Change. Transformation. Innovation. However, you chose to describe it, this has been the overwhelming theme of the last few years, describing how marketers have struggled to get to grips with the fiscal implications of the credit crunch and to embrace the new digital world.
But in this rush to adapt, there’s a very real danger that we may lose sight of some to the fundamentals; those things that may appear less exciting on the face of it, but should not be ignored, and in some cases are critical.
Telemarketing is an excellent example of this. As a relatively blunt and unsophisticated tool, and one which has been around for decades, telemarketing attracts very little of the limelight, and is often dismissed as primitive, inflexible… and just downright dull.
Contrary to this, as our latest telemarketing survey demonstrates, it’s a key component of most marketing campaigns or programmes, particularly for funnel-based marketing activity.
Not only is it very important: it’s also under very serious threat. The Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) is steadily eroding and undermining our ability to use telemarketing, as a consequence of abuse of the law, by large corporates in particular.
There are now estimated to be almost two million numbers registered over the past six years. It amounts to death by a thousand cuts for telemarketing.
As the representative body for the direct marketing industry, it is the Direct Marketing Association’s responsibility to fight against this damaging legislation; however to date its efforts have been bogged down in bureaucracy and have ultimately not amounted to much.
As discussed in our news analysis article, the association has recently embarked on another new initiative to address the issue of the CTPS. I cannot overstate how important it is that the DMA’s latest campaign against the legislation is successful – and for the need for everyone interested in safeguarding the future of direct marketing to play their part.
Without swift and decisive action to protect telemarketing from further degredation, business-to-business brands will ultimately be prevented from using from one of the best and most effective tools at their disposal, and all their marketing will suffer as a consequence. Now that’s one change that no-one wants.
