An Underutilized Marketing Tool

The telephone is one of the least utilized tools to grow and promote a business, yet is it one of the most effective ways to market your goods and services. Recent Direct Marketing Association statistics show telemarketing more than doubled the response rate of its closest competitor. Telemarketing also received the highest ROI index beating e-mail marketing and postal marketing by comfortable margins. I will cover some benefits of telephone marketing and give a few things you need to be aware of before deciding to add the telephone to your marketing repertoire.
There are valuable benefits for using telemarketing in your sales and marketing strategy. Telemarketing is an effective resource as a follow up to others form of marketing. Businesses can increase their response rates with a timely phone call as follow-up to other forms of marketing. Telemarketing gives direct immediate feedback for the product or service. A company can use the data to determine if there is demand for the product or service. The data could be a source for research and development to develop new products or services. Telemarketing offers the opportunity to increase public awareness of a company. Non-profit organizations and politicians use telemarketing to promote their causes and solicit donations.
If you determine to include telemarketing in your marketing plan, you must remember a few things. The government has some rigid telemarketing guidelines. It is important to know the state and federal regulations regarding telemarketing. Make sure the company is compliant with the law before attempting any serious phone marketing.
The most important things to know are the Do Not Call List and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The federal government provides people the opportunity to join the National Do Not Call Registry. Many states have do not call lists. Companies are required to keep a log of people who request removal from calling lists. It may be a little time consuming at first, but once you establish a corporate do not call list, it is easy to maintain.
Congress passed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in 1991 to protect consumers from predatory telemarketing. The TCPA established call parameters and the window in which a person can make unsolicited calls. Marketing calls are limited from 8am to 9pm in each time zone. Each call must identify the name of the person making the call, the name of the company, and a telephone number or address where the prospect can contact the business after the phone call is finished.
One important thing to remember is on average, 90-95 percent of your calls will not be sales. That’s not saying they are all rejections. You may get a voice mail, a busy tone, or a wrong phone number. In many cases, the decision maker is not available. It is easy to get discouraged and want to give up. Don’t forget the goal. The 5-10 percent you convert could means hundreds or thousands of dollars in revenue. All you had to do was make a phone call.