What is Telemarketing?

Telemarketing is a very common form of marketing that companies use to connect with potential customers of their products or services.

In this article, we'll be exploring all things telemarketing. What it is, how it works, what its benefits are, and why we at Spirus do things a little differently. 

Simply put, telemarketing is a direct marketing strategy, using a telephone to connect with potential buyers of your goods and services. It is generally conducted from a call centre, or a business telephone, by one person calling another and promoting their products and or services. Telemarketing is often referred to as telesales, but telesales is actually a branch of telemarketing, whereby you try to sell your products or services directly to the client. 

Businesses will use telemarketing as a means of generating leads, making sales, and performing other marketing activities. This allows them to connect and interact with customers over the phone. Previously, it only meant calling prospective clients to sell their products or services. Nowadays, however, it has evolved with video conferencing calls, allowing for a more interactive session between a salesperson and a customer.

In recent years, there has been a sharp rise in automated and robot telemarketing calls, often giving the strategy somewhat of a bad reputation. Companies have to have your permission however to send you these calls, and you always have the option of reporting them as we'll discuss below.

What are automated and robot calls?

Automated calls are usually computer-generated and involve a computer making thousands of calls and answering a certain number of them. Receivers of these calls are generally greeted by either a recorded message or simply a line that is dead, also known as an abandoned call. Companies who use this strategy, even if based outside the UK, must have your permission to call you. If they don’t, you may report them to the ICO. For further guidance, please see Ofcom's advice here.

Robocalls also involve a computer automatically dialling in, but at first, it pretends to sound like a real person. It is meant to be able to predict certain responses, similar to Google and Alexa smart speakers, to entice you further in the sales process. The same rules of consent apply to robocalls, and if you have not given this company your permission, they can be reported here.

Why is Telemarketing Important?

Firstly, telemarketing is used to build good relationships with clients and also to produce leads.

Secondly, telemarketing helps your company and expands its all-around good name. Building permanent and reliable customers who will speak highly of what you do creates awareness about the products and services that you provide.

Lastly, it plays an important role in the sales of the goods and services that your company provides, therefore increasing your company's market value and customer count.

Saying that, telemarketing is now avoided by some businesses because they don’t want to seem intrusive or bother prospects with "cold calls" however, this view of telemarketing is outdated and it does not reflect how the majority of businesses run their marketing campaigns today.

Subcategories:

• Lead generation: As the name suggests, this subcategory focuses on generating new leads. The aim is not necessarily to sell anything but to collect information as well as contacts.
• Sales: Involves calling people via telephone to try and convince them to purchase products and or services.
• Outbound: A hands-on approach whereby existing, as well as prospective customers, are directly called. 
• Inbound: Involves responding to incoming calls and requests for information.  

What are some of the advantages of telemarketing?

• Cost-efficient.
• The return on investment (ROI) from telemarketing is excellent.
• Helps you to grow your business.
• It is one of the best ways for you to find and connect with new customers, and follow up with existing customers to keep them up to date with all of your latest offerings.
• Fully measurable.
• Telemarketing can and should provide a more personal and interactive experience.
• Telemarketing allows for the creation of an immediate relationship with your customers.
• It also enables you to reach out and sell to both existing and new customers.
• Enables you to sell from a distance, and increase your "sales territory" so to speak.
• Generates new and exciting leads for your business.

What does telemarketing look like at Spirus?

Well, what we can say for certain, is that it couldn’t be further from automated robocalls and massive call centres! We use the trusty, old-fashioned telephone to sincerely connect with you. Performed by a skilled professional, whose first objective is to not annoy whoever they are talking to, our focus is on building a lasting business relationship on behalf of our client. Think about voice, smile, connection, and great customer service! It's all about an excellent first impression, and we believe that the first step is creating trust.

It is important to know as much as possible about our clients, and the products and services that they have to offer so that we can make the call valuable. We need to know that whoever we call might have a genuine and legitimate interest in this product and service, and we need to believe that the work will have value. We do this not only for our clients but also for their potential customers, (who will feel that they are starting a relationship with value). We also do this for ourselves, because we want our work to be enjoyable and provide value.

We follow GDPR guidance because it is the law, and also because it is best practice. At Spirus, we believe it would be counterproductive to call people, or businesses, that choose not to be called. Whilst we aim to get our clients everything they want, (sales, appointments, demonstrations, etc.) our telemarketing will always yield great results, regardless of whether these aims are always achieved. Our conversational information is recorded so that our clients always get real-time market research directly from their market. This is extremely valuable for feeding into any future business and marketing strategy activities.

Our approach to telemarketing might not suit all businesses. We focus on smaller numbers, better conversations, and business to business (B2B), rather than business to consumer (B2C). 

Telemarketing can be used to follow up marketing campaigns, telesales, market research surveys, customer satisfaction surveys, and even employee satisfaction surveys - all with a real, thinking, caring human being.

So, what's next?

If you are interested in introducing telemarketing to your overall marketing strategy, we'd love to hear from you! 

We’re available on 01638 741830 or you can email us by clicking here and asking how we can help you introduce telemarketing to your marketing strategy.

We look forward to hearing from you!