Defining your touch points

A brand touchpoint is a contact point between the customer and the brand. Most companies have up to100 different brand touch points where they interact with their customers.

Branding is about cultivating the customer experience by using a consistent voice and brand language across all touch points. It just means that if someone sees your logo or reference of your company, they will get an instant sense of what it stands for. This goes way beyond aesthetics—it can impact everything from how customers feel about your product and service offerings, to how they perceive quality and value.

Most branding projects will require the design of a website, stationery, social media graphic and maybe packaging. These are all touch points that will be where customers can interact with your branding. Many of these are things you’re likely already familiar with, but it’s still helpful to look into them closely. It’s normal to choose several of these to fit within your customer journey mapping.

It’s important to have a system in place so that each touchpoint connects with your customers and increases their overall brand awareness. Let’s explore some common brand touch points, so you can decide which ones are right for your business. This directly correlates with your awareness goals and must consider where your customer is.

Most common touch point to prioritise to drive more sales:

So you have defined your message, your audience and now you need to turn your insights into memorable touchpoints. Here's where you should start:

1. Website:

The first thing people see when they visit your website is called the above the fold.

Make obvious calls to action, one should be above the fold

Use images of success - the aspirational persona, if education show a happy classroom etc

Use very few words: the most effective websites use ten or less sentences on the entire page

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Primary focus:

1. Create a one-liner

2. Create a lead generator and collect email addresses

3. Create an automated email drip campaign

4. Collect and tell stories of transformation

5. Create a system that generates referrals

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One-liner: this is a statement that every employee learns to communicate what your business does.Who is the customer, what is the problem, what is the plan, what does success look like. The one liner often doesn’t mention your product, it focuses on the customer, problem and transformation.It is very powerful marketing if you get all your people communicating in the same way.

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Nurturing emails: If you have created a lead generator (free pdf that is relevant) and you are emailing those who signed up, then you can use the following formula to write your emails:
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1. Talk about a problem.
2. Explain a plan to solve the problem.
3. Describe how life can look for the reader once the problem is solved.

The offer and call to action email: About every third or fourth email in a nurturing campaign should offer a product or service to the customer. Be direct.
The formula looks like this:

1. Talk about a problem.
2. Describe a product you offer that solves this problem.
3. Describe what life can look like for the reader once the problem is solved.
4. Call the customer to a direct action leading to a sale.

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1. Stationery: Print work slowly is phasing out, however a well designed stationery system reinforces positive opinion of your brand and helps with brand recognition.
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2. Social tiles: Using social media is a great opportunity to connect with audience on a personal level. Branding and consistent with brand voice.
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3. Packaging: Don’t underestimate value of good packaging for product based businesses. Considering hierarchy, colours and pattern/illustration can be a great way to stand out with your packaging.

While defining your list of touch points:

Include the stage in the journey:

1. Pre-Purchase (touchpoints before a sale)
2. Purchase (touchpoints at the time of sale)
3. Post-Purchase (touchpoints after the sale)

Pre-purchase:

• Online reviews
• Podcast episodes
• Webinars
• Videos
• Interviews
• Q+As
• Email marketing
• Website
• Print/digital advertising
• Social media
• WOM
• Blog posts

Purchase:

• Packaging
• Welcome Packs
• Sales reps
• Environment
• Ebooks
• Online courses

Post purchase:

• Loyalty programs
• Customer service
• Product experience
• Follow up outreach

Extra things to consider:

• Customer interaction at every point in the journey
• Knowing your audience, and personally appealing to every segment of that audience, no matter how different they are. This is accomplished through personal interaction and emotional appeal.
• Using influencers. You don’t need big names, they just need to have a big influence on your market.
• Defining a marketing strategy. Trust, value, authenticity and reputation attract traffic and help secure a relationship.
• Providing an amazing customer experience that doesn’t end with the sale.

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Incorporating video is important:

Video’s the go to medium for content right now, and with popularity of Live and 360° video on social media, it’s only going to get bigger. People love video because it’s engaging and it gives them a “real” picture of your brand, which other forms of media simply can’t accomplish.

A brand touchpoint is a contact point between the customer and the brand. Most companies have up to100 different brand touch points where they interact with their customers. Branding is about cultivating the customer experience by using a consistent voice and brand language across all touch points. It just means that if someone sees your logo or reference of your company, they will get an instant sense of what it stands for. This goes way beyond aesthetics—it can impact everything from how customers feel about your product and service offerings, to how they perceive quality and value. Most branding projects will require the design of a website, stationery, social media graphic and maybe packaging. These are all touch points that will be where customers can interact with your branding. Many of these are things you’re likely already familiar with, but it’s still helpful to look into them closely. It’s normal to choose several of these to fit within your customer journey mapping. It’s important to have a system in place so that each touchpoint connects with your customers and increases their overall brand awareness. Let’s explore some common brand touch points, so you can decide which ones are right for your business. This directly correlates with your awareness goals and must consider where your customer is.