Getting Your First Customers: One Touchpoint at a Time

Getting your first customers and community members can be tough work. I was reminded again this week about the customer journey and touchpoints in relation to sales and marketing.

A touchpoint is any point of interaction with a customer or potential customer at any stage of the customer journey.

Sales and marketing experts will say it takes between 6-8 touches to generate a viable sales lead. This is especially true when cold prospecting. Even with this approach, marketers will say that most prospects never receive enough touches to become leads.

I think this is another reason why building community is so important. It has been interesting to observe as I continue to contribute more here on IH, I can see that some people will follow me after interacting with some of my content for the second or third time. Providing value in small and engaged communities is a great way to develop community and engage potential customers.

I think this is worth remembering when starting out and trying to build your initial customer base. It may be more time consuming in the beginning, but organic growth from within small and engaged communities helps to set the foundations for your long term business success; one touchpoint at a time.