7.3 Step 3 – Plan the Launch

Now let’s take a look at Step 3.

Once you have created your campaign offerings, it’s time to plan how you will let customers know about them. Proven successful marketing campaigns always plan to “touch” a customer more than once. A touch is anytime your customer is exposed to the campaign you are promoting. Most experts agree that you should plan at least three touches for each customer within a campaign. It can be by phone, email, social media, or in person.

We like to divide touches into two categories:

• Indirect Touches – which are general and touch many potential customers at once
• Direct Touches – which are customer specific and touch a potential customer individually

We recommend that you plan at least one Direct Touch for each campaign and encourage you to do even more. The more Direct Touches you do, them more successful your campaign will be.

Please review the provided examples of indirect and direct touches. You may also have your own type that have worked for you in the past and if so, use them.

Another consideration is the timing of your touches. The rule of thumb in the industry is 3 to 7 days between touches.

You might also want to consider the timing of your touch. It’s more effective for a customer to receive your touch when they are less busy and not as distracted with other things. Sending touches during busy times increases the possibility it might get buried in other emails, texts, and phone calls.

Of course, this will be different for every group of customers. For example, Friday afternoons may not be the best timing for a high school football coach during the season, given that they usually have games on Friday nights.

The more effort you put into the launch, the more successful your awareness campaign will be.

There is no doubt that Direct Touch efforts take more work. Nobody likes making solicitation calls and they do take more time. However, these efforts significantly boost your campaign’s success. If you spend the extra time and effort to do it, your work will pay off!

Take a look at our example for Step 3.