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For B-to-B marketers working to reach current or prospective customers, guided voice mail—technology that allows users to record a voice mail message once, then deliver it to hundreds of people—is one tool to increase efficiency while maintaining a personal touch. Unlike auto dialers, live agents navigate a company’s phone system and guide the pre-recorded message to the intended recipient’s voice mailbox.
Envision, a Seattle-based call center software provider, uses guided voice mail for both software sales campaigns and event notifications. Its target audience is call center directors and managers—people who already are accustomed to doing a good deal of their business via telephone. According to the company’s marketing specialist Jill Majors, “It’s as if our contacts receive the voice mail personally, instead of being one of many on the recipient list.” In this week’s TM Tipline, Majors explains how using guided voice mail has enabled Envision to reach its audience in a timely manner, while also effectively using a channel it regularly works with.
Target Marketing: Since implementing guided voice mail in January 2006, what results have you seen?
Jill Majors: We saw immediate results with the … guided voice mail system. Prior to adding this system into our marketing plans, we had two to three inside sales representatives making calls for our events for five weeks before a given event. Our first … campaign netted 14 registrations within the first 48 hours. It took our callers two to three weeks to get those kinds of returns.
Guided voice mail has saved Envision both time and money. We are able to reach a broader audience quickly, and we typically see immediate results from each of our campaigns. What used to take weeks of calling is now completed in a day or so, and our sales representatives can concentrate on targeted account outreach instead of working through volumes of calls.
TM: What challenges, if any, did you face when implementing the system, and how did you overcome those challenges?
JM: We didn’t really face any challenges in implementing the system. Our biggest issue was with our internal “voice talent,” all of us were nervous about our messages and felt we needed to rerecord them a few times until it felt right.
TM: How has voice mail, using the human voice instead of an e-mail or direct mail piece, proven to be more effective in getting prospects’ attention?
Envision, a Seattle-based call center software provider, uses guided voice mail for both software sales campaigns and event notifications. Its target audience is call center directors and managers—people who already are accustomed to doing a good deal of their business via telephone. According to the company’s marketing specialist Jill Majors, “It’s as if our contacts receive the voice mail personally, instead of being one of many on the recipient list.” In this week’s TM Tipline, Majors explains how using guided voice mail has enabled Envision to reach its audience in a timely manner, while also effectively using a channel it regularly works with.
Target Marketing: Since implementing guided voice mail in January 2006, what results have you seen?
Jill Majors: We saw immediate results with the … guided voice mail system. Prior to adding this system into our marketing plans, we had two to three inside sales representatives making calls for our events for five weeks before a given event. Our first … campaign netted 14 registrations within the first 48 hours. It took our callers two to three weeks to get those kinds of returns.
Guided voice mail has saved Envision both time and money. We are able to reach a broader audience quickly, and we typically see immediate results from each of our campaigns. What used to take weeks of calling is now completed in a day or so, and our sales representatives can concentrate on targeted account outreach instead of working through volumes of calls.
TM: What challenges, if any, did you face when implementing the system, and how did you overcome those challenges?
JM: We didn’t really face any challenges in implementing the system. Our biggest issue was with our internal “voice talent,” all of us were nervous about our messages and felt we needed to rerecord them a few times until it felt right.
TM: How has voice mail, using the human voice instead of an e-mail or direct mail piece, proven to be more effective in getting prospects’ attention?
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