Considerations When Crafting Voice Broadcast Messages

Businesses using voice broadcasting to develop leads must have pre-recorded messages that must have low production cost. The message should be compact and delivered in 45 seconds or less. This is where common mistakes are made which can be expensive for the business.

Do not start the message with the company name and details of company. This will be useless especially if the prospect does not know what or who your company is and is obviously not interested in the company details. The tendency is for the prospect to put the phone down in the initial seconds of the call which will drive up costs and generate no revenue. Consequently, your message should be short and speak directly to the product or service benefit to get the client’s attention. Mention the company name right before the call to action or within the call to action text.

Focus on product or service benefits to catch attention. Prospective clients are interested on what the product or service can do for them. The message should target a need especially on “problem” areas. The product or service message should tell the prospects that your product can solve their problem. Messages that highlight benefits are more interesting to prospects and most effective to your bottom line.

Due to the limited time for voice broadcast message, discussing features may take much time. If a prospect is interested in details, then the call to action should lead him or her to the website or press the “1” key and talk to a live representative.

Mention a qualifying statement in the message. There are companies that have set-up fees and other charges that go along with the product or services. When creating a message, include qualifiers or else time and money is wasted when an unqualified prospect continues through your sales process. Many prospects do not continue with the transaction when they hear about set-up fees and charges. An example of this is “After a $250 set-up cost, the product can be availed for only $99.” Though people might be turned off by the message those who will get the product know what is required. The quality of leads from the voice broadcast will be higher due to the presence of this qualifier.

Emphasize the call to action at the end of the message. A most important point of the message is the call to action at the end. This should be clear so the interested prospect can make the follow up action. Whether it is a web site URL, a telephone number or a key to press, the prospect should be able to take action with the least amount of effort.

As companies develop the voice broadcast campaign it is important to consider the points cited to avoid mistakes. The message should be short and complete to maximize your sales conversions.

Handling Negative Call Transfers

Not all responses to voice broadcasts will be positive. Some responses may cause a negative effect on those receiving the calls. Companies should also shield their personnel from “negative” calls. Scenarios of prospects shouting at the personnel are common. These people ask to be removed from the call list can be abusive and discourteous.

Companies resort to a live call screening person with a short answer script and this can eradicate negative calls before they are transferred to the customer service or sales personnel. But there are other ways to filter such calls.

Some voice broadcasters use an “automatic” call screening method. This uses an “intermittent” message. The voice broadcast message gives the recipient an option to press “1” for details or more information. This press “1” then results in another message instead of a live transfer.

There will be a 30-45 seconds “intermittent” message. This second message most often contains an invitation to press “2” and request to be included in the Do Not Call (DNC) list. If the recipient does not press “2” the recorded message can continue with details or benefits of the product or service. Another press “1” invitation will then be made.

The last press “1” action may transfer the call to a customer service or sales personnel. Another option for is a transfer to a voicemail system so the prospect can leave a message.

Going through the process, it is clear that those who do not want the call will press “2” during the “intermittent” message. If there will be a transfer this would be for people who want to talk to a live person or leave a message.

Using the method described above will reduce “negative” calls and spare the customer service or sales person from unnecessary efforts.

Costs of Voice Broadcasting

One of the most important considerations in doing business is on costs. Every business owner will always look into this aspect. This article provides introduction to the costs of voice broadcasting and how it can it an advantage to your business.

Pay Per Minute

In terms of costs, this is a very unpredictable method and is not advisable unless you can go around the problems that it can cause.
Here are some problem areas:

- What increments will be used to time each call?
- Number of digits to manipulate the billed cost.
- Provision for the rounding up of each call cost. This can be a problem area if not established between you and the voice broadcast vendor.
- Will the call time include dial and ringing time or just when the call is answered?
Unless the variables stated above are cleared then there is no point resorting to this type of payment determination scheme with your voice broadcast provider.

Pay Per Live Transfer

An amount or fee is charged to you by the broadcast vendor for every call that is transferred to you as a result of the client pressing “1” in response to the recorded message. It does not matter if the call is transferred immediately or if response will be a bit delayed. The length of time with the client is not also a variable. This cost is the most practical and is the one resorted to by most business owners.

