Avoiding the Pitfalls of Outbound Lead Generation Telemarketing Campaigns

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Avoiding the Pitfalls of Outbound Lead Generation Telemarketing Campaigns

In a perfect world, inbound lead generation would always keep your company’s sales funnel full. However, there are times when outbound calling is necessary to drive leads and identify new prospects.

A successful outbound telemarketing campaign is no easy endeavor and many companies simply don’t have the time, resources or expertise to undertake such a campaign. If you have attempted an outbound telemarketing campaign in the past and it wasn’t successful, or if you plan to execute one in the near future, you need to be aware of the many pitfalls of outbound telemarketing campaigns (listed below) and how to overcome them.

  • Absence of a realistic goal. If you aren’t completely sure what you are looking to accomplish with your outbound lead generation campaign you can be sure you won’t achieve it, either.
  • Improper training. It is important that anyone working on your telemarketing campaign knows exactly what they need to be doing, why they need to do it, and how to do it correctly.
  • Failure to understand your target audience. The right list is imperative so that you reach a decision maker. To get that list right, you will need to have clear lead criteria and scoring in place.
  • Failure to test your messaging. It is imperative that you test your message before you go wide so that you can be sure that your message connects with its intended targets.
  • Using price as the only criteria of a successful campaign. If you are looking to get your campaign launched by spending the least amount of time and money, you are practically guaranteed to fail.
  • Poor data quality. If you are not capturing the data you uncover in each and every call, you are forfeiting valuable information that could be entered into your sales database.
  • Inability to go off script when necessary. If you rely solely on scripting for every call, you are going to lose a substantial number of leads through the inability to respond to unexpected questions or comments. Anyone making cold calls must be able to respond to unique objections or you will lose those leads.
  • Disregarding the outcome. Even if you are pleased with the results of your telemarketing campaign, if you fail to analyze conversion rates and the return on investment, you will be leaving a lot of precious information behind.

Of course, overcoming these pitfalls can be practically impossible if you have limited resources or expertise. That is why many companies choose to contract with a business to business telemarketing services firm. By doing so you will get the results and data you need!

How Outsourcing Fundraising Calls Can Bring in More Donations

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How Outsourcing Fundraising Calls Can Bring in More Donations

Fundraising can be a difficult task for even the most organized and efficient organizations. Further, with every dollar spent on overhead being a dollar diverted from its core mission, it is vital that fundraising campaigns are as cost-effective as possible.

While using volunteers to make outbound fundraising calls may seem like the most economical solution, the fact is that such volunteers simply do not have the training to bring in the amount of donations that trained call center agents are able to deliver. This means that the money spent on hiring seasoned fundraising professionals can actually mean more money for an organization in the long run.

Calling current and prospective donors and asking for support takes a certain touch that does not come naturally to most people. Even individuals who are strongly invested in a charity’s mission may have a hard time articulating the need for donations and successfully ask for support.

When you hire a quality, experienced telemarketing firm to handle fundraising calls, you can be confident knowing donors are being asked for support in the most effective way possible. The key is to partner with a telemarketing firm that has consummate professionals on staff who will represent your organization in the manner it deserves.

In order to hire the best telemarketing firm to solicit donations for your organization, you need to be able to answer yes to the following questions:

  1. Are they able to communicate effectively with the type of donors that give to your organization? Every organization has a unique donor base and call center professionals must be able to relate to each particular type.
  2. Do they have experience asking donors for support? This may seem like a given but the people who are making calls must show no hesitation in asking for a donation. If they do show any hesitancy, the person on the other end is sure to hesitate when it comes time to donate!
  3. Are they able to connect on a personal level regarding your organization’s mission? The right call center agents will know your organization well and will be comfortable speaking about its mission.
  4. Do they know how to really listen? Call center agents who do not know how to listen to donors can be as ineffective as agents who don’t talk at all. It might be hard to believe but some donors have been cut off when they are trying to make a donation!
  5. Are they comfortable asking for all types of gifts? Whether you are asking a donor for a few dollars or much, much more you need to be confident that the amount being asked for is appropriate. Many inexperienced fundraisers may apologize for asking for certain amounts, leading to smaller gifts.

Asking for money – no matter how worthy the cause – can be an intimidating prospect. Thankfully, there are professionals who can do this tough job for you, helping your organization raise the important funds it needs.

How to Clean Up Your Email List without Deleting Potential Leads

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How to Clean Up Your Email List without Deleting Potential Leads

Looking to clean up your email marketing list but concerned about deleting legitimate leads in the process? You’re not alone. Many business owners are concerned that through the process of email lead scrubbing they may inadvertently remove quality leads.

While this is a valid concern, if done correctly, email list scrubbing will actually improve your business development and lead generation. That’s because such efforts help to ensure that you aren’t wasting your time and money on uninterested, outdated, or bad leads. Email list scrubbing also will:

  • Lower the number of individuals and companies that mark your emails as SPAM.
  • Improve your deliverability and email open rates.
  • Keep you legally compliant by taking unsubscribes off your list.
  • Allow you to better segment your emails.
  • Increase email content relevancy.
  • Save money if you are being charged per email sent.

Marketing experts agree that approximately 25 percent of an email list becomes irrelevant each year. Unfortunately, it isn’t always easy to tell which 25 percent have gone bad. If you are wondering what emails you need to remove from your list, here is a quick guide for which addresses to remove:

Unsubscribes: If an address unsubscribes from your list, you are required by law to remove it.

Duplicate or invalid addresses: Every email address needs to be checked to confirm that it is a working address and that it is not being duplicated.

Addresses that didn’t opt in: Removing these emails is the best way to improve email deliverability, as well as open and click through rates.

Alias addresses: When you see an address like info@companyname.com, you should know that most ESPs won’t deliver the email because one or more of the email addresses associated with the alias did not opt in to receive your emails.

Disengaged recipients: Don’t delete these emails immediately, but if a person or company has stopped opening or clicking through your emails, you need to try to reengage them. If reengagement fails, it’s better to remove them from your list before they mark you as SPAM.

Bouncing addresses: While some emails that bounce back do so because of a temporary problem, others bounce back because the address is invalid or blocked. In those cases, you need to remove the address from your list.

Finally, many businesses have trouble deciding how long to keep an email address on their active list. While no one would delete the email address of an active customer, it’s harder to know what to do with email addresses that appear to be abandoned. A good rule of thumb is to get rid of any address that is consistently bouncing or marking you as SPAM, and try to reengage the others. If the other addresses still bring no response after reengagement efforts, it’s time to delete them, as well.