In today’s digital landscape, people often talk about inbound marketing campaigns and there are tons of speculations saying outbound marketing is dead. However, because of its significant and helpful benefits, many companies still use the latter to fuel their sales and marketing operations.
Outbound marketing has built its name through the years, even if new marketing techniques are sprouting out every day. Yet to take advantage of it effectively, many people search for other options they can use, such as tools for outbound marketing campaigns.
These tools acquire lead information efficiently and guide prospects throughout the sales process at a much faster rate. They can also speed up your productivity rate, helping increase your sales.
Now, the question is, what are those tools and how effective are they for outbound marketing campaigns? Of course, answering this query can be a challenge. Hence, it’s crucial to conduct a thorough research about them.
Fortunately, you don’t have to go anywhere else. This article will tell you what you need to know about such tools that may help you establish effective outbound marketing campaigns. Continue reading to learn more.
Telephony Tools
Telephony or calling automation tools are among the most critical software solutions for outbound marketing, particularly cold calling. These tools allow businesses to automate repetitive manual processes, such as dialing, scheduling, and forecasting, for a more efficient and productive workflow.
There are different types of telephony tools with varying functions and purposes. Consider incorporating the following into your outbound marketing strategy:
Ringless Voicemails
Voicemails are pre-recorded messages you can deliver to your prospects’ voice mailbox. Because they’re ringless, they won’t disturb your leads and clients, especially when they’re busy. Instead, they’ll receive a notification regarding your voice message, and they can listen to it at the best time they prefer.
Ringless voicemails are also cost-effective. You can send hundreds of voice messages in minutes for only a couple of dollars, perfect for small businesses and startups who want to generate more leads.
Moreover, you can use voicemails when some clients and prospects can’t answer or respond to your calls.
If you’re looking for a reliable ringless voicemail provider, you may check out Drop Cowboy or your local service provider for more information.
Automated Dialing System
Automated dialing systems or auto-dialers are powerful software solutions you wouldn’t want to ignore. The primary function of an auto-dialer is to eliminate the tedious task of manually dialing multiple digits consecutively for a more productive and effective workflow.
You can choose from the preview, power, and predictive dialers. As the name suggests, preview dialers allow sales reps to access information about the prospects they’re about to call. As a result, they’ll be able to provide a more personalized call for every customer.
Power dialers, meanwhile, automatically dial the next set of numbers on your list after a completed call. Unlike preview dialers, these tools don’t offer contact information before calling.
Lastly, predictive dialers automatically dial contact numbers and wait for someone to answer the call. Once customers pick up the phone, they’ll be redirected to the next available agent. These tools reduce the downtime between dialing and answering calls.
These are the most common telephony tools for your outbound marketing campaigns. Other tools may include post-call analytics and forecasting tools, which help you improve your process by providing beneficial insights.
Excel Spreadsheets
Excel spreadsheets are among the oldest outbound marketing tools, with some businesses depending on them to record, monitor, and track consumer activities. Despite technological advancements, many businesses are still using them to provide additional support for their tools, such as customer relationship management (CRM).
However, using a spreadsheet to track your daily records has disadvantages. First, it is a manual process, which may consume your time intended for selling. Second, the data entered can be questionable because the process is highly prone to errors. Third, it can hardly provide proper statistics for analysis due to scattered and misaligned data.
However, the good thing about spreadsheets is that they’re cost-effective, making them the perfect solution for startups and businesses with low working capital.
Social Selling Tools
You might be interested in social selling tools if you use social networking sites for your outbound marketing campaigns.
These tools are software applications that will help you leverage your social selling marketing strategies. They can help you focus on engaging the right clients, stay informed through valuable insights, and foster strong relationships.
Social selling tools also help you find the right customers with the help of random lead recommendations. They also have built-in cold calling features for warm and engaging conversations.
Other benefits of using social selling tools are as follows:
- They provide custom lead recommendations based on your preferences, which could be helpful when generating and converting leads.
- They have built-in advanced search options to look for the right leads with higher chances of making sales.
- They can help you run a more successful campaign with the data they provide.
- They have essential collaboration tools to help your staff work efficiently across different networks.
Additionally, you may contact your nearest service provider for more information about social selling tools. If these tools sound new to you, you may check out LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
SMS Marketing Tools
SMS marketing tools allow you to send hundreds of text messages in a few minutes. Another great thing about such tools is that they won’t rip your wallet off. Every message only costs a few cents, which works best for businesses with low capital to start and operate.
On top of that, SMS marketing tools are often cloud-based, meaning you create, deliver, and manage multiple messages anytime and anywhere you want. Usually, they don’t have character limitations. So, you’ll be able to write and send lengthy messages, such as brand history, inspirational stories, detailed product descriptions, and more.