The disadvantage of this pay per transfer method is it cannot be utilized for the delivery of messages to an answering machine. This voice broadcast method is only for messages delivered to a live number only.

Pay Per Delivery

Like the Pay Per Transfer cost, a set amount is charged for each message delivered. This can work both for live answered calls and answer machine delivered voice broadcasts. If you plan to have an answering machine too especially during after office hours then this is the plan for you.

The downside of this payment method is that some voice broadcast vendors charge on a “per dial” or “per connect”. You should watch out for this in your terms of service. You should not pay for calls that do not result in actual delivery of messages.

It is best to keep the agreement simple with your voice broadcast vendor and charge you for every delivered message.

The best way to assess which one is most economical for your need is to do a test campaign. Always ask for a report, a simple one, from the voice broadcast provider so you can check and do calculations yourself. Do not fall for complicated statistical reports that you do not really need. Let the voice broadcast provider submit one that you can understand immediately. Also see to it that the provider agrees that you can change your payment option or plan without any penalty or lock in period.

Ways To Determine If Voice Broadcasting Is Profitable

The mindset of many marketers when doing a voice broadcasting campaign is the expectation that majority of calls will become good prospects. This may over-optimistic, as in reality only a minority of leads are quality ones. However, with a well thought approach and an established business metrics, voice broadcasting can be profitable, particularly because of the low cost to generate such leads.

Let us look at some business metrics. Successful campaigns for messages delivered to live-answered phone calls, where the caller presses 1 to reach the company, is only a 15%-25% “long call rate.” Long call rate is a call where both parties stay on the line for 1 ½ minutes. Not all long calls result in good leads. It has been noted that only ½ of long calls turn to be good leads.

An established business metric should be studied before making a voice broadcast campaign. Going back to the example above, if an effective long call would cost $25, and only 50% are good leads and only 25% get to sales conversion then the cost of a sale is $200. If profit for such sale is $350 then the business owner is going to have an effective voice broadcasting campaign.

Companies wanting to do voice broadcasting should consider the mode of the campaign. Most industries have a response rate for live delivery between 0.6% to 1.0%. This means that for every 1000 calls only 10 would result in a live lead.

For a voicemail campaign, the numbers will be much lower. This type of campaign requires a good message that will make the recipient interested to note callback number or the website URL. Live messages are more efficient because what the recipient has to do is press “1” and talk to a live person. Though answer voicemail campaigns are harder to track, it is estimated that 25-33% is the call back ratio for this type of campaign.

For voice broadcasting to be used as a lead generation system, the message is crucial as well as the call list. But before anything else, basic business metrics should be studied first during the planning phase of the campaign.

The Power of Voice Broadcasting

One of the most under-utilized lead generation technique is voice broadcasting. It is an exceptional technology in its reach its cost efficiency as well, which can add a whole new revenue stream to your business. The most important key in this method is the design of the message. Considerable thought should be given to this.

In order to grasp the power of voice broadcasting, it is important to understand what it is all about. A voice broadcast is a recorded voice message that is delivered to customer leads. Delivery of the message can be done “live” on the phone or through answering service, voice mail or an answering machine. The message can also be delivered through mobile phones and test messaging. There are voice broadcasting companies that provide the service from message design to handling the actual calls.

With voice broadcasting, a marketer can also communicate with existing customers offering products and services. Personalization of the messages can also result in building a good relationship both with existing and leads.

Although the voice broadcasting process is simple, it is advisable to use the service of a voice broadcast provider. They have the technical support as well as the experience in messaging and other important components for the technology. Most of these voice broadcast providers also provide lists and data as well.

Creation of the actual message is crucial and this should be designed in a manner that is concise and interesting. Recorded messages should be under 50 seconds to keep the attention of the recipient. At the end of the recorded message should be a call to action which is the purpose of the message. A call to action can be letting the recipient call the phone number, visit a website or both. If a visit to a website is asked then care should be made when registering a domain. The domain name should be easy to remember.

Voice broadcasting can be a powerful took for your business. More sales from existing customers and turning leads to new clients can result from a well designed message. There is no doubt that with properly managed and designed voice broadcast campaigns, your customer acquisition and return on investment will be enhanced.

Next Page »