Inbound marketing is very effective – there’s no arguing that – but it does have one nagging drawback. It relies on email workflows to nurture leads from MQLs to SQLs, and these take time – time you don’t always have.
Inbound evangelists would argue that leads need time to consume and process information – that they need to learn all there is to know about their challenges and possible solutions before they can make informed decisions.
But some leads enter your sales funnel with a high enough interest to qualify them as sales-ready. Nevertheless, they are sent the same patient lead nurturing emails received by all other leads who downloaded the same conversion asset. The problem is that most leads need a little push to take the next step, and your workflow is only going to give them that nudge in email seven. This is too late for your sales-ready lead. What you need is a means of determining which leads are ready for that extra push earlier on. What you need is a phone call.
A strategically placed telemarketing element can ramp up your inbound efforts
When a lead is contacted by phone, it’s immediately apparent what their interest level is. Once a salesperson knows where a lead is in the sales funnel, they can adapt their approach on the go, pushing the lead towards a sale if they are interested, or recommending certain content if they are not yet ready to buy. And if they’re not ready, the salesperson can then put the lead into the workflow most appropriate for them.
Choosing the right workflow
Maybe your lead knows of your brand’s reputation, but they are unsure of whether a specific product is the right solution for them. This lead would be best placed in a workflow where they would be given information about the different solutions available to them. If the lead was aware of the different solutions but knew nothing of your brand, they’d be placed in a workflow where they would be given information on the brand’s unique selling points and other differentiators.
The benefits of telemarketing
By integrating a telemarketing element into their inbound strategy, marketing and sales people are also able to gather sales and marketing intelligence, thereby improving their understanding of their target audiences. Expert, unscripted telemarketing uncovers all kinds of useful information, and you only need to apply the right analytics to arrive at insights which will allow you to adapt your inbound strategy for greater ROI.
GCL’s lead generation services give our clients a distinct advantage
Our highly trained telemarketing staff specialise in their clients’ products and services, enabling them to give their leads real consumer advice and not just a static sales pitch. We find that honesty inspires trust, and that people who trust you are more likely to give you their time. But, this approach makes up only half of our winning formula. The other reason for our success is our global reach. Our multilingual telemarketers enable our clients to explore markets where they previously had no presence, and our international experience means that we are one of the best agencies to help a brand into the global arena.
Then, of course, there is our inbound strategy and our ability to combine the different channels in a holistic lead generation strategy. Many marketing agencies lose sight of the goal by comparing inbound and outbound. Marketing is not about drawing a line between supposedly incompatible approaches. It’s about finding the best way to reach your audience. At GCL we don’t focus on the origins of different technologies but rather how they can be combined in a holistic lead generation strategy for greater ROI.
The truth is that direct media still plays an important part in sales and marketing, and the most effective strategies will be those that leverage the different media for the greatest impact and ROI. If you would like to know more about how telemarketing services and other outbound media can be incorporated into an inbound strategy, download our Guide to Holistic Lead Generation or give us a call.
Image Credit: Higher Ed
