In every customer’s journey, there are certain touchpoints, some connections that the business or brand has, directly or indirectly, with the customer. Those interactions can take place in person, on the phone or via email. Whatever form they take, they help build the brand perception and drive conversion rates. But how can we define a marketing touchpoint? Why are they important and how can we track them within our strategy?
Marketing touchpoints are points of contact between your brand and customers. They are how you interact with them, build relationships with them and even trust them enough to buy from you. Touchpoints are important for marketers because they allow us to find out where our customers hang out online, what kinds of content they like and don’t like, how much money they spend on certain products or services, etc. Marketers can find all things that can help tailor their marketing efforts accordingly.
In other words, you can define marketing touchpoints as anytime someone engages with your business, a form of contact between your business and the customers. Touchpoints come in different forms, from face-to-face interaction to an email or an online ad. It is an interaction that involves the business message, brand name or the marketing message the business wants to tell. In any case, whenever you have an opportunity to make a lasting impression on someone and get them to think about you in a positive light, that's a marketing touchpoint.
There are several types of marketing touchpoints that a customer may encounter and help with the customer’s journey on a positive note. Some include:
When building the customer’s journey, marketers have to consider the many forms customers may interact with your business, in order to find the right channel, content and medium to deliver the message and interact with the right person. Marketing touchpoints are helpful for marketers in order to better understand from which channel a customer is coming from, and if it is working how the marketers intended to.
Marketing touchpoints are important because they can influence the customer during their journey, by encouraging different actions, enhancing the overall experience and building trust and loyalty with the customer.
Each of these interactions helps the consumer build their perception of a business or brand and that perception is what they’ll use to determine how they feel about you and how they react to your marketing efforts. The more positive or negative the interaction, the better it may be for the brand in terms of reaching various targets (such as new customers, existing ones, etc.)
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Tracking your touchpoints allows you to optimise your marketing so you can make sure the right person sees the right message at the right time. It is not always easy to track a touchpoint, but by mapping your customer’s journey, you can see where the most important interactions are, what channel gets the most positive results and what can be improved.
Customer journey maps illustrate all of these interactions along with any additional information that might be helpful, such as what product category someone belongs to or how often they visit certain pages on your site. The important thing is to track your touchpoints regardless of whether they are one or one hundred. Keeping track of your touchpoints requires tracking every lead and conversion, so you know where every lead originates and at what point the customer received the right message.
It’s not just about getting leads, it’s about getting them to convert and keep coming back. Rather than just getting them to buy something or make a purchase, the goal is to make sure they feel connected to the brand and its values so that they become loyal customers.
In the end, each of these interactions helps the consumer build their perception of your company and that perception is what they’ll use to determine how they feel about you and how they react to your marketing efforts. In general, the higher the level of a positive, the better it is for the brand in terms of reaching various target audiences.