Less Noise, More Impact: Why Contact Strategy Matters (and how to do it).

A smart contact strategy is about striking the right balance — reaching people with the right message, at the right time, without overdoing it. Done well, it builds trust, improves response rates, and makes better use of your budget. Done poorly, it annoys people and pushes them away.

Why it matters

• Respect people’s time

  Nobody wants to be spammed. Managing contact frequency and content shows you value your customers and their attention.

• Protect your brand

  Over-communication, mixed messages, or poorly timed offers erode trust. A good contact strategy keeps your brand consistent and considered.

• Improve performance

  Smarter contact strategies drive better results. You can see what works, stop what doesn’t, and tailor your messages to different audiences.

The real-world problem: multiple tools

Most teams don’t have a single platform running everything. You might have one tool for email, another for SMS, something else for social or paid media. That’s normal — but it also means customers can get hit from all sides without anyone noticing.

When tools aren’t connected, you can’t see the full picture. One customer might get an offer by text, another by email, and a third might get both — twice. That’s not good for the customer or your brand.

So what can you do?

Here are some practical ways to manage contact strategy across tools:

1. Create a shared contact calendar

   Build a simple, shared view of what’s going out when, across all channels. This doesn’t have to be fancy — even a Google Sheet is better than nothing.

2. Define clear rules at the customer level

   Instead of setting limits by channel, set them by person. For example: no more than 2 marketing messages per customer per week, regardless of channel.

3. Use customer-level data where you can

   Pull data from each tool into a central view, even if it’s manual. Look for trends in frequency, response, and opt-outs to adjust your approach.

4. Choose tools that can talk to each other

   When reviewing or replacing tools, prioritise integration. Even basic API connections or data exports can go a long way.

5. Set up feedback loops

   If someone opts out of email, think about whether that should affect SMS too. The more joined-up your logic, the better the experience.

The value in a centralised view for customer contacts

When teams use different tools, it’s easy to lose track of how often customers are being contacted, what they’re seeing, and through which channels. Without a joined-up view, you can’t manage frequency, coordinate timing, or measure impact properly. That’s where a centralised view comes in.

What does a centralised view actually look like?

It doesn’t have to be a full-blown customer data platform (CDP). For many organisations, it starts with something as simple as a customer contact log.

Having a consolidated view of customer messages gives 2 major benefits:

1. Visibility of contact frequency

   You can’t manage what you can’t see - visibility allows organisations to understand whether they do have a customer contact issue, without relying on gut-feel or anecdotal evidence.

2. Control over contact frequency

   This record then allows organisations to manage frequency rules effectively within their Martech tools.

This is a conceptual architecture pattern we frequently see; a centralised view of contact history creates visibility and the ability to set meaningful contact rules in Martech tools which have customer-level context (opposed to platform-only context).

Final word

You don’t need a massive Martech stack to get this right. A bit of coordination, shared planning, and customer-focused thinking can make a big difference. Keep it simple, be consistent, and always ask: “Would I want to receive this?”

If you want to action something today; creating a centralised view of customer contact is one of the highest-impact moves you can make — especially if you’re working across multiple tools or teams. It helps you deliver smarter, more respectful marketing that works better for everyone.