1. Whichever term you subscribe to - cross
channel, multi channel, omni channel - it is well
understood that the overall effectiveness of your
marketing efforts improves when activities are
integrated across channels.
Telemarketing as part of an
Integrated Marketing Approach

2. Whilst the arrival of digital and social media has had a major impact, traditional
marketing channels are still very effective. The SMART approach is to take
advantage of the attributes of each within an integrated multi-channel
approach utilising the media, which best supports your goals and objectives.
Telemarketing can be used effectively as a standalone activity, but can
integrate equally well with other channels and bring human interaction to
almost any stage of a marketing campaign. Human engagement is still a key
factor in driving most B2B sales opportunities, initiating and developing
genuine relationships that support longer term commercial opportunities.
Introduction
Telemarketing as part of an
Integrated Marketing Approach

3. The deeper levels of customer, market and competitor insight gained through
phone contact can help inform an overall marketing strategy, providing an in-
depth understanding of the target audience and how best to reach them. A
sales and marketing strategy built on solid intelligence has an increased
chance of success and clear priorities help align and focus sales and
marketing efforts, and support an integrated approach.
Aside from pre- and post-sales research, ongoing phone dialogue in the
course of a campaign provides continuous feedback so that offers,
propositions and overall strategy can be tested and refined over time.
1. Campaign Planning
Telemarketing as part of an
Integrated Marketing Approach

4. Whether you have your own list or source externally, a clean, accurately targeted and relevant list is a
critical factor in the success of any marketing campaign. Telephone research can help prepare and
cleanse data, identify correct contact information, and append key data elements such as decision
maker titles. A good quality list can then be profiled and segmented improving targeting and
relevance, which support the success of the campaign, particularly for data-dependent channels
such as direct mail and email. Finding good quality, opted-in emails is particularly difficult, and the
ability of telephone research to populate and validate email information, secure opt-in and prepare
email data is critical to the success of those campaigns.
Some of our most successful campaigns involve a staged approach where we cleanse and enhance
existing data, or build a bespoke database from scratch, supply it back to the customer to undertake
an email or direct mail campaign, and then use that data as the basis for telemarketing effort. To
increase return on investment, targeting can be applied at each stage, with perhaps only higher value
contacts or those who have opened an email or clicked an offer receiving the telemarketing call.
2. Data
Telemarketing as part of an
Integrated Marketing Approach

5. Data and relevance are critical in driving response and ensuring communications reach the right
audience with the right message. Whilst email and direct mail can get a targeted message to a wide
audience, they are more easily ignored and response rates are lower than a more invasive channel
such as telemarketing. In addition, a personal one-to-one approach can build the trust and rapport
required to generate higher value B2B outcomes such as appointments or paid event attendance.
There are different schools of thought on how response is impacted by combining email and direct
mail with telemarketing. Our experience has shown a particularly high impact, email or direct mail,
when combined with telemarketing, has the potential to dramatically increase response. An attention
grabbing email or direct mailer can stimulate interest and bring a proposition to a customer’s
attention, paving the way for a follow up call. Similarly, a more disruptive channel such as the phone
can get immediate attention and quickly build understanding of the customer’s interest, so they are
more receptive to a follow-up email or direct mail piece, tailored based on information gleaned over
the phone.
3. Driving Response
Telemarketing as part of an
Integrated Marketing Approach

6. Whilst very effective at initiating response, telemarketing is also a powerful
mechanism to qualify and nurture warm leads generated through other
channels, bridging the gap between marketing qualified and sales qualified
leads. Email campaigns can generate high volume leads, but quality will vary.
Phone follow up can establish which prospects should be prioritised, using
qualification criteria and lead scoring to ensure sales time is spent on the best
opportunities.
In addition, qualified prospects that may not be at the right stage of the sales
cycle can be nurtured and developed into longer term opportunities.
4. Qualifying and Prioritising
Telemarketing as part of an
Integrated Marketing Approach

7. Social media, combined with content marketing, can identify prospects and
nurture relationships over time. In a B2B scenario, however, a more
personalised approach may help build the level of trust and establish the
credibility needed to take the prospect though to a higher value sale. Real
conversations support deeper levels of engagement and a more persuasive
interaction, which can convert leads from web and social media campaigns
more quickly. By the same token, new digital and social media can make
telemarketing even more powerful, providing a rich source of contact
intelligence, which the telemarketer can tap into prior to any call and which can
also support any data build or cleanse exercise to prepare a list for other
marketing activity.
5. Social Media and Content Marketing
Telemarketing as part of an
Integrated Marketing Approach

