A Guide to Telemarketing, Its Advantages & Disadvantages

EM Admin
Oct 24, 2023
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Did you know the global Outbound Telemarketing market size? It was measured worth USD 10531.79 million in 2023 and is likely to rise at a CAGR of 3.05%, upto USD 12609.13 million by 2031, as per a report.

Telemarketing refers to promoting brands through telecommunication. It’s a unique approach, which requires a marketing strategy that businesses use to reach out to potential customers. Here in this article, you’re going to discover its various types, pros, and cons.

So, let’s interact with this amazing concept called telemarketing and discover why businesses prefer outsourcing these services to a renowned company.

Types of Telemarketing

As it’s already been defined that telemarketing is all about approaching target and existing customers over the phone or telecommunication, it’s always overwhelming to come across its types. So, let’s start with them.

Telemarketing : Different Types & Differences — **Types of Calls for Telemarketing**

Outbound Telemarketing

Outbound refers to connecting with potential customers through phone calls, which is actually a proactive marketing strategy to do branding. So, this is a way to reach out to intended customers through telecommunication. This communication can be for surveys, market research, and generating leads via telephonic engagement.

Inbound Telemarketing

This type of telephonic marketing indirectly engages prospects (future customers) to engage and grow into intended customers. However, these calls are made for inquiries and winning customers’ trust. But, the hidden goal is to maximize engagement and hook them. Typically, this communication is strategized after analyzing inbound inquiries, responses toward advertisements, & campaigns. These are warm up calls to typically understand and discover the interest of customers by following a soft-selling approach.

B2B Telemarketing

Business to Business telemarketing refers to making cold calls by a brand to another business with a purpose of sales or generating leads. Unlike normal promotion, it involves manufacturers or brands through campaigns for lead generation, market research, and offers within a corporate space.

B2C Telemarketing

If you observe it in contrast, B2C telemarketing establishes a corporate journey of a brand to individual consumers. So, the brand’s call representatives make calls with a view to sell products, conduct surveys, and schedule appointments.

Advantages of Telemarketing

Direct and Personalized Communication

This is no less than a blessing to talk with potential customers over calls. During telemarketing, a strategic personalized approach comes into play. It ensures that a personal bond or connection is built to engage, achieve commercial purposes, and even support online shopping inquirers. This is the case of inbound, outbound, B2B and B2C-all types of telephonic marketing.

Immediate Feedback

Feedback is key to understand customers’ opinion about your brand or company in real-time. With this marketing effort, customers queries, objections, concerns, and all such things come upfront that are unseen or undiscovered, but are there. Once understood, these concerns can be fixed via email or chats and hence, won customers’ trust.

Targeted Marketing

The next benefit is to run targeting campaigns, which means that you can customize such campaigns that resonate with specific demographics or customer segments. This can be drafting the right message so that intended customers can relate with them, which eventually converts into a sale.

Lead Generation

Leads or customers’ queries can be challenging to reach out. Telemarketing paves the way to acquire calls and inquiries, which later turn into actual sales via emailing techniques or other methods. So, it’s a plus point.

Cost-Effective

The ultimate aim for any business is to make profit. And later, you need saving. It can mount investment opportunities, which attract more profit. This promotional strategy over a call can manage things efficiently and even, help in integrating with emails for high conversions, which ensures economical solutions for branding.

Disadvantages of Telemarketing

Do-Not-Call Lists

If you consider Do-Not-Disturb (DND) or Do-Not-Call, it can limit your business opportunities. In other words, your reach will be limited and hence, can reduce the target audience size. This can be a big loss.

Rejection and Annoyance

A few people can find it invasive, as all individuals may not be happy with random calls and communication, especially when they are engaged with some serious business concerns. Here, the call representatives should be very clever and able to carefully tackle the situation without damaging their reputation. So, it’s a big disadvantage.

Legislation and Compliance

This marketing over calls is a regulated practice so that the governing body can protect the rights of the data subject. Here, the real ache emerges when you have to comply with laws, such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The formalities to register with them can be a complex and costly endeavor.

High Labour Cost

Hiring one of the best business process management companies can be economical. But local talent can sometimes be pricey and also, require training and technology investments. If you see its overall cost, it can be expensive.

Low Response Rate

Response rate is the number of valid replies that you get on calls. This rate can go down sometimes because of many reasons, such as assuming the call as invasive and inability to reach out to target audience. To overcome these reasons, one has to switch to voicemails or hang-ups. But, these alternatives may not yield the same result. So, the success rates can be relatively low.

Conclusion

Telemarketing, in its any forms, can be a valuable and amazing marketing strategy for multiple brands. Various companies are targeting and achieving leads, IT support, and prospects, which certainly enhance profit margin. For sure, this method is cost-effective, and ultimately, beneficial. But, we must not underestimate its dark sides, such as meeting compliance requirements.