Telemarketing is top channel for ROI

The power of telemarketing to influence brand perceptions and deliver high level engagements with hard-to-reachprospects has been underlined by the results of our new survey. Joel Harrison investigates

Telemarketing is streets ahead of other key marketing channels in terms of ROI and it remains a potent influencer of brand perception. This is according to new research by B2B Marketing, in association with The Telemarketing Company, canvassing the opinion of 132 practitioners, conducted in July. The results showed telemarketing is continuing to confound its detractors, who dismiss this channel as old-fashioned or inflexible.

As regards to ROI, the survey revealed B2B marketers find it easier to demonstrate return on investment in telemarketing than on five other key marketing channels – content marketing, events, social media, email and direct mail.

Respondents also revealed the extent to which ROI is demonstrable on telemarketing activities, with just under half of respondents (49 per cent) claiming to be able to show ROI on all of their telemarketing spend. By contrast, less than 10 per cent either could not demonstrate ROI at all, or did not know the extent to which they could show ROI.

Three quarters of respondents claimed to be most interested in the value of telemarketing calls/activity, while less than one per cent were interested only in the volume of calls. Three quarters of respondents regard telemarketing as delivering higher quality leads than email, while the figure rises to almost 80 per cent when compared with social media.

Feel the quality

Results of the survey reinforced telemarketing’s credentials as a premium marketing channel, delivering highly measurable quantitative results.

As regards to the branding implications of telemarketing, 60 per cent of respondents claim it either has a ‘profound’ or ‘significant’ impact on brand perception.

Thirty per cent of respondents regard telemarketing as a ‘high-end information exchange’ with clients, while less than 20 per cent regard it as only ‘transactional’.

Leads are the focus

The survey showed telemarketing is currently used for a wide variety of marketing functions (see figure 2) including market research and data cleansing. However, it is most popular among respondents for ‘lead qualification’ and ‘prospecting’ (used by 71 and 70 per cent respectively).

Lead generation is a clear focus for marketers in terms of their use of telemarketing, and was also the focus for funnel-orientated activities (see figure 3).

Although ‘number of qualified leads’ was by far the most popular metric used (cited by two thirds of respondents), it was found to be only joint most effective metric – a status shared with ‘value of pipeline created’, which also relates to quality of leads. ‘Value of sales made’ was the third most effective metric, ahead of ‘number of appointments set’, once again, confirming the importance of quality over quantity in the final analysis.

Quality over quantity

The focus on leads was also clear when it came to metrics (see figure 4) although responses to questions on this topic indicated that marketers are increasingly interested in lead quality over quantity.

The cold call refuses to die

The future success of telemarketing seems increasingly linked to integration, with 64 per cent of marketers seeking to better integrate their telemarketing with the rest of their activity. Currently only 20 per cent of companies claim their telemarketing is completely integrated, while 48 per cent say it is either partly integrated, or not integrated at all.

Lead nurturing is also likely to become more important as a telemarketing function in the future, with 47 per cent expecting to increase this activity.

However, on a more negative note, only a quarter of respondents said they would reduce their use of cold-calling. It is still conducted by over 70 per cent of respondents. It seems the main benefits of telemarketing – accessibility and cost-effectiveness – may ultimately continue to hold back true recognition and maximisation of its potential.

Want to find out more? Niall Habba, MD of The Telemarketing Company, explains why telemarketing is growing in importance here.

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