Every website owner wants to reach more people and to tell them all about their website and how it can help. Everyone wants to drive traffic and get leads and sales. But constantly reaching out to the same people can sometimes be overbearing or annoying. Touching the right people becomes critical.
Having a website is already one of the best ways to reach new business. Still there’s more to be said for how to reach new transacting customers. In marketing, a touch, or touchpoint, is when a person meets a communication strategy. Touchpoints occur for each person in one medium at a time. This, therefore, makes touchpoints repeatable. On average, it takes 7-13 touches before converting into a sale.
That’s a lot of touches.
So how do you touch more people without being overbearing or creepy?
Here are six touchpoints to consider for your marketing campaigns.
1. Search engine results page
Ideally, you have optimized your website for search engines. When people search for keywords on search engines, relevant websites will come up on the search engine results page. On this page, your website will display with a headline and short description. This is often the first opportunity to grab a new visitor’s attention.
2. PPC ads
Paid ads also appear on the top and right-hand side of the search engine results pages. These are known as pay-per-click ads that can drive more targeted traffic to your website. You can bid on relevant keywords to have your ads display in this area and pay when visitors click on the ad. This channel can be a very effective touch if used correctly. To start, you can set up an account with Google Adwords or, to make it easy, use SiteWit, a platform that makes managing search engine ad campaigns easily and within budget.
3. Web page
A web page or landing page that a visitor comes to either from search, advertisement or other medium is also a touchpoint. It will provide more specific information to the visitor and often will include a call-to-action or messaging that drives the visitor to the next touchpoint within the funnel. By considering every page on your website and its purpose, you can better plan how to construct the pages on your site and for whom.
4. Email marketing
Many website owners underestimate the power of email marketing. Whether you are sending a newsletter, promotion, personalized email, or responding to a query, these communications are also touchpoints that can be incredibly effective and measureable. Make sure your emails have a clear message and a clear next step. You can track opens, clicks, purchases and responses.
5. Social media
Impressions on social media networks are also helpful touchpoints and allow you to reach a wider audience of people through different channels. In fact, each social media network can be a different touchpoint, which is another reason why it is imperative to vary your social media content calendar.
6. Blog posts
Having a blog is undoubtedly a great way to reach more people searching for a wider range of topics that are related to your website. In addition to the blog on your website, writing for blogs outside of the sphere of your website are also great touchpoints. Connecting to other, related blogs or websites can also motivate other people to write about or reference your website, providing third-party validation as well as the added benefit of a backlink for SEO.
As you can see, not all touches have to result in a purchase, but they can contribute to your sales and your bottom line, or extended readership if your website doesn’t sell products or services. Reaching people and communicating through different media and about different, but related topics can really help your website be more rounded as well as reach newer prospects and engage existing customers.
To start, choose a few touchpoints that you can do well and a few that you’d like to test. You can then track and see which of your touchpoints are contributing positively to your goals and engage different ones or optimize existing ones.
Have any questions about touchpoints? Share them in the comments below.