What are Multi-Touch Marketing Campaigns?

(This article originally appeared September 24, 2014 and was updated April 22, 2020)

One of the most effective ways to boost your response rates is sending strategic, multi-touch campaigns. Multi-touch marketing utilizes multiple touches with the same or different media to build your message over time to the same targeted audience.

Often, these touches are layered in three stages:

1. Priming the pump (“Watch for our exciting offer!”)
2. Presentation of the message (“Get yours today!”)
3. Follow-up or reminder to respond (“Don’t miss out on this offer!”)

This is not a formula that you should apply rigidly, and not all programs will utilize the same elements, but it’s a good, general rule that has proven very successful.

Take the example of a private school that wanted to increase its donations. It developed a multi-touch campaign that stretched over several weeks and included 7 touches (or follow ups).

The program included:

• General awareness letter to introduce the campaign and its financial goal
• First, second, and third appeal letters, with personalized data based on child, grade level, teacher, recipient’s past giving history, and progress toward the goal
• Postcard alerting families to an upcoming Phone-A-Thon
• Phone-A-Thon follow-up card
• Final appeal letter

Using this approach, the school reached its financial goal three months early, and overall, achieved new records for revenue and participation.

Not all multi-touch campaigns have this many elements, but this campaign shows the power that repeated, reinforced communications have to boost revenue, combined with the trust that many organizations, especially nonprofits, have in this approach.

 Curious on how a multi-touch campaign could work for your business? Give us a call: (719) 591-0790.