Here are other features of SMS marketing tools you might want to know:
- Blast Text Messaging – This feature allows you to send multiple messages to large groups of potential customers at once. It’s one of the most vital features of SMS marketing software you don’t want to miss.
- Scheduled Messaging – This feature lets you deliver messages to different people at pre-established dates and times. It’s also helpful if you’re running an email marketing campaign as you can send both to maximize customer engagement.
- Personalization – It automatically personalizes every message you want to send using your recipients’ names.
- Multimedia Messaging – If text messaging doesn’t go well, you may try sending interactive and fun images, short clips, and animations with the help of this feature.
- Automated Response – This feature delivers automated and pre-planned messages for basic questions so that you won’t miss anything your clients and prospects send you.
Likewise, don’t forget to search for more tips to make your SMS marketing campaigns more effective and successful.
Email Marketing Tools
Email marketing is one of the most tried and tested outbound campaign strategies modern businesses can use. However, running an email marketing campaign may be difficult to collect data and send emails consistently. Thus, consider some tools to help your campaigns become more productive and efficient.
Email marketing or email automation tools allow sales and marketing agents to produce, deliver, optimize, and manage email campaigns. With these tools, you’ll be able to generate creative emails and send personalized messages that provide excellent experiences for your customers and prospects.
However, having great tools may not be enough to fuel your email campaigns. Hence, here are some helpful tips you might want to execute:
- Personalize Your Emails – Create emails perfectly tailored for every subscriber. Make them feel that you’re invested in them and want to help them address their concerns.
- Perform A/B Testing – It’s important to test an email first before sending it. This will help you identify and address potential errors to craft the best email your customers and prospects will surely love.
- Include Unsubscribe Button – The unsubscribe button will help you identify those still interested in your emails. They are your target audience and may most likely make purchases from you.
- Write A Compelling Subject Line – Subject lines are the first thing people read when they see a new email. Avoid a sales-like tone and be straightforward with what you want to convey.
- Avoid ‘No Reply’ Emails – These emails will make you look like a robot, and many people hate that. So, try to be as human as possible. You may use your first name as your email address to inform your subscribers that they interact with an actual person.
When choosing an email automation tool, you also want to ensure that it has features to help you achieve your goals. This is because most businesses end up spending on tools they don’t even need or use in the long run.
Sales Engagement Platform
A sales engagement platform is an effective tool that may help you leverage your sales operations. It provides you with an all-in-one dashboard where you can plan, execute, and optimize customer engagement across a wide range of channels.
It also has built-in tools you can use for emails, social media communication, and calls to help you perform all tasks in one application. Therefore, you can engage with multiple prospects effectively and accomplish their tasks with ease.
In addition, a sales engagement platform offers tons of benefits that may help you execute your work productively. These include the following:
- It has multiple built-in telephony tools, such as live agent auto-dialers, voicemail drops, and click-to-call actions. Such tools may help you save time while focusing on providing relevant customer calls.
- It has automated emailing services that may help you send one or more emails at one time. It also allows message personalization to engage with subscribers.
- It has built-in analytics that provides real-time reports so you can identify which part of your campaign needs to be improved.
- It may offer mobile software applications that allow you and your team to work anywhere.
It’s also important to understand that a sales engagement platform is not CRM software (more on this below). Using the platform as a CRM tool can eat most of your time and cause you inconvenience.
CRM Platform
A CRM platform is a software application utilized by sales agents for their outbound marketing activities. It’s a combination of different marketing tools, strategies, and processes to foster a long-lasting relationship between you and your customers.
CRMs ensure that the engagement with your customers is smooth and efficient, leading to higher sales and revenue. Besides, it uses customer data from different sources and channels. With this, you’ll be able to access more detailed information about your clients, especially their purchase history and purchasing behavior.
A CRM platform has two types: on-premise and cloud-based. On-premise CRM requires your business to purchase a license because the software will be inside your servers.
This is a good option for companies with strict security protocols. However, its implementation is time-consuming and may require more IT resources. After all, the obligation of protecting and maintaining the software falls into your hands once you purchase it.
The vendor has no responsibility for whatever problems it may present, but they may offer professional assistance, especially when dealing with critical concerns. This technical support also comes at a price.
Cloud-based CRM, meanwhile, uses the vendor’s servers to store all the data you gathered. This allows you to access data anytime and anywhere you want. Most importantly, the vendor will be held accountable for the problems in their system.
Cloud-based CRM is also scalable, allowing you to expand your business and operations. However, you’ll need a stable internet connection to make it function.
Final Words
Executing outbound marketing campaigns is challenging. You have to engage and interact with customers with different preferences every day. Thankfully, some tools that may help you facilitate outbound activities effectively and efficiently. With these tools, you can provide excellent customer experiences and increase your chances of making significant sales.
Furthermore, keep the needs of your business in mind when searching for the right tools. You want to ensure that they have the features to help you achieve your goals.