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Hello everyone – welcome to today’s Digitize Your Firm webinar where we’re talking voice marketing, mobile campaigns, and personalization!
For anyone joining us who is a mobile marketing export or anyone who is looking to gain some additional insights, simply click the green speech bubble at the top of the screen to open the chat and either type out your comment or ask to speak.
As with all Digitize Your Firm webinars, this will be recorded for later playback in case you wanted extra time with a certain section or for listening on the go. If you haven’t already, visit the Weekly Webinar Schedule on our Digitize Your Firm page to check out our past webinars.
Now, let’s go over today’s agenda.
We’re going to start off today by talking about voice marketing, and no – we’re not talking telemarketers. After that is how mobile marketing and get your content into the palms of your audience, and then take a deep dive into personalization. As always, we’ll finish by recapping today’s lesson and presenting the next topic for the week. Now, let’s talk voice marketing.
Do you know what makes marketing both so interesting and challenge – every member of your audience is unique. You’re trying to appeal to people of different ages, backgrounds, income, location, and ideology. How can you possibly make your marketing and communication stand out to each one of these rare specimens?
One size does not fit all! You have to personalize so that diversity among contacts is no longer such a problem. One of the best and simplest ways to personalize your message is by personalizing your medium. How does each contact prefer to receive your messages? In some cases, it may be by telephone.
Now if you’re anything like me, your first thought might be the unwelcome intrusion of telemarketers while you’re trying to enjoy supper, but voice marketing does not mean telemarketing.
You see – telephone calls are fantastic because they are direct, but some people never answer their phones. With voice marketing, you are able to send automated, or pre-recorded messages to your contacts that they can either receiver in person or on their answering machine.
This marketing method can work very well – it provides interaction, and as long as the number is recognizable (i.e. your company is associated with the number) the call will be picked up.
Another great benefit is that while many people live with access to the internet and cell phone service, there are contacts you may have that don’t have immediate access to those resources. This can be due to distance, personal choice, or any number of reasons. Few live without a landline however, which provides a medium personalized to their life to reach out to.
Like any medium however, there are rules to follow. Ensure never to schedule a voice marketing campaign during meal hours or late at night. Keep it short and concise, no one has the team to listen to a two page script when it could be said in five lines. In that script, remember to include a call to action and someone to contact or button to press for more information. Finally, don’t forget to stay compliant – always have a number a contact can dial to opt-out of the message.
Now, let’s talk mobile…
What’s the one piece of technology everybody seems to have in their hand these days?
A cell phone! That small square box that has the power to connect us to the world by text, the internet, social media apps, and of course – a phone call.
It is also a powerful item to market to – after all, the open rate is on SMS messages is 98 percent!
Last week we talked about how using signup forms and landing pages were great ways to grow your contact base – but there will always be drop offs because people simply don’t want to provide their personal information.
And that’s okay because there is a third method that bypasses all of these.
You can optimize the signup process by creating a simple SMS shortcode signup that leads can use right from their cell phone. A shortcode is simply a series of six numbers that can be texted to and allows you to sign up
By creating an SMS shortcode signup process, you can gain immediate sign-ups while using keywords such as ‘HELP’ or ‘SALE’ to provide ready information to your contacts.
You can also use it for collecting email addresses, thus giving you another way to connect with your contacts over time and gain more detailed information.
After they’ve signed up for a few days, you send a coupon to reward them for signing up. Coupons, helpful tips, and other engaging messages keep leads interested and lead to higher open rates.
Though Like any medium however, there are do’s and don’ts!
Just like with voice marketing, keep the message short and concise and within 160 characters, including links, so you don’t inundate a contact with five messages. Ensure that you have a clear call to action, and try to provide a link of you can. Now – as they say, great power comes with great responsibility and the same goes for SMS marketing. While you may send countless marketing emails, tweets, and Facebook posts a day, SMS needs to be much more subdued.
