Mobile Phones Reinvent Telemarketing And Help Diversify Services

Telemarketing services are being forced to operate with shrinking contact lists. It is not because the need for services and products has gone down but because a restricting legislative environment, Do-Not-Call lists, and vanishing land lines are sapping the telemarketing projects. Even the goods that telemarketers can market and their approach in marketing them are being watched closely.

There is good news though. Text messaging and mobile phone marketing is an emerging trend that can be exploited by the telemarketing industry. Just as many industries have done in the past, telesales industry too needs to expand its scope and redefine its meaning. Or it is destined to fate much like the railroads that were at one point the front runner of transportation industry but now lags behind automobiles and airways. Telecommunications includes multiple modes of communications and it is imperative that telemarketing stays abreast with with prevailing trends to stay relevant. Telemarketing no longer means just a conventional sales call. It also means text messaging and mobile marketing.

Listed below is how telemarketing campaigns can be successfully enhanced by text messaging and mobile marketing:

* Ride on an expanding market: There are always a couple of alternatives – stick with a dying tactic and lose out or latch on to a growing system and prosper with it. Traditional phone calls on fixed lines is fast becoming outdated as an increasing number of people go mobile. It is imperative that telemarketers shift their focus to the mobile market.

* No restrictions on contact time: Telemarketing is regulated by laws that lay down time within which prospects can be called. This is very restrictive and makes it tough to catch people at the suitable time and also happy to receive a marketing call. With mobile phones, accessibility of prospect is no longer an issue. Text messaging is a passive advertising and marketing approach. The SMS is saved in the phone and can be retrieved by the prospect when it is convenient.

* Immediate response potential: Almost all mobile phones today are web-enabled. Customers can immediately respond to an advertising message.

* Use the text message as a coupon: Just like sales coupons are intended to elicit a prompt action from customers, SMSes can also contain an urgent call for action and a good reason for timely response to it.

* Proximity marketing: In sales, it is best to get a prospect’s attention at the right place and the right time. Proximity marketing is a strategy that permits businesses to send message alerts about products or services when people are in a position to act on the information. With GPS and Bluetooth, businesses can tailor contact time and message to the recipient’s location.

With the drop in traditional telemarketing, there is an even greater need to outsource telesales to service providers that have broadened their scope and are adopting new tools to spread marketing and advertising messages. They have the the technology and the tools to manage text messaging effectively and take mobile and text marketing to the next level. This is an opportune time for telesales services to diversify their services. If they don’t, they risk becoming obsolete.

Daljeet Sidhu. Read Telemarketing services advice and Telemarketing blog.