By Gina Danner

Webster's dictionary says that "hit" is to apply forcefully or suddenly and that "touch" means to relate to or have an influence on. In marketing, there is a time to hit and a time to touch. But too often, inexperienced marketers don't know the difference between the two or how and when to do either

In marketing, think of the hit as being targeted to prospects. These are the people who do not know you, your products or services. These unaware prospects need to be knocked off their feet and made to take notice-and take action. They need to be hit upside the head, figuratively, so that they realize you even exist.

Once they know you exist, then they need to be touched, repeatedly. Touch is about elevating a consumer from clueless to the status of a raving fan. Touch is about providing relevant and valuable information that will help consumers make up their minds. It is about a relationship that keeps a client coming back and spending money in your business on an ongoing basis. Touch is about creating a perpetual client who can be a referral machine.

Cost of Hitting vs. Touching
Hitting is expensive. Hitting is Super Bowl commercials. Hitting is full-page newspaper advertisements. Hitting is huge discounts to attract clients.

Touching is relatively inexpensive. For about $8 per year, a business can create a direct program that mails to a client every month with some type of relevant and valuable information. Keeping a client for $8 a year is within the reach of nearly every marketing budget.

Hitting is advertising. It is television, newspapers and billboards. Touching is relationship building. It is direct mail, personal phone calls and personal visits. It is customer relationship management (CRM).

As a marketer, business owner or salesperson, it is critical to have a balanced approach to your advertising and marketing. You have to keep the clients you have and grow them, and prospect for new clients. You have to hit and touch.

Keep in Touch
Very smart business people often do not realize the power that is within their current client base. They fail to maintain the relationship—or touch—their past clients on a regular basis. They virtually ignore them. A typical example is someone who bought four cars from the same dealership and referred eight other clients because they had a good experience and it was easy to do so. Then the great salesperson left and no one from the dealership reached out to maintain the relationship with that past client.

That dealer has structured his entire business around the premise that people buy from the good people he has in his sales force. True. Yet, the dealer also has to have great systems in place so that when salespeople leave, the clients do not get lost in the shuffle. That is client relationship management. That is touch.

People do buy from people, and they buy from people who remember them and touch them on a repeated basis. If your current marketing or advertising plan is all about hits, you may need to rethink that plan and allocate some dollars and effort towards touch, revisiting past or current clients and growing them.

Besides, it is a lot more fun to touch and be touched than it is to hit or to be hit. People who walk through your door because they were touched typically have a shorter decision making process and typically have a higher margin on the sale. It is true that it is cheaper to keep a client than it is to find a new one.

Is Your Grass Still Greener?
Are you keeping your client relationships fresh? Do they know you are thinking of them and still have the best solutions for their problems?

Remember that the green grass on the other side of the fence is always tempting. Your competitors are waging war on you, hitting your clients and trying to get them to jump that fence. Your job is to spend time, money and effort touching them to make sure they know that while that grass might look greener, you have the high service levels and quality products that solve their problems and make it more than worth their while to stay with you.

So what are you doing to touch your clients?

Gina Danner is chief executive officer and co-owner of Mail Print Inc. (MPI), a marketing and sales strategic innovator creating custom direct mail programs that save its clients time and make them money. MPI provides comprehensive marketing programs for clients, delivering the highest quality graphic design, printing, mail preparation and fulfillment services. You can reach Gina at or (816) 459-8404.