Marketing Touches and How To Use Them

By Jeff Klopmeyer, Chief Marketing Guru and Tech Geek, JKC

Imagine you're walking down a street, and you need to get someone's attention. You could hold up a sign but they might not be looking your direction. You could yell for them, but your voice might be drowned out by the background noise. But the one sure-fire way to grab their attention is to literally grab them!

That's the idea behind marketing "touches". It's probably a term you've heard before: a marketing touch is a single point at which you connect with your prospective customer. Unlike a real touch, which is almost always noticeable, nearly no one is affected by a single marketing touch. In fact, the accepted science within marketing says that it never takes less than seven touches to generate a customer's interest, and can take up to 30 (!) touches to be noticed by a single customer.

So what is a "touch" as it relates to marketing?

Anything that can relate your brand and its message to a customer is a touch. Here's a quick reference list of some touches you may want to include in your marketing plan for the musical instrument, pro audio, broadcast, and entertainment industries that we serve at JKC.

- Web sites
- Print ads
- Presence on social networking sites like MySpace
- Presence on video and picture sharing sites like YouTube or Flickr
- Trade shows, including large shows and local/regional events
- Internet banners
- Blogs (you're reading one now)
- Contests
- Print or email newsletters
- Product demonstrations
- TV/Radio spots
- Product packaging
- Internet forums
- Point-of-purchase displays
- Technical papers

And so on. That's just the marketing end of it; your sales team has its own set of touches that includes follow-up calls, pursuing leads from a variety of sources, and many more.

Um... I don't have enough time or money to do all of those things!

You're not alone. It's not necessary to hit every possible touch for each of your marketing strategies, and most companies in our industry aren't able to do the level of product rollout that would go into a national consumer brand, for example. However, it's a great idea to try and prioritize the possible touches that will have the best chance of impact with your customers, and apply your effort (and your budget) accordingly.

In a subsequent installment here on the JKC blog, we'll take a closer look at getting to know your customers, allowing you to better refine your decisions of marketing projects to undertake. If you have specific questions, you can always find us at www.klopmeyer.com.