Sticky Marketing: A Touchy Subject

Ah touch points. You've heard the term. And, if you haven't it's all about every possible interaction your business has with a potential or existing customer. It's literally how many times your brand touches them - the sum of all their interactions with your company. We've all heard the statistics that it takes 10-20 times before someone has an impression of your brand and will potentially take action. Well, what if you could lower that number by making your marketing a bit stickier?

So what is sticky marketing? You might have guessed that it's making contact with customers in a more memorable and meaningful way, not just with some random touch point. It's all about the experience your customer has with your brand. This means as a marketer you'll have to truly discover what motivates your target audience and what will stick in their minds or cause them to take action. Let's look at a few examples:

• Got Milk?^® This is a great example of using "human truth" as a concept that binds us together. This stuck in the minds of consumers because we can all relate to not having milk when we needed it most. Human truth or universal truth when used in the right situations or with the right types of products can be very sticky - sticking in the minds of customers immediately because they don't need 10-20 repetitions to "get it".
• Handwritten Thank You Note on a Post-it^® Note Pad. OK, this has two things going for it: 1) Handwritten notes are rare in today's world which instantly makes them more memorable and meaningful; and 2) The customer received a Post-it Note Pad with the company's brand and contact information on it... something sticky and useful long after the note was read. This one simple example of how promotional products can help improve your brand impact. It can also be used in the concept of "lumpy mail" - mail with something inside the envelope is opened more frequently than standard letters and promotional mail.
• Sticky Website. There are many ideas and tools available to make a website stickier. In the "Internet world" a sticky website is one that gets people to come back again and again. The basic way to do this is to change content frequently. But, that's usually not enough. Creating useful tools and interactions usually has more impact. What can your website add that has ongoing use to your target audience?

Let's look at a specific example: Yahoo!. To check your e-mail, if you have an account with Yahoo!, you have to go to the Yahoo! Website. Having an e-mail account at Yahoo! gives you one more reason to go back to Yahoo! everyday.

Let's look at another example: Kraft Foods. They could have just simply advertised they're products and gave you their recipes. But, they took it one step further and gave the user a free place to store their personal recipes. This simple tool keeps users coming back to the Kraft Foods Website to gain access to their own recipes while at the same time being able to access the Kraft Foods recipe database.

As you can see sticky marketing can boost the experience your customers have with your brand. That being said, it is still vitally important to make sure all touch points are consistent with what your company/brand represents. So get out there... brand the experience and create an experience with your brand!

For more sticky ideas, read the next article "Mapping a Successful E-Business Strategy".