I remember one of our premises for starting MoreVisibility in 1999 was that Search seemed like the next iteration of Direct Marketing and was so much more intuitive than anything that had come before it.
Why should companies continue calling “qualified” databases to identify viable opportunities when prospective customers could simply come straight to your business through keyword search instead?
Well, if there’s one thing that’s a certainty with Digital Marketing today, it’s that nothing is very simple, nor was it in the early days, as it was such foreign territory to everyone.
With this in mind and with the incredible pace at which the Internet continues to evolve, it’s worth pointing out that the telephone can still play a very valuable role in your client acquisition process. However, unlike in prior eras (pre-late 1990’s) it doesn’t have to be a mass canvassing tool, but rather a way to make sure that viable prospects are given the type of attention that will make a sale more likely once they’ve identified themselves through your website.
If your website is utilized as a lead generation tool or the item you are marketing is high ticket (lots of room for interpretation here), then incorporating an organized outbound calling initiative might be very effective. We all know that the web is an incredible information-sharing tool, but a quality telephone conversation can go a long way toward building trust and separating your company from the others that can so easily be located online. A further benefit is that since the Internet has had such a dramatic impact on Direct Marketing, far fewer companies are actually picking up the phone, thus an opportunity exists to gain a competitive advantage (the old fashioned way).
