Update on the Marketing Rule of Seven Touches
These are the touchpoints prospective clients view before making a decision.

Update on the Marketing Rule of Seven Touches

Be omnipresent on multiple platforms.

Seven touches.

That was the marketing rule for calculating how many interactions a company would, on average, pursue with a prospective client before snagging the sale.

Consider that statistic was in the pre-internet era.

Today, when people review many resources online, that number of touchpoints might be significantly higher.

Buyers are more active before they initiate and consummate a purchase.

According to Forrester Research, there might be as many as 27 interactions for B2B purchases.

In fact, surveys indicate that buyers complete as much as 70% of their own research before the point of first contact with a seller.

Which are the touchpoints where prospective customers get their information?

  • Attendance at webinars and conferences
  • Company websites
  • Corporate blogs and newsletters
  • Influencers and referrals
  • News articles
  • Podcasts
  • Reviews and testimonials by clients
  • Social media posts
  • Videos

What does the increased number of touches mean for you as a provider of goods and services?

Frankly, you must leverage the available platforms and media to ensure that potential clients are, indeed, learning all they can about you to finalize their buy decision and seal the deal.

This multichannel approach meshes neatly with my description of The Confirmation Process.

Potential clients want to confirm that:

  • YOU are the very individual they heard about, as shown by your photo and reference to the source that led them to you.
  • You have the EXPERIENCE and KNOWLEDGE to help them solve their problem, as demonstrated by descriptions of client successes.
  • You have the RESPECT of others in the sector, given your published articles, speaking engagements and mentions in news media.

While this may appear to be a passive process, in fact, it is anything but for you as the seller. You must regularly add material, such as podcast appearances, newsletters and articles, so that you will frequently appear under the nose of the potential buyer with fresh content.

This Month's Tip

You have considerable control over online references to your business, but you cannot predict precisely when and where an individual will seek out your information. Nor can you determine how long the buy-decision process will take.

A multichannel approach works best by creating informative and evergreen content in diverse formats that directs the reader or viewer to the website, where complementary material is housed. The multichannel approach surrounds the potential client with reminders, which, effectively, point to you as the resource of choice.

Contact

Are potential clients engaging with you at multiple touchpoints? Contact me at [email protected], book an appointment here or call me at 212.677.5770. Let’s review your digital presence and activity regarding your current and potential channels. It’s time to make the seven (or more) touches more visible.

Janet Falk

Get in the News, Attract Clients and Grow | Media Relations and Marketing Communications Strategy for Attorneys, Business Owners, Consultants | Speaker | Networking Teacher | Podcast Guest | DM me for info

5 个月

27 touchpoints refers to B2B services, which may include software and capital investments that may cost hundreds of thusands of dollars. That said, it's worth remembering that many of these touchpoints are invisible to the company itself, such as listeners of a podcast. It's different when potential clients subscribe to a newsletter or submit their email address for a downloadable file. Perhaps that answers your comment, Diane L. Camacho, CLM. As for content distribution, I refer to "content multiplication," as opposed to content being repurposed. Content must be formatted appropriately for different platforms. I disagree that content multiplication makes content "thin," Jose P.. I agree that going slow and focusing on fewer channels will help avoid author burnout.

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Jose P.

I help businesses turn persuasive words into profit. | Premium Copywriter | SEO Copywriting | Word Swordsmith Extraordinaire

5 个月

It does sound like a lot of touch points. I believe that one thing to keep in mind is to not let your content spread too thin, otherwise you risk losing value and turn into something your prospect can find anywhere else. In my case, I’m taking it slow and rather go one at a time. It’s my way to avoid burnout.

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Diane L. Camacho, CLM

Law Firm Start-Ups; Bookkeeping, Billing and Back Office Support; Fractional Legal Manager; Operational Assessments; Profitability Analysis, Legal Software Selection and Implementation; Speaker.

5 个月

27 seems like a lot for B2B but when you figure information on our various social media feeds it is quite possible. It's important to remember to use information in more than one way.

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