New research reveals telemarketingâs four best friends

In an age where customers are sometimes treated as data, the human interaction of B2C telemarketing can add to a brand’s relationship. But telemarketing cannot do it alone, so which channels are its best friends?

So, what’s it to be? Do we upgrade these customers by direct mail, those customers by email and another lot by phone? I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard marketers agonise over the virtues of each channel.

The truth is that no channel can achieve its full potential alone, integration is the key. A survey by the DMA’s Contact Centre & Telemarketing Council highlighted that 81% of marketers agreed integrating with another channel before or after a phone call improves the overall campaign performance.

Speaking on the phone improves the relationship with your brand, gives greater clarity to your proposition and satisfies objections like no other channel – whether inbound or outbound. The evidence is clear, 77% of marketing professionals stated telemarketing was either effective or very effective; and 83% can calculate its positive ROI.

On the flip side, 9% of marketers claim B2C telemarketing is ineffective or very ineffective. But with so much positive evidence I have to ask if there is a degree of prejudice, perhaps the few rogue telemarketers that hit the headlines recently has damaged people’s perception. Or maybe the 9% are just doing it wrong.

And telemarketing’s best friends? Drum roll... email, website, direct mail and mobile text message. Use these with B2C telemarketing and you’ll be pleased with the results according to the experts.

But the phone is not just a sales tool; your customers’ desire to speak to a ‘real person’ has resulted in the growth of UK contact centres. The DMA’s figures show that 71% of customers don’t trust firms who fail to give them the option to speak to a person.

Maybe it’s time to review the use of telemarketing and contact centres, with so much digital noise and alternative retailers just a click away, the value human interaction can bring is now clear from the numbers above.

The DMA’s Telemarketing – marketer and consumer research 2014 was commissioned by the DMA’s Contact Centres and Telemarketing Council and sponsored by SCi Sales Group Ltd. An infographic can be downloaded from the DMA website.