I was recently asked to present to a group of business leaders about marketing and the importance of touchpoints.
The combined knowledge in the room, from a leadership and business perspective, was pretty impressive. However, they were facing a common challenge with their marketing. And that was that their marketing wasn’t really focused on supporting sales conversion.
Enter Touchpoints
Touchpoints – they exist in every business, which makes them an important aspect of developing your Brand, and in particular your Sales Funnel. And by the way, I hate the term sales funnel (and sales conversion). I think we should call them the Road to Helping Clients and Successfully Helping More Clients – but that is for another time.
Back to Touchpoints and your Brand, and the Road.
What are touchpoints and why are they important?
Basically, a touchpoint is any interaction your clients or market has with your brand and business. It could be:
- An advertisement they see and/or hear
- Your client newsletter
- Your website
- Meeting someone and talking about your business
- Seeing your shop or office front
- The list goes on… and on… and on
Why are touchpoints important?
Well, who has heard a business owner complain that they put an ad in the paper and didn’t get anything out of it. Or, someone say networking is a waste of time, because they have never got any business out of handing their cards out or going to events. (FYI – that is not networking, and again we’ll discuss that another time).
It’s simple really.
The more touchpoints you have with your clients and/or market, the more the come to trust and connect with you. And the more trust they have in you. The more they feel a connection, then the more likely they are to purchase from you.
Let’s use Adam and Jane as an example.
The big difference between the two approaches is that Adam asks for the sale before he has established a relationship; before trust and a connection has been created.
Jane takes the time to really understand her market and to demonstrate how she can help. And while it takes a longer time, the end result is a positive. It reminds me of the Tortoise and the Hare – slow and steady wins the race. In the case of Janes approach – slow and steady gets the right outcome for you – her target market – and for her. Jane has travelled the Road to Helping Clients and was Successful in Helping More Clients.
How many times to you connect with your target market before you ask for the sale?
Or… How long do you take to travel the Road to Helping Clients before you are able to Successfully Help More Clients?
