Inbound and outbound telemarketing are used by businesses that seek to go beyond traditional marketing efforts or advertising. They are an essential step in the sales funnel. Generally, call center agents are the first point of contact with potential customers. In order for you to get the most out of inbound and outbound telemarketing, we have prepared this article for you. Here, you will find the definition of each type of telemarketing and learn their differences.
Why should you focus on customer experience?
Customer experience is the interaction between a company and its consumers, as assessed by the customers’ perception of the service given. It refers to how a customer feels after interacting with a business. Managing and optimizing the customer experience is important as it helps companies improve customer loyalty, retention, and acquisition!
Customer Loyalty
Consumers spend more money with brands that exceed their expectations in terms of service. Companies that provide a superior customer experience have more customers that are likely to buy from them again. These satisfied customers also spread their positive experiences to those around them through word-of-mouth!
Customer Retention
Customer retention is also linked to the inclination to buy more from companies that provide a better experience. Customers are less likely to switch to competitors if they love their experience. If the experience is bad, however, 89 percent of customers will be inclined to purchase from your competitors.
Customer Acquisition
More clients are willing to recommend your firm to a friend or colleague if you have a higher customer experience score. People are more likely to buy from businesses that have received excellent feedback. Customers sharing great experiences certainly result in increased sales for businesses, especially because 58 percent of prospective customers investigate products and services before purchasing.
What are the differences between inbound and outbound telemarketing?
The most significant difference between inbound and outbound telemarketing is who initiates the contact. The prospective customer initiates the sales process with inbound telemarketing, whereas with outbound telemarketing, the sales agent contacts the prospect first.
Inbound Telemarketing
Inbound telemarketing is a sort of reactive telemarketing, in which clients phone companies first. Businesses need marketing, networking activities, or other pre-sales efforts to get prospects to call. Your website, social media profiles, and direct mail are just a few examples of how customers can contact you.
Potential customers that engage in inbound telemarketing express an interest in your products or services by contacting you. The job of inbound call agents is to respond to any questions about the product or service and ideally close a sale.
Upselling and cross-selling skills are used by experienced inbound telemarketers to give higher service value to clients. The difficulty with inbound telemarketing starts before the call is made. Businesses need to set aside enough money to create a unique commercial that may be shown on television, radio, in print, or online. The chances of receiving calls are slim if you can’t get your message through.
However, when compared to outbound telemarketing, if you can capture the attention of your target market and communicate with them appropriately, the conversion rate is better than with cold calling (outbound telemarketing).
Outbound Telemarketing
Call centers come to mind when people think of telemarketing. The proactive kind of telemarketing is outbound telemarketing. It requires making unsolicited phone calls to selected prospects. The goal is to increase consumer awareness of a company’s products or services and persuade customers to make a purchase.
Outbound calling is also referred to as cold calling. As the name implies, these calls are often given the cold shoulder and ignored because some people view them as intrusive. However, outbound telemarketing is less expensive which explains why businesses with a limited advertising and marketing budget adopt this method.
Because you are the one who initiates the call, you have more control. The success of an outbound telemarketing strategy is determined by the number and quality of prospective customers you call each day using the best sales strategies. Even though converting prospects is more challenging, you can share valuable information with your target audience.
It’s important for businesses to hire experienced telemarketers for their sales team as well as prepare a sales pitch that includes pertinent responses to common concerns or questions from prospects.
Your virtual communication department
What’s the right choice for your company? Inbound or outbound?
To figure out whether inbound or outbound telemarketing is best for you, consider your business model, your target audience, and your marketing goals.
What makes inbound telemarketing effective?
Focusing on offering value to your prospects is one of inbound telemarketing’s objectives. It’s usually more instructive than promotional. Inbound marketing creates a link between your prospective customers and your brand since it is aligned with the Buyer’s Journey.
The objective is to draw prospects to your brand at the proper time in the sales cycle, rather than disrupting them while they aren’t looking for what you have to offer. Buyers prefer this over being bombarded with information about products they don’t care about during a phone call they didn’t request.
When customers are looking for information on a product, inbound call centers are there to assist. Another benefit is the long-term return on investment. In general, inbound marketing efforts require a larger initial expenditure and yield delayed results for the first few months. This explains why most companies externalize this service.
What makes outbound telemarketing effective?
Outbound telemarketing efforts raise awareness about a brand’s products or services. If done right, an outbound marketing campaign can be launched, heard by millions, and result in new prospective consumers in a matter of weeks. Outbound telemarketing is all the more effective when combine with an inbound telemarketing strategy.
Telemarketing services
Strong telemarketing services can be the difference makers when it comes to growing your sales and attracting new clients to your business. TELUP can help you generate more sales and streamline your operations with its lead generation, customer acquisition and appointment scheduling services.
TELUP takes care of the success of your telemarketing campaigns. We take a consultative approach in the design and management of marketing campaigns and outbound services. Project managers stay in close contact throughout each stage of your program to assess results and, if necessary, make adjustments to your services.
