Increasing Touch Points Increases Revenues

Are we bent on getting single impressions with as many people as possible, or do we focus on achieving enough interaction through multiple touch points to help convert prospects into clients, and clients into loyal advocates?

Here’s a quick illustration of two scenarios I see over and over:

Business person #1 has enough money to make 10,000 impressions, so he makes a single impression with 10,000 people. His conversion rate is 0.5%, so he gets 50 new buyers.

Business person #2 also has enough money to make 10,000 impressions. She chooses to make five impressions each with 2,000 people using the same budget. She achieves a 5% conversion rate, yielding 100 new clients—twice the number for the same money.

As impressive as that is, here’s where the real difference comes into play…

Business person #1 does the same thing again to get the revenues he needs for next month. Sure, some of the people who have bought from him in the past make additional purchases, but he doesn’t do much to foster a long-term relationship with them. His focus is always on bringing new people through the doors (literally or virtually).

Business person #2 knows if she keeps a large percentage of her clients active, that’s good for her business in the long run, so she reallocates half her marketing budget for client retention activities. This means she’s only bringing in 50 new clients a month now through her initial acquisition activities, but well over half the clients she brings into her fold stay and keep buying from her because of her proactive relationship-building efforts. Furthermore, they become her ambassadors, bringing new clients into the fold with simple incentives that add to their positive experience with #2 and her company.

Over the course of just a few months, #2’s client base is multiple times that of #1’s. Over the course of years, you can image the difference.

Simple? Yes. Easy? Apparently not, since business person #2 represents an extremely small percentage of the business owner population.

In the end, #2 isn’t #2 at all. She’s #1 in the minds of her clients. She’s their #1 choice for what she provides. And her company is #1 in client acquisition, client retention, revenues, and profits.

Here’s to our being #1!

Bryan Waldon Pope