing scheme.  Data provides the ability to track and measure the effectiveness of those touch-points.  Furthermore, it is critical to understand the when, where, and who are engaging with the touch-point content.  Various consumer behaviors can be understood, including the type of device in use, and more importantly, the actions taken after the engagement.

The Net-Net

The marketing mix continues to evolve, with many consumers now advocating their preferences among various options available to them.  The challenge for marketing teams and brands is to consider which touch-points in the marketing mix make the most sense for their consumer targets and their brands at large.  In addition, expediency, effectiveness, and efficiency must have a role in the scheme of successful marketing strategies and campaign results. We hope you found value in this post, and thanks for reading "What are Your Marketing Touch-Points?"

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