Don’t ignore these critical touchpoints

This are not your advertising collateral, brochures, signage or a website. You already know their importance, you spend good money making sure its captivating and communicates the brand value perfectly. The critical touchpoints are the ones your prospect asks for, interacts and passively notices without a big marketing push. Ignoring these elements convey not only sloppiness but also negatively effects the overall image your organization. Maintaining consistency in your brand is important, don’t miss these easy to fix solutions.

Contact web forms

The pinnacle of B2B marketing is getting the prospect to fill that darn contact or a request form.

You might have taken significant effort creating that perfect landing page for your email campaign, your lead-generation marketing model depends on it.

Don’t ignore the contact form, thank-you page as well as the confirmation email. Your prospect has a problem they want you to solve, other then a phone call, this is the most crucial engagement point between you and that lucrative contract.

• It’s not their fault: Don’t blame the user for mistyping the URL, its more likely you that provided an incorrect link or removed the page. Be friendly and courteous– use tasteful humour to illustrate the the conundrum.
  
  
• Use your template: Design the error page within your template so the visual style is consistent. Carry over the main (usually top) navigation. This will verify to the user that they’re at least hitting within the ballpark.
  
  
• Search field: Incorporate clear and simple search field right under the error message. This will entice the user to find the content themselves.
  
  
• Contact info: have a link to your contact page, or better yet, offer a simple contact form right on the page. This might motivate the user to let you know that the URL is broken.
  
  
• Offer popular content: Provide links to your most popular pages. They might not be able to find what they asked for but offering popular content might keep them engaged a bit longer.

Business forms

Invoices, proposals, training documents, all end up in your clients hands. This is not the time to drop the ball, it’s a good opportunity to expand on your brand promise.

As a marketer, be aware of all collateral going out even things that are not under the marketing branch. Most likely, you have never seen an invoice your company sends out, let alone the envelope it is in.

• Research: Be aware of all touchpoints other departments send out. Talk to the appropriate manager (HR, Admin, Accounting) about revamping their communication piece, you’ll be surprised how open they’ll be to the idea.
  
  
• Stand out: Your clients receive a lot of mail, even from competition, make sure your communication stands out before the envelope is opened –- be creative by implementing design onto the envelope with your visual branding.
  
  
• Communicate value: Thank you for your business says nothing. Instead, use space on the invoice for a more meaningful value proposition (eg. Together, we’re building a stronger foundation…etc)

Telephone hold

This might sound very irrelevant in the whole scheme of your branding initiatives, unless you’re a client or a prospect waiting on hold and listening to elevator music.

This is great opportunity to let the person on the other end find out more about your offerings and make them more receptive to your brand.

• Have a personality: Use a professional voice talent. Don’t use an internal staff member, no matter how talented. Adding that extra vitality makes a big difference.
  
  
• Use a destination: Most likely, the prospect is near a computer. Make sure the script includes not just the products/services you offer but a web destination for more info.
  
  
• Don’t be clever: You’re not running a radio station, keep the music, advertising, etc to a tasteful, informative level. Unless you’re marketing to teens.
  
• Be consistent: Don’t change your hold message every week. No one calls just to hear it; they want to talk to someone.

Email signature

Last but not least, that thing you have bellow your message in your email communications. In a medium-size organization, there are hundreds if not thousands emails going out – imagine the missed opportunity or the embarrassment your employees might bring to the organization.

• Say no to custom: Don’t have your employees design their own signatures. Usually, this ends up in a mess, with pretty flowers and pink borders.
  
  
• Link to website: This might be another obvious thing but providing a link to your website is one of the most essential elements in your signature.
  
  
• Alternative contact: In addition to your name, company name, include a phone number as well as cell number.
  
  
• Keep it clean: Keep the images on the low side. No need for heavy graphics, use your logo and maybe a header. Make sure the vital information is legible.
  
  
• Promote your events: If you’re throwing a conference together, involve your staff  promoting the event. Force an automatic company-wide banner or a link on everybody’s outgoing email.
  
  
• No social messages: Think about the environment before printing this email is a nice gesture but unless your business has a positive track record as a green company, leave it off. Don’t make them feel guilty if they choose to print the email.

So, there it is, nothing new. You already knew about these touchpoints, now you have no excuse to ignore them. These changes and updates require limited staff, effort and money. Hopefully this helped you think more about the small stuff and how relevant they actually are.