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November 13, 2024Understanding Digital Media Touchpoints
Digital Touch Points refer to the various points of interaction between your brand and your customers across different digital media platforms.
Digital Media Touch-points in this context include Websites, Mobile Apps, Social Media Platforms, Email, Newsletters, Live chat, and more.
A thorough understanding of this different layer of interaction helps your brand to formulate a clear and consistent brand messaging that aligns with the requirements of each platform while at the same time building strings of connection across the different interaction points that effectively coalesce into a single data point that can effectively be deployed to attract, nurture, engage and convert would-be customers into paying customer.
To shape brand narratives across different digital media touch-points, you will have to:
1. Understand Your Brands Value System
Brand values are the fundamental principles, beliefs, and ethical standards that a company or organization stands for and uses as a guiding framework for its actions, decisions, and interactions.
Core values act as the guiding principles for all brand communications, shaping how a brand speaks and interacts. For example, if a brand values Intelligence, this should be evident in the way it communicates across different media touch-points.
X
A case study of Brand Value is exemplified in X’s belief that free speech is under attack. This belief shapes the brand's decision to allow free speech to thrive and not censor users' opinions.
These values serve as a compass, shaping the company’s culture, behavior, and communication with its stakeholders, including customers, employees, and the public.
They represent the core and identity of the brand, helping to establish trust, build relationships, and differentiate the brand in the marketplace.
2. Create a cohesive brand identity
Develop a memorable visual identity. This includes Logo, Colour scheme, Font, Imaging, and of course voice tone which is a non-verbal aspect of your brand's communication that can convey a range of emotions and attitudes, such as exclusivity, happiness, sarcasm, and empathy in alignment with your corporate values.
Understanding these different layers of your brand identity and streamlining them to effectively convey your brand's aims and objectives will help distinguish your brand from competing organizations and reinforce your distinctiveness in the market.
SUJIMOTO
Sujimoto is a Real Estate Brand in Nigeria that consistently reinforces its message as being the brand for the top of the pyramid 1% in Nigeria. The brand builds properties for the "Nouveau Riche" and does not hide that fact in its brand messaging. This is further reinforced by the choice of the brand’s Gold color code, which represents Wealth and Luxury, and the luxurious feel of the brand’s website, advertorials, and social media posts.
3. Craft a compelling narrative
Build a compelling narrative and or brand message that effectively resonates with your target audience by aligning your message to satiate their individual needs and aspirations.
Tell them how your brand's origin, values, and services align with their journey and how you are better poised to help them achieve their goals and aspirations.
STERLING BANK
Sterling Bank (in Nigeria) believes that the brand is a ONE CUSTOMER BANK and thus builds its rhetoric around being the financial institution that caters to the 360-degree life (Personal, Business, and Corporate journey) of the ONE CUSTOMER.
The bank consistently reinforces this message across its Website, Digital media posts, Chatbot, and of course other digital media touch-points.
4. Tailor your story to different channels
Adapt the format and tone of your narrative to suit each channel in alignment with your brand’s value system.
For example, you might use visual storytelling in your brand video on YouTube and re-adapt that storyline into a catchy and concise message series in your social media posts and convert those series into FAQ’s on your website.
You have to learn how to convert your story into different formats across different digital media channels and tie it all up in a string that will effectively help achieve your aims and objectives.
One of the best ways to do this is to ensure that your brand messaging across different networks/media channels has a CTA (Call to Action) that effectively captures your audience details into a single data-point that can then be synchronized and effectively used to manage customer interaction.
5. Be consistent
Ensure that your brand narrative translates consistently across mediums and touch-points. Don’t push different rhetoric that will confuse people.
For instance, on Linkedin, you establish your brand as a thought leader in your niche but your interactions (Likes, Comments, Responses) on Twitter suggest otherwise.
Ensure that you present a unified brand image across all digital media touchpoints, including visual elements, messaging, tone of voice, values, and the overall brand experience.
Brand consistency is important for creating a strong brand identity and building customer trust. It sets you apart from the competition and reinforces your message of trust and authority.
6. Use social proof
Leverage positive customer reviews, user-generated content, and Influencer partnerships to reinforce the brand's perceived quality and reputation.
Case Study:
Chicken Republic & Chowdeck
Popular social media influencer, Hauwa decried the rising cost of food in Nigeria and dared Chicken Republic, a Popular Fast Food Joint in Nigeria to offer to sell its refuel pack (which includes Rice and Chicken combo) for just #1,000 as opposed to #2,000 due to ongoing inflation in the country.
To everybody’s surprise, Chicken Republic jumped on the trend and offered its refuel pack at a discounted price of #1,000 and subsequently tagged Chowdeck who offered the discounted price on its platform.
This subsequently made Chicken Republic Nigeria's number one Fast Food company and further reinforced Chowdeck as Nigeria’s exclusive delivery partner.
Result?
7. Refine your approach
Continuously scrutinize your approach to your customer experience across touchpoints based on real-world feedback as captured in your customer journey data across different media touchpoints.
This underscores the need for a CRM tool that will effectively help your brand to gather and analyze accumulated customer data, including contact information, interactions with company representatives, purchases, comments, likes, reviews, and after-sales interactions.
This information needs to be effectively mined to generate the details needed to refine your approach and better align your interactions with customers across different digital media touchpoints.
In summary, brand touch-points encompass more than just standalone interactions. They represent strategic opportunities that shape your audience's views, steer their choices, and nurture a lasting relationship.
Enhancing your brand experience through well-crafted touchpoints also allows you to set yourself apart from your competitors and helps to build a deep connection between your brand and your customers.
