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The integration of touch points and information channels
6.september 2003

With today´s communications clutter and fragmented media environment the integration of all marketing and Public Relations (PR) efforts is vital. However, organisations often fail to integrate marketing, PR activities, touch points and communications channels.

Modern organisations have various touch points and media used to communicate with their customers (existing or potential) and their important publics (investors, employees, anaylysts, journalists, suppliers etc.). These may include the service centre, web sites (internal or external) / public or extranet), advertising (broadast, print and online), newsletters (online and offline), e-mail lists, press releases, press interviews, case studies and so on and so forth.

The handling of these touch points and media may be wholly, partly or not at all outsourced. Furthermore these may be the responsibility of different departments. The danger is that chaos ensues, resulting in such problems as too customer confustion and frustration, fragmented brand identity and missed opportunities in media and analyst relations (just to name a few).

All promotional material should be mutually supportive
No matter how each organisation chooses to handle it´s communication channel and touch points, the key in achieving of integration is that no communications effort should be seen in isolation. In other words press relases, marketing brochures, web site, incoming and outgoing calls, ads etc. should be mutually supportive.

A few examples: most organisations put press releases on their web sites but some neglect to put their web site addresses on their press releases, employee cards or on their ads. Others omit their phone number or their mailing address on their print or TV ads or forget to post a list of outlets on their web site. In other cases customers might be forced to seek out an outlet or call the company since no help section or self-service is available online. This may lead to poor service, unsatisfied customers and high service costs.

Frontline personnel answering calls at the service centre should be able to refer callers to web sites and thus improve service and cut time needed on each call. This may happen if the material on the web site is not suitable, non-existent or simply because staff is unaware about what material is online. Some organisations promote specific online content or offers with online or offline ads which simply refer to the front page of the corporate site. In many cases there is no or little evidence of the service promoted on the front page. And finally staff working at outlets or at service centers may be unaware about offers or promotions promoted online, in broadcast or print media.

In all of those cases the person wanting to seek more information or buy the promoted product is left confused or frustrated.

Keep the internal information flowing
Internal lines of communications have to be kept open so that frontline staff is motivated and aware of the messages put forward by the organistation. It is also essential that information flows from frontline staff to marketing and PR professionials since they are often the best source of information about customer´s true feelings and attitudes about the organisation, it´s service and it´s products.

How can we make it count even more?
Communications professionals should also be constantly thinking about synergy between different communications channels or how to close the communications loop with important publics. Two ideas:

Make sure that spokepersons always have a reason to refer to the company´s web site when speaking to the press. A web site address printed in a widely read publication or refered to on TV or on the radio may make covereage more valuable for the organisation. A spokesperson could also refer to printed material or even phone-number where additional information about the topic in question can be reached (both of which should be available online and listed on search engines should anyone want to seek this out online).

If used properly e-mail registration lists can be valuable to keep important publics in the loop. Journalists should be offered to subscribe to press releases, invitation to press events, case studies and to coverage about the company in the media.Consumers should get an invitation to join a mailing list promoting relevant goods and services. This not only helps in getting more sales, a permission based mailing list can bring the target audience or public closer to the organisation and make it more knowledgable about it. By rewarding those registering for giving out information relevant for Customer Relationship Management and segmentation a mailing list can be made even more valuable.

The elusive virtous circle
Perhaps the most important thing is try to understand how the target audience or publics use the various touch points and information channels. This helps in creating a holistic communications strategy which ensures that important publics never get mixed or misleading messages nor confused about how to reach the appropriate contact at the company, buy the company´s products or learn more about it.