How to Close Sales With Multi-Touch Marketing
Plan 7-14 touches to acquire a customer
The explosion of media choices coupled with today’s short attention span means marketers must plan 7-14 steps in their lead nurturing programs. High-ticket items in the business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets certainly require many messages and interactions to close a sale.
That’s why companies offer incentives to capture contact information. They create processes to track consumers as they go from unqualified lead to qualified lead, from abandoning a shopping cart. They thank prospects for signing up for newsletters and customers for purchases while presenting new opportunities.
In this example of 16 possible touches during the life cycle of a customer, you can see how various content is scheduled across media to create a steady flow that encourages action and interaction.
- A customer sees a TV commercial and goes to a web site
- Customer clicks on a link to collect a promised ebook
- The thank you landing page for downloading the ebook offers a 10% discount off a first purchase for signing up to receive emails
- A thank you email for signing up for the newsletter offers more free downloads
- The customer selects a free mini-course with 5 days
- Email follow-up reminds customer of shopping cart abandonment
- A retargeted ad captures new purchase
- At the site, the customer is encouraged to use live chat
- A post-purchase thank you email presents a membership incentive with special promo code
- A follow-up email confirms shipment, arrival date and tracking link
- The next email asks about satisfaction, requests a review and provides a link
- An unopened email is followed up by an automatic resend with a new subject line
- A personalized direct mail piece after 3 months of inactivity provides a new uniquely priced offer
- A customer service call is placed re: satisfaction with autoship discount offer for item previously bought
- A follow-up survey offers an incentive to get special previews on Facebook
- A Facebook ad generates a new purchase
As businesses add further channels of promotion and advertising, the possibilities increased for further sales and a higher average order value.