A touch point is any interaction between your business and a prospect that will influence the way they feel about your product or service. It can come in any form, including company logos, the building you are in, advertisements, and even the product or service itself. This interaction does not have to be physical in nature or even be officially from your business. An example of this may be an online review posted on a third party website. This means that you do not always have direct control of your business touch points.
Understanding the touch points that your customers interact with can help your business in many different ways. The most beneficial however is turning prospects into customers. Touch points have the ability to build the trust that a customer has in your business. If touch points are meaningful, relevant and a positive experience to the customer, they are more likely to trust your business and therefore are more likely to turn from a prospect to a customer. There are two ways that touch points can be measured to see the value they provide; quantity and quality.
The quantity of touch points that your customers come across is important. The more a potential customer comes across a business, the more likely they are to trust a business. Use yourself as an example: would you feel more comfortable buying from a business you see all over the place, with a presence on social media and a well-known logo, or a business that you have never heard of or seen anything about before? Most people would pick the former, and this is why having many touch points is important. A bigger presence in a potential customer’s mind leads to more trust and a more likely sales.
The quality of touch points is just as important as the quantity. Touch points are valuable as they can help build credibility for a business. If you are providing quality content, customers will begin to look at your business as experts in the area. If you are perceived as the credible experts in the market, then you will likely gain more sales. It is therefore important to make sure you are providing quality touch points for your customers. Between 5 and 12 touch points are needed before a customer will gain trust in your business, which means you have to provide quality content every time you can to capture their trust.
It is important to keep your business touch points in control in terms of both quality and quantity. Keeping control has the opportunity to lead to increased trust within your customers and therefore has the potential to increase sales!
Talk to the marketing consultants at Fit 4 Market to find out more. Fit 4 Market can provide advanced B2B sales lead strategies and integrated marketing solutions tailored to your business needs.