Sign up. Talk. Distribute. Those are the only steps you need to add voice broadcasting to your company's marketing strategy.
That's how easy it was for one New York publishing firm. It faxed subscription requalification survey reminders to subscribers of a business magazine, until an Xpedite employee suggested the firm use voiceREACH, Xpedite's voice messaging system. Xpedite is a Tinton Falls, N.J.-based firm that offers multimedia marketing options.
The publishing company's circulation director signed up for voiceREACH online at www.xpedite.com. Using a unique ID and password, the director accessed a secure, "members-only" section of the site that provides personal voice broadcast messaging accounts. After uploading contact information for 115,000 subscribers from the publishing firm's database, he scheduled a voice message to be sent to the subscribers' work phone numbers on a Sunday, so recipients would hear it first thing Monday morning. Then, the director recorded a short message (less than 45 seconds) via touch-tone phone. The message encouraged subscribers to fill out a requalification survey found on the magazine cover wrap, and mail it to the publishing firm.
Weeks later, the publishing firm scheduled the delivery of a second message to 75,000 subscribers who still hadn't returned their surveys. In both instances, the messages were sent to all uploaded phone numbers simultaneously.
The magazine's publisher said voice broadcasting yielded a higher percentage of returned surveys than faxing. And because the publishing firm collected more surveys sooner, the circulation director spent less money on mailing follow-up requalification efforts.
Include 3 Types
of Promotional Text
Most customers buy products and services after answering three questions: Is this the kind of product I'm looking for? Is this a more applicable product when compared with similar ones? Am I convinced I'll like the benefits of this product? When creating marketing text for your web site, consider the questions and design your navigation accordingly. Identification text plainly names products and services (a link on your home page called "Labels"). Contextual text is more specific (a headline in the Labels section that reads, "We specialize in short run, custom labels."). Desire text emphasizes benefits (a link in the Labels section that reads, "Click here for three testimonials, and see why our labels--and customer service--can get you out of sticky situations.").
Don't Bombard
If you've received a customer's coveted permission for email marketing, don't abuse the privilege. Frequent bombardment with messages will be met quickly with unsubscribe requests, making it difficult to reacquire those lost names. Subscribers should know before "opting in" how often you plan to distribute email messages, so they can determine if it's worthwhile. Perceive email marketing as a service to customers, not a daily opportunity to drum up business.
Let 'Em Order How
They Want
The more methods you have for taking orders, the more orders you potentially can receive. When setting up your e-commerce site with online ordering forms, don't overlook traditional methods of order-taking such as faxes, telephone call centers and mail. Place your firm's contact information prominently on your site.
Almost as Simple as Speaking
Michelle Doyle, director of industry, marketing-publishing at Xpedite, says marketing with voice broadcasting is simple and doesn't necessitate technical know-how. After clients sign up and receive unique IDs and passwords, they can upload and store account information online. Users record voice messages simply by dialing a toll-free phone number and talking. While on the phone, each user enters a numeric code to tell the system which phone numbers should receive his or her message. (Each list has its own code, and codes are located in users' online accounts.)
Doyle says .wav files can be used instead of recorded phone messages, a strategy sometimes chosen by firms that use celebrities to record messages. In that case, the .wav files are uploaded to Xpedite's web site, and voiceREACH automatically converts the audio files to a phone-friendly format.
In the printing industry, distributors and manufacturers can use broadcast marketing to notify clients about new product offerings, special discounts and more. In publication applications, Doyle says voiceREACH most often is used for magazine subscription renewals. "It used to be all B2B, but now it has opened up to B2C because everyone has a telephone," Doyle says. "It's another method to touch readership." Voice broadcasts also work well for political campaigns, she says. Messages can be left for potential voters or campaign workers, giving them updates, instructions and goals. Another ideal application is trade shows--messages can notify attendees about schedule changes, products on the show floor and other information.
voiceREACH includes an option called "hot-key transfer," which allows recipients to push "0" to talk directly to operators located at the company using voiceREACH. This works well for voice messages asking customers to renew subscriptions, answer polls or otherwise take action. voiceREACH users also can select an option that distinguishes calls answered by people from ones answered by voice mail systems. When people answer, the system can send a message saying, "Sorry, wrong number." Or, a user can opt to play a certain message when people answer, and a different one when voice mail answers. Xpedite calls this the "dual document" option. These options provide users with flexibility: Messages received by people could include hot-key transfers, and ones received by voice mail could include contact information.
REACHing Out Effectively
voiceREACH customers pay per delivered message, so pricing depends on how many customers listen to the recorded message. If a recorded message reaches a fax machine or answering machine (when it's not programmed to leave a message), the Xpedite client doesn't pay for that "lost" message. The base charge is 32 cents per minute, and options such as hot-key transfers and dual document cost extra. The final price also depends on transfer fees and connection times.
Charges are prorated as a fraction of a minute, so users who send 30-second messages pay only 16 cents per message delivered (half a minute equals half of 32 cents). Xpedite recommends that users limit messages to 45 seconds or less, so audiences don't lose interest.
"We're not trying to take over other marketing ways, just trying to give another option," Doyle says. It's beneficial to use voice broadcast messaging early in a marketing campaign because it's less expensive and recipients are accustomed to receiving voice messages, she says.
Xpedite already has upgraded voiceREACH technology to include more customer-friendly options. A "text to speech" option adds message recipients' names for customized marketing. The new technology also includes a feature in which the system asks questions while recipients are on the phone. Recipients can answer using phone keys ("1" for yes, "2" for no).
"The greatest benefit of this technology is that it's instant," Doyle says. "You can pick up a phone, record a message, and blast it out to 10 or 10,000 people. And everyone gets it at the same time."
