TeleMarketing

Telemarketing is a marketing strategy that involves connecting with customers over the telephone or, more recently, through web-based video conferencing.

Telemarketing is one of the most divisive strategies in modern marketing because many organizations have been known to use irritating or unethical practices in telemarketing. One of the most negatively-perceived versions of telemarketing is known as “robo-calling,” a practice that involves using a pre-recorded message delivered through an automatic dialing machine that can contact thousands of people every day. Because of these and other unpopular methods, there are many government regulations of telemarketing in several countries throughout the world.

While many methods of telemarketing are looked upon negatively by consumers and lawmakers, the telemarketing field is broad and includes several methods that are ethical and highly effective. In the above example of Moneycorp, the campaign was not about selling a product over the phone, but making contact between Moneycorp’s senior sales team and their potential clients more effecient and successful.

Telemarketing can help a wide variety of organizations achieve improved results in different ways. Though the most obvious form of telemarketing involves company calls to individuals at home to pitch them products, telemarketing is also a significant strategy in business-to-business sales, event promotion, political campaigning, and lead generation for more sophisticated sales procedures. (See also Outbound Marketing)

Market Makers, the telemarketing company hired by Moneycorp, contacted corporations that were in need of the service Moneycorp provided. The marketers did not attempt to make a sale over the phone, only collect contact information and determine a potential client’s interest in Moneycorp’s services to generate strong leads for the senior sales team.

Companies that wish to promote an event that appeals to a specific demographic can also use telemarketing to reach potential participants. For instance, a company that organizes continuing education conferences for dentists could use telemarketing to contact a large number of dental practices to raise awareness about an upcoming conference, and encourage the dentists to attend.

Political campaigns use telemarketing extensively to raise funds and convince people to vote for the campaign’s candidate or cause. Large campaigns, like those for presidential elections, tend to use automated systems to reach the largest number of people possible. Local campaigns for positions like mayor or congressional representative, or for local ballot measures, often employ live telephone representatives instead. A similar method is used for universities and nonprofit organizations that wish to raise funds and increase participation.

Any form of telemarketing can also employ an inbound method, which is the use of other kinds of advertising and networking to encourage customers to make first contact in search of more information or to make a purchase.

Any organization interested in using telemarketing must first have a strong understanding of the product it wishes to market. This not only means giving the marketing team plenty of information about the product’s features and specifications, it also means conducting research about who would be interested in the product.

Most telemarketing targets a specific demographic. An organization using telemarketing should conduct market research to learn about its target demographic, such as the demographic’s buying habits and the kinds of products they value the most.

For example, if a cleaning service wanted to use a telemarketing strategy, it could read market data and conduct surveys to find out what kinds of customers are in the greatest need of professional cleaning and what they want in a cleaning service.

With the marketing team properly informed and the market research complete, the company’s next step is to set clear goals for what the telemarketing campaign should accomplish. The campaign can be about closing sales, generating new leads, or simply collecting market data that can be used in other sales and marketing campaigns. In the case of the cleaning service, they may wish to use telemarketing to generate leads among the demographic of homeowners who make more than $100,000 per year.

Once an organization has its campaign goals in mind, it can create the actual materials used during telemarketing calls. Many organizations write scripts that telephone associates memorize and recite during calls. Others simply give their telephone associates goals and allow them to conduct more natural conversations with customers to achieve those goals. If the cleaning company from our example doesn’t want to use a script, they could set a goal for the phone associates to gather customer information, like interest in the service and the best times for cleaning crews to visit the customer’s home

The final stage of telemarketing campaigns depends on the campaign’s goals. If it is a direct sales campaign, the final stage is the closing of a sale. This can happen in one call or after several return calls over a specific period of time. Campaigns designed to generate leads end by delivering those leads to a sales team. Regardless of the campaign’s purpose, the marketing team should assess how well the campaign achieved its goals and use both data gathered and recordings of live calls to determine areas where the campaign or the phone associates can be improved.

Advantages of Telemarketing:

1. Human interaction:

One of the advantages telemarketing has over other direct marketing meth­ods is that it involves human interaction.

2. Small businesses:

Telemarketing can be a particularly valuable tool for small businesses, in that it saves time and money as compared to personal selling, but offers many of the same benefits in terms of direct contact with customers.

3. Customer service:

Building a loyal client base is a fundamental factor in establishing a long- term business success and increasing the value of the company. Telemarketing customer services can gain repeat orders and increase the penetration of the customer base. Telemarketing has the advantages of delivering excellent customer service.

4. Reduces cost:

As the costs of field sales continue to escalate, businesses are using telemar­keting as a way to reduce the cost of selling. It is also easier to communicate with customers. Most of the marketing efforts are directed towards select markets, so the cost per person contacted is less.

5. Flexibility:

It is the most flexible form of direct marketing. It helps in knowing and understand­ing what customers want, and are prepared to buy. Survey can be conducted with the advantages of telemarketing, knowing what customers are looking for, the product or service, the brand, etc.; one can constantly update the client data base.

6. Response measurement:

Response measurement is possible by knowing the effectiveness of advertising. The results can be compared with the ones previously established, and the future plans can be based on such results.

Disadvantages of Telemarketing:

1. An increasing number of people have become averse to telemarketing.
2. No visual contact with the customer is possible.
3. More people are using technology to screen out unwanted callers, particularly telemarketers.
4. Government is implementing tougher measures to curb unscrupulous telemarketers.
5. If hiring an outside firm to do telemarketing, there is lesser control in the process, given that the people doing the calls are not your employees.
6. A telephone conversation has very short memory.
7. Pre-purchase inspection of goods not possible.
8. It can be extremely expensive, particularly if telemarketing is outsourced to an outside firm.