How to reach more customers across multiple touchpoints

ZMOT stands for 'zero moment of truth'. It's a fancy acronym, created by Google (and still very useful) to describe the point before 'buyers' and 'seeders' know about your brand or product. This is the point they are seeking a solution.

This could happen in a shop at the counter with a QR code. It could be a review shared online about a product, or on a social network; it could be a point in a YouTube explainer video, or even the advert between, or the retargeting campaign of a brand about a sister product.

Your customers are online and fluent in digital, even though they don't know it, or rather think about it like that. They jump between apps and devices each with a personal focus in mind. Your job is to get in front and sell your products and services to these people even when they aren't naturally looking for your solution.

What makes ZMOT different to simple marketing is once they become a customer, purchase and use your product, they feed back into this point, aiding other customers.

So how do you do this and manage the many arms? Here are two practical tips, and five strategic actions.

Practical steps to planning

Use a pen and paper or whatever means you prefer that won't slow your thinking down.

1. Make a note of all the places your customers, potential customers and seeders (people who share your content) see, hear and read about your business and brand

These are your touchpoints with your customers. Ask:

• Do they explain the basics of your business? For example, you are a baker and are noted for your rainbow bagels. This is your underlying brand message. This needs to be across all touchpoints. Is it clear?

• Do they link to your other touchpoints (where relevant)? And are they easy to navigate? For example, you could link your Google My Business to a great review on Trustpilot. Connect it up and make it easy for viewers to follow the simple links.

• Can you track the usage/data? If so, sign up to get this weekly or monthly. This will help you steer your strategy later on.

2. Make a list of where you would like your business to be

Scale by importance – this will help you prioritise later. Note when you'd like these places to start, and whether you can implement yourself or will need to outsource. Have a budget in mind. You will need to pay for costs on top of outsourcing.

Once you know where you want to be, it's time to design your strategy or your customer route.

1. When designing your strategic customer route or sales funnel, work backwards

Start with what do you want to convert – sales, views, increase in community members.

Where will they come in to – a landing page? Social commerce (Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook shop)?

You then have multiple strands pointing into the conversion point. Pick from there and prioritise.

2. Social media tracking, analytics and attribution

Check your data points weekly or monthly. You may find that one channel or medium has higher engagement but brings less traffic to your site or sales landing page.

Use all the data to plot the path between platforms and your site to see, if it isn't contributing to sales traffic, if it's contributing to another platform that is answering common blocks to sales. Both have value. This is an important distinction and is unique to everyone.

3. Repurpose your content during or after you have created it

You can repeat, reuse, edit, transcribe, adapt. It is your copyrighted material, which is invaluable in itself.

4. Add contingency time to your planning and execution

Everything always takes longer than expected. Although digital marketing can be quick to execute, it takes time to build a groundswell. This is not the same for digital advertising, but if you don't take your time designing it can be a black hole for budget.

5. Finally, you don't have to be on every channel

Just a handful. Create a routine that you can maintain, even if you outsource it. Be clear on how you will communicate with them. Don't get hung up on tone of voice or look/design; this will slow your down and it will evolve as you grow and listen to your customers. Just make sure the message is on brand, the CTA is there, and it's bringing in positive traffic.

Key takeaways

• Be personable across all of your channels, not just social media. Show the human/humanity behind the brand

• It takes time to build an audience, and to connect and optimise channels, so be patient with yourself and your growth

• Prioritise what is and isn't important. This is crucial to making space for you to do great work, not gap fillers. Take a dedicated chunk of time off of a specific activity (if you can) and see how much you get done without it. You will soon realise if it had value or not, or whether you should and could outsource it

• Get organised. It seems obvious but file your marketing activity clearly and have a structure to it from the onset. You will be in and out of these files regularly so it will become second nature.

Relevant resources

• Lunch and Learn: Find your target audience and customer touchpoints

• Why creating buyer personas is so important to a new business

• Lunch and Learn: Five ways to better understand your customers