When you are developing a mindshare marketing campaign for your company, one of the first places to begin is by noting how many marketing touchpoints customers have with your business.
Marketing touchpoints, in this case, are defined as how many ways they can interact with your company, and should be separated into offline and online channels. If your business has a physical storefront or office location, for example (this refers to a physical location where customers may come and meet you), your marketing touchpoints might include location of your office, ease of access, condition of building, decoration and layout of your office(s). It would also include how the client is greeted when they arrive, how long they are kept waiting, and how they feel from these initial contacts with your company.
Additional touchpoints would include how well your customer service representatives treat your customers, how quickly your incoming phone calls are answered, and how support questions are dealt with. It would also include the type of “music-on-hold” your phone system uses, and how timely your employees are in addressing questions or complaints.
If you think about your company as being in the center of a ring, your touchpoints are every outward link your company has with its customers.
In the online channel, your touchpoints would include your website, blog, rss feed, participation in online communities (such as forums), articles you write, direct to desktop technologies, press releases you send, the graphics you choose to convey your message, the consistency of your message, and how well you can gain, and keep attention. Additional touchpoints may be presentations you give, teleseminars or webinars you provide, and any kind of industry specific associations or programs you are involved in.
It is vital that you regularly undertake an audit of these touchpoint areas to determine how effectively they are supporting your goal of greater mindshare.
People respond best to a consistent message, delivered over time, and in multiple formats.
How well do your touchpoints measure on these dimensions?
