Is Telemarketing Viable in the 21st Century?

Telemarketing has been the mainstay of most businesses for the last 70 years, but with the advent of the internet and the myriad of new marketing techniques available to businesses today, will telemarketing survive the changing nature of business communications?

Technology has changed the way in which almost everyone in the world communicates with colleagues, family, friends and customers. Whether it’s email, blogging, messaging, texting or tweeting, the idea of a plain old telephone call seems somewhat quaint for many people today, especially in the 12 to 30 age group.

So should businesses be looking more towards high tech means to connect with their prospective customers or should they stick with the traditional approach? The answer to this question is crucial to the growth potential and profitability of any business, and is very dependent on the nature of the businesses.

For example, if your customers are in the very traditional trades such as building, agriculture, retail etc, then they will tend to want to communicate in more traditional means such as face to face and on the phone, whereas the high tech and consumer markets are increasingly internet orientated.

So where does telemarketing fit into all this?

The answer is simple, not matter what business you are in people deal with people. It is all about building relationships and placing a human front to the business. Telemarketing is a very effective way of making that initial contact, that is directed, one-to-one and human.

But isn’t telemarketing expensive?

Telemarketing is probably one of the most cost effective ways of getting highly targets leads if you know who your target customers are and you put it together in the right way. If you can buy a list of prospects or already have a list of old customers, then a telephone call to them can be the most effective means of building a presence in their mindset.

The key to keeping it cost effective is all about how you pay for it. If you are employing and training your own staff then the costs are all upfront and far greater than most people imagine. If you are successful in recruiting experienced telemarketers, then you could get them productive within 2 weeks, but that could be a set-up cost of several thousands of Pounds for a relatively small team. This is including things like recruitment costs, office space, training, management and expenses.

So the costs can be high if you do it yourself and the results can be very variable, which places the financial risk up front. In the wake of the financial stress of the current economic downturn, the need for marketing has never been greater and the need for financial caution has also never been greater.

Outsourcing your telemarketing can be a highly effective way of achieving the aims, but without the extensive set-up costs. But of cause the management of an outsourced call center is completely different from an in-house one, which is why it is a good idea to get an outsourcing management agent to coordinate the entire process.

This leaves you to manage your business, with all the benefits and none of the risks of building a telemarketing team.