Some people hate it. Others don’t mind. And yet another percentage of people actually prefer information to be presented this way and welcome the opportunity. I’m talking about telemarketing.

Here at IBS, our research indicates there are a number of clients that prefer to be notified about new company developments by phone than any other communication method. For this reason, we have a telemarketer as part of our team. It’s just another facet to our customer service.

Beyond this though, telemarketing is actually a very powerful marketing tool. It is relatively easy to implement and if you have a good phone contract, can be quite inexpensive to operate. My marketing career started in a holiday ownership call centre, which actually provides a valuable insight into how telemarketing can be very effective:

Firstly, an advertisement was placed in the local newspaper for casual employees with telemarketing experience. The best applicants that showed enthusiasm and could work independently were hired.

Next, the holiday ownership company created a few different strategies to devise the most effective method of reaching prospects. We initially tested cold calling prospects and then compared the take-up rate of an introductory offer, to prospects that were emailed first and then called, and a third group that received a mailed letter and were followed up by phone. Our results showed that a direct mail piece from the postman, followed up by the telemarketers, had the best results.

An important element to this success was ensuring all the telemarketers were saying the same message, particularly to prospects. It was for this reason that we had a script and all conversations are detailed in our database.

At IBS we use telemarketing to keep in touch with our clients and so far, this strategy has been working very well. It would be very easy to implement a similar strategy in any printing or graphic design company at a low-cost. If you would prefer not to hire someone else, you can always implement a similar strategy on a smaller scale, with a certain amount of time dedicated to phone calls each week.

Like any marketing activity, track the costs associated with your telemarketing campaign against your income. We were delighted with our results and this is why we’ve made several telemarketing scripts available on our website. Just log on to: www.ibscards.com.au/selfpromotools.html and don’t forget to reward your new clients with notepads or thank you greeting cards. See this month’s special for more details!