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You must’ve heard it said before; “it takes up to 27 ‘touches’ before a potential customer will buy from you”. But what on earth is a touch and why do I need so many!?
There’s a great short piece that was written way back in 1885 by businessman Thomas Smith, from London, as follows:
- The first time a man looks at an advertisement, he does not see it.
- The second time, he does not notice it.
- The third time, he is conscious of its existence.
- The fourth time, he faintly remembers having seen it before.
- The fifth time, he reads it.
- The sixth time, he turns up his nose at it.
- The seventh time, he reads it through and says, “Oh brother!”
- The eighth time, he says, “Here’s that confounded thing again!”
- The ninth time, he wonders if it amounts to anything.
- The tenth time, he asks his neighbor if he has tried it.
- The eleventh time, he wonders how the advertiser makes it pay.
- The twelfth time, he thinks it must be a good thing.
- The thirteenth time, he thinks perhaps it might be worth something.
- The fourteenth time, he remembers wanting such a thing a long time.
- The fifteenth time, he is tantalized because he cannot afford to buy it.
- The sixteenth time, he thinks he will buy it some day.
- The seventeenth time, he makes a memorandum to buy it.
- The eighteenth time, he swears at his poverty.
- The nineteenth time, he counts his money carefully.
- The twentieth time he sees the ad, he buys what it is offering.
[hr] Click here to download a free PDF copy of the above [hr]
What is a ‘touch’?
A touch is when someone comes into contact with your business and back in 1885 that was pretty much either featuring in the paper, at an event or actually physically going in the shop or by word-of-mouth… things have changed, just a little, since then! Now a touch can come in many forms and a good rule of thumb is to ‘touch’ people in lots of different places and so grab their attention and be seen as being everywhere.
What does this include?
Well, pretty much anything that constitutes marketing.. let me give you some examples:
- Social media
- Adverts
- Leaflet drops
- Word-of-mouth
- Events
- Email newsletters/marketing
- PR
- Blogging
- Direct mail
- Radio
- Pay Per Click (or even better re-targeted) adverts
- The list goes on…
Anywhere your potential clients see your brand is one touch.So you see how, by being strategic with your marketing, you can speed up the process and get people taking action.
If your target is local, let’s say you’re a sports therapist, then you could do a number of things to get touching!
- Adverts in the local parish magazine
- PR feature in the local paper – maybe be the local ‘expert’
- Advert on the local radio station (one that is relevant to your Ideal Client)
- Leaflet drop in the local area
- Hold an event locally to educate people how to avoid injury in sport
- Launch a referral scheme (word of mouth)
- Regular blogging about sport and health
- Active social media presence (incl strategic advertising)
- PPC on Google Adwords for local search terms
It goes without saying that all of the above would be carefully planned around a set goal with ways you can track their effectiveness and know what’s working for you. You wouldn’t just spend money like a crazy person with no strategy as that just wastes time, effort and much-needed cashflow.
It’s time to take action!
Consider how you can touch more potential clients over the next month:
- Where do you need to be seen?
- What do you want people to be saying?
- What is the action that you want people to take when they see your brand?
- How are you going to follow it all up and track performance?
When you have a clear picture of the above then you’re on to a winner! So get out there and get touching! 😉 [hr] Not sure where to start for your business? I’d love to chat with you and see how I can help you get your marketing and branding working much more effectively for you. Find out how you can work with me. [hr]