Leverage Every Touch Point

When business conditions become harder, Marketing budgets are often one of the first operating expense line items to feel the discomfort of the Finance department’s knife. Suddenly we are required to achieve more with less resulting in much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth.

Why is it that so many Marketers wait until this pressure is applied before trying to identify opportunities that were sitting right in front of them?


Where to Start?

Whilst the idea of an audit may send shivers down the spine of your colleagues in Finance, a simple audit identifying every touch point that your organisation has with its customers can provide a treasure trove of inexpensive and even no-cost marketing opportunities.

Every contact with a customer (trade or end consumer) is a brand experience at the very least and often provides an opportunity to cross-sell or up-sell. Even a customer complaint, handled in the right way, can create an advocate for your brand.

Below are just a few typical customer touch points and some thought starters on how you can leverage them. This list is by no means exhaustive and not all will apply to every type of organisation but hopefully you’ll find one or two gems here that will help you meet both KPI and CFO objectives.

Invoices, Statements, Order Confirmations, etc

How many non-marketing mail pieces does your organisation send each month? Postage isn’t likely increase with the inclusion of a small piece of marketing material so why not include a flyer promoting your other products or services?

The people that you are sending these communications to are your customers so you probably have enough information to be able to segment these mailing to tailor your message to maximise returns. Do it right and you may be surprised how often customers thank you for bringing this useful information to their attention.

What works best – a flyer, a letter, a post-it note, a catalogue? Experiment as you would with any other DM.


Emails

How many emails does your company send every day? Why not introduce a standard auto-signature inviting the recipient to trial a new product, experience a new part of your website, take advantage of a seasonal sale, etc?

Again, test different messages and presentation of these messages to see what is most effective and make sure to refresh the message regularly so they don’t become “visually stale” and invisible.

Customer Service / Retail Assistants

How many times have you heard the words “Would you like fries with that?”? How often did you respond in the affirmative? How many incremental sales have McDonalds made simply for training their staff to ask this question?

What are the complementary products in your organisation? Are your sales / customer service teams trained to identify cross-sell and up-sell opportunities? How often do they ask this sort of question and are they given any incentive to do so? (A couple of movie tickets or the like can often go a long way and never underestimate the power of a “Certificate of Appreciation”).

Whilst on the subject of customer facing staff, how empowered are your staff to resolve customer issues and complaints? When they escalate a query, how quickly do they get a response (if at all)? In any commercial organisation, it is not the boss that pays the wages, it is the customer and they should be treated as such. Even if you can’t give the answer that they want, just the fact that a real person gives them an answer can often be the difference between keeping and losing a customer (not to mention the flow on Word of Mouth effect).


Your Customers

When was the last time that you asked a customer to recommend your products? We all tend to know people with similar needs and interests as ourselves and if your customers are happy with what you provide for them, it stands to reason that their friends might be too.

My mortgage broker periodically asks me if I know anyone who is looking to refinance and, as he has always looked after me, I’m more than happy to. Moreover, on each occasion he has sent me a small gift to thank me for the referral. It is quite unexpected and quite unnecessary; however, we all like to be appreciated so it certainly has the effect of making me feel more positive about his brand. . . and perhaps even more inclined to recommend him again.


In summary, every interaction that your company has with its customers is an opportunity to improve your brand relationship and potentially up-sell or cross-sell you products or services. Identifying these “channels” and then experimenting with different ways of leveraging them can provide very cost effective ways to drive your business . . . and keep your CFO happy!