There is a lot of discussion about how many promo SMS messages is appropriate to send out for maximum return, but the majority say somewhere between 2 – 4 a month (and I would personally recommend staying on the lower end). And of course, make sure that you stay compliant – all of your messages should contain information for opting out such as ‘press X to opt-out’ of notifications.
Signing up people right on their phones is cool, isn’t it!? Now let’s talk the aspect of all of this that will keep your contacts coming back for more: personalization!
Isn’t it nice getting emails sent that state your first name and not just a generic ‘Hi’?
Email is the backbone of effective marketing for many businesses. We’ve talked a lot about personalizing your emails for each contact based on their needs and interests but now we’re going to dive deeper. You must be wondering: why does personalization matter so much?
Personalized emails reduce unsubscribe rates and boost conversions. Automated contact management software also keeps information organized and an automated unsubscribe process helps businesses stay compliant with anti-spam regulations.
After signing up, the subscriber immediately receives a welcome/thank you email. Based on how the subscriber interacts with your emails, you can reach out to them with personalized content. As you learn more about each subscriber, you can send personally targeted promotions and recommend specific products based on previous purchases.
Alternatively, during the signup process, you can ask a content what they would like to receive information on. Maybe they would prefer to receive only men’s clothing sales over women’s clothing sales, perhaps they only want to receive company news email and not blog updates. This not only tailors their content, but can better allow you to see where their interests lie.
If you work at a law firm, medical clinic, consultancy, or anything that requires booking appointments, you can send reminders over a client’s preferred channel. When they book online, simply ask them if they would like to receive personally addressed reminders via email, SMS, or voice call. Not only is this a great way to decrease no-shows, but also helps to better accommodate your client’s schedule.
A great strategy to employ of you sell goods is to send personally addressed ‘thank you’ emails after an online, or in-person purchase is complete. This not only adds a kind touch to any sales interaction, but can also present an opportunity for you to send follow up surveys, or note other items the customer may be interested in.
As always of course, ensure that you are always listening for what your audience wants. Try doing A/B split tests where you send different content to two audiences and see which one receives more attention and interaction, or simply send a survey. At the end of the day, those you market to know what they want – so why not ask them?
To review, let’s go over what we’ve covered today:
1. If you have a far-flung contact base, voice marketing may be the best option for you. Not only does it allow you to send personal phone messages, but you can choose the sending time (so you don’t interrupt someone’s day at an inconvenient time). It is a welcome change from telemarketers, but remember to keep your messages concise, with a clear call to action and phone number to call back to or button to press for more information. Most important of all, ensure there is a button they can press to opt-out of future messages to stay compliant.
2. Mobile marketing is fantastic – it gets your content where you want it (that is, in the palm of your audiences’ hands) and has an open rate of 98 percent. With mobile marketing, you can also employ shortcodes to allow contacts to easily opt-in for messages, newsletters, and reminders while asking questions. Remember to keep messages short – aim for no more than 160 characters including a link. Use this marketing medium sparingly, no more than 2 – 4 messages a month, and always include an opt-out key.
3. We also talked about personalization – a word he has thrown around very often in these webinars, but only because it is so important. One size fits all marketing is gone – people want content suited to their needs and they want it now. Ensure that you have systems set up that send personally addressed welcome and thank you email to new subscribers and buyers. If you work with clientele, reminders are a great way to show care for their schedules while decreasing your no-show rate. If you can gain strategic information during the signup process, you could even send personalized content depending on the types of info they ask to receive from you. Be sure to keep your ears open for feedback on your marketing materials, like promotional messages and newsletters. Hear what your audience has to say and aim to best meet their needs.
Next week, we’ll be checking in with Joe to see how he is doing, reviewing the past 10 weeks, and using our learnings to evolve his current marketing plan.
If you have any further questions about voice marketing, or anything you see in these webinars, reach out to digitize@simplycast.com and we’ll be happy to help!