8. It is good news when outbound activities generate high volume leads or content
marketing drives customers to your enquiries hotline, but managing fluctuations or
sudden increases in response with finite in-house resource can be an issue. In a worst
case scenario lack of resource means hot leads go stale and marketing investment is
wasted. Telemarketing can help manage response as part of an integrated campaign
where prospects proactively contact you in response to an email outreach or other lead
generation activity.
When outsourced, this channel is flexible in handling varying response levels; activity
can be ramped up or down so that leads are handled in a timely way and do not age.
Working to a clear brief, telemarketers can provide a consistent, engaging message,
tailoring benefits to customer interests and prioritising and scoring leads according to
agreed criteria. This ensures a continuous flow of well qualified leads, which can be
comfortably managed and more easily converted by the sales team.
6. Inbound Marketing
Telemarketing as part of an
Integrated Marketing Approach

9. ABM focuses on accounts with the highest potential value and aims to build an in-depth
understanding to support a targeted ‘one to one’ approach, providing a sustainable
approach to increase growth and profitability.
The underlying principles of ABM align well to marketing best practice encompassing
data and insight, profiling and segmentation, targeting and personalisation, all of which
marry well with a data-led approach such as telemarketing. As it is easily targeted,
telemarketing has been used traditionally to focus on high value contacts and accounts,
often in the context of an 80/20 Pareto model. The Pareto rule suggests 20% of a
customer base supplies 80% of revenue and therefore warrants special attention based
on potential lifetime value. Campaign data can be profiled and segmented so that the
telemarketing efforts are focused only where they will bring the best return on
investment.
7. Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
Telemarketing as part of an
Integrated Marketing Approach

10. Well briefed telemarketing agents can communicate brand values and personality during
each call. It is easier to build rapport over the phone and articulate the value of your
brand and proposition, and this can reinforce the same message sent out through other
channels. When your communications are aligned with a consistent message and brand
experience for the customer, the overall impact is enhanced.
In addition, the level of feedback gained through two-way verbal communication, where
emotion is also more clearly conveyed, can help identify issues and address customer
dissatisfaction, avoiding negative impact on customer retention and brand loyalty.
Customer, market and competitor intelligence gathered through a sizeable volume of
calls can provide valuable input into an overall brand strategy.
8. Branding and Awareness
Telemarketing as part of an
Integrated Marketing Approach

11. Marketing automation software aims to automate manual tasks and help integrate
multiple channels including email, social media, and websites. It has become a bit of a
buzz-word and there is some misconception that it provides all you need to take leads
from the start of the funnel through to sale. However, if you have a poor quality list at the
start of the process, however intelligent the automation, it is unlikely to produce good
quality opportunities or sales. In many cases, clients engage us either to clean the data
which feeds their marketing automation system or further qualify or nurture leads which
have been automatically generated from that data via email or other routes.
On other occasions, we call higher quality leads, which have been generated and scored
by the system, in order to develop or convert opportunities. Whether the process is
automated or not, telemarketing works at every stage of the funnel adding value through
human engagement and a compelling proposition, which an automated system cannot
replicate.
9. Marketing Automation
Telemarketing as part of an
Integrated Marketing Approach

12. As we have seen, phone research can inform a campaign strategy before
marketing takes place and phone interaction can help build the trust and
rapport that leads prospects to sale. However, the relationships that are built
to support the B2B sales funnel should not be forgotten once the sale is
closed. Phone research can be used post-sale to measure the satisfaction of
your existing clients and glean valuable insight that will allow you to adapt
your product/service/proposition in line with evolving customer interests.
A post-sale dialogue helps maintain and develop long term sustainable
relationships that capitalise on your initial sales and marketing investment and
allow your sales team to focus on developing new opportunities.
10. Customer Retention
Telemarketing as part of an
Integrated Marketing Approach

13. Conclusion
Consumer experience is driving higher customer expectations in the
B2B environment so that integrating media to deliver the right
message, at the right time, via the right channel is increasingly
important. Irrespective of channel, data and insight are the foundation
of marketing success, with knowledge and intelligence supporting
relevant messaging, which drives response and campaign ROI. Digital
and social media have increased the levels of insight and data
available and a data-led channel such as telemarketing can take
advantage of this, un-tapping the potential of other digital and social
media channels.
Telemarketing as part of an
Integrated Marketing Approach

14. Our Services
Established in 1990 and based on the
Brighton sea front, The Telemarketing
Company is the UK's leading specialist
outbound B2B telemarketing agency,
with a robust research offering.
For further information on our services:
01273 765000
info@ttmc.co.uk
www.ttmc.co.uk
26-27 Regency Square
Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 2FH