Think creatively about what your telemarketing can achieve. For example telemarketing can be used to generate leads, screen leads before follow up, arrange appointments for field sales staff, provide support, motivate resellers, research markets, test new offers, and of course gain sales. Make sure the person making the call is properly briefed, knows all about your business and knows exactly what you are aiming to achieve. This is equally important whether your telemarketing is being handled by your receptionist, as by a professional call centre or telemarketing agency.

Try and match your telemarketing staff to the people they will be calling. For example many colleges and universities often employ and train current or recent students to call alumni to ask for their help in fundraising, because they are more likely to have something in common. If necessary, train your telemarketing staff to identify the type of person they are speaking to and adjust their tone and manner accordingly. Bouncy, jokey and over-familiar telesales staff are unlikely to make much headway with chartered accountants or financial directors.

Make sure the right technology is in place so that your telemarketing campaign can be adjusted quickly if it needs to be, and that results of calls can be logged effectively. All users need proper training in your technology system, and you need to have a back up in place in case the technology fails mid sales call. If you are operating inbound telemarketing through a call centre, make sure that staff are trained and motivated to make the most of every opportunity, such as turning complaints into happy customers. An existing customer saved can often be far more valuable than a new customer gained.

Don’t waste time and resources in calling prospects who are not likely to buy from you – this just smacks of desperation. You may think that if you call enough of them someone will buy, but this can do more damage than good amongst the larger numbers who really don’t want to receive your call. Try and target to your telemarketing to people who may already know of your brand, and who are likely to have some interest in what you are selling. Following on from the last point, train your staff to ask a few initial questions to identify if the prospect is actually a potential customer or not. Qualifying leads early on can save a lot of wasted time and frustration trying to convert someone who is simply never going to buy.

Make sure your administration and fulfilment operations are also of the same standard as your telemarketing – there’s not point in a well trained caller convincing a prospect to have a sales rep call, if the appointment never reaches the rep’s diary, or they forget to make the visit. Test your outbound telemarketing results. After all telemarketing is a direct marketing activity with all the benefits that brings for testing, adapting and measuring results. If a script or approach is not working, don’t be afraid to change the approach and try again.

There are hundreds of ways that you can promote your online business or website, some more effective than others. These five proven methods will help you to generate traffic to your site and also to generate income into your wallet. One thing that appeals to everyone is “free.” If it is free people will take it. Think of the samples of cheese given away at grocery stores. Do you really want a small piece of cheese? Of course not! But you take it simply because it is free and someone is nice enough to offer it to you. The same principle applies with information or services offered from your website. You can send out free newsletters or offer a free trail period. One popular thing that is being given away now are free credit reports or free PC scans.

Your website contains information about a service or product that you are very knowledgeable about. You can use this knowledge togenerate traffic to your site by writing articles in your area of expertise and having them published in an ezine or an article information site. The most effective way to use these articles is to write them for free and ask in return that the publisher allow you to include a byline. A byline is a very short summary of the author, their
credentials and their website. Your byline is a way that readers will come to know you as an expert on the topic and will in turn come to trust your site as a source of credible information.

Some search engines will allow a website to purchase their ranking. This is an excellent Internet marketing technique in that it is effective and inexpensive. In the pay-per-click programs, website are only billed for those who actually visit the page, unlike banner ads which may be seen by millions but only used by a few. When using the pay-per-click program you are asked to choose keywords and when those are entered your site will appear and if the surfer chooses to view your site, you are billed for that click. Many pay-per-click programs will offer other benefits as well, such as updated lists of commonly used keywords.

You should remember that others are in the same boat as you. You can choose to network with those who have similar marketing ideas. When networking you will be able to share links and refer customers to each other. You should always be very cautious when choosing a networking partner as everything that you recommend is a reflection of yourself or your product and therefore, you should be certain that your networking partner is a reputable source of information.