Telemarketing, surprisingly, is considered one of the most outdated marketing strategies by a lot of businesses. Though it is true that telemarketing calls may seem to be quite annoying, especially when you are attending an important meeting, and so is the fact that many people are registering for DNC - both these facts do not imply that telemarketing is dead. The blog post discusses whether the years of annoying cold calls of outbound calling have finally driven telemarketing out of its place, or whether it has transformed into a sophisticated science of engaging potential customers. Let the debate begin.
Argument 1: 95 percent of cold calls don’t honor prospects’ requirements.
Cold calls are considered to be the most hated aspect of telemarketing. Not only are people agitated when they receive a random call from someone they don’t know, but they also get even more upset when the caller has absolutely no clue about their needs and other dynamics.
Counterargument: The truth is telemarketing is still necessary to ‘nurture the prospects’. The practice of cold calling is slowly fading out. Telemarketing has become more firm in its role as a form of post-sales operations. It is not that cold calling is a completely outdated practice; it’s just that, even as an independent subset of telemarketing, cold calling has become more sophisticated with the inclusion of the latest data analysis techniques, leveraged by highly detailed B2B telemarketing call lists.
Argument 2: Social Media has completely wiped out telemarketing.
Social media is free and a part of everyone’s daily lives, so naturally, it’s a more convenient mode of marketing for brands. As a result of the influx of digital agencies and marketing firms, a lot of businesses are bound to consider forgetting about telemarketing and shift their complete focus on social media for promoting their brands and products.
Counterargument: Social Media is no longer free; especially if you plan a social media marketing campaign on a large scale. The impact of social media is so widespread that everyone’s using it to promote their brands. Telemarketing strategies may provide an additional punch to help you surge ahead of your competitors.
Argument 3: Digital marketing has also overtaken telemarketing.
Setting up a digital marketing team does not cost nearly as much as it does to have a team of telemarketers with a calling infrastructure. Moreover, we’ve all heard stories of staggering returns driven through digital marketing; and so we have another potential challenger to telemarketing.
Counterargument: Digital marketing was seen as an affordable way to attract more clients in the past. There has been a drastic change in this concept in recent years and as a result tricks like stuffing pages with keywords or submitting directories loaded with links. Google has gotten extremely smarter after a series of algorithm updates and so is the work of digital marketers promising organic traffic. Google, on average, releases about 500-600 major and minor updates every year, each of which aims to kill spam-based digital marketing.
Argument 4: Telemarketing is an obsolete practice to connect with customers.
Telemarketing, for years, was the primary mode for businesses to collect data about their target audience and also rivals. The scenario has changed in recent years. Today, data analytics is a thriving, independent domain and greatly leveraged by independent agencies.
Counterargument: Telemarketing is considered a useful tool due to call recordings that may be shared with clients prior to their appointment. Call recording provides a huge amount of data that may be applied in multiple ways. Telemarketing is still one of the most powerful ways to dig out information about your rivals.
While telemarketing is by no means the same thing it was a decade ago, there is still a place for it, and if used correctly, it is capable of generating great returns. Achieving success through this tested customer acquisition channel, however, requires a comprehensive telemarketing plan, skilled callers, robust communication systems, and of course, accurate B2B telemarketing lists. If you have any questions on how to make the most of B2B telemarketing, feel free to get in touch with one of our experts.