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Dr. Billy Williams mentors clients, especially insurance agents, across the country. He has been a fierce advocate of using CallFire’s Voice Broadcast, Cloud Call Center, and Hosted IVR campaigns for lead prospecting and customer outreach and retention. The following post is a guest blog with some of the tips he has shared with business professionals.

Why Automated Dialing Should be a Marketing Tool All Businesses Use

By Billy R. Williams, Ph.D., President – Inspire a Nation Business Mentoring

Effective marketing is pretty simple:

1. Put your message in front of as many people as possible
2. Build lists of prospects that are interested in you, your product, and/or your expertise
3. Reach out to the lists regularly with timely, effective, problem-solving information
4. Reach out to as many people as possible on days that are important to them
5. Use affordable automation to help you stay consistent with your keep-in-touch campaigns

My partner agencies and the majority of our member agents use a company called CallFire for automated marketing, so I will use their functionality to explain how to target each of the 5 marketing areas I mentioned above.

1. Put your message in front of as many people as possible

• We use the Cloud Call Center to prospect DNC-scrubbed lists of prospects. You can have 1 or 100’s of telemarketers ready to speak live with a prospect.
• We use voice broadcasting to communicate important, non-solicitation, focused messages and announcements to current customers and opt-in prospects
• We also use “Press-1” campaigns to help us accomplish number two on our marketing list:

2. Build lists of prospects that are interested in you, your product, and/or your expertise

• Direct a press-1 campaign to a live person or to a CallFire IVR (message tree, automated survey, or hotline) that can be used to gather or give important information
• Every time someone responds positively to your telemarketer, or presses 1 on your voice broadcast campaign, that is one more person that you just added to your opt-in lists of potential customers

3. Reach out to the lists regularly with timely, effective, problem-solving information

• CallFire gives you the ability to easily schedule follow-up campaigns from calls that were not answered, requested a callback, needed bi-lingual help, etc.

4. Reach out to as many people as possible on days that are important to them

• We create weekly phonebooks in CallFire (Yes, 52 phone books) and each week we run a birthday audit from our database and add the phone numbers into the correct phone book. Then we quickly send out a Voice Broadcast birthday message. We do the same thing for recurring events like upcoming policy reviews, graduations, wedding anniversaries, etc.

5. Use affordable automation to help you stay consistent with your keep-in-touch campaigns

• The more a person hears your consistent message, the more credible you become. By using a low-cost solution like an automated dialer program, you are able to keep a consistent keep-in-touch program operating. You will not benefit long-term from a flash-in-the-pan marketing campaign. Here are my two rules of thumb when it comes to keep-in-touch programs:

1. Don’t send out information that has no real value to the prospect
2. The first time they hear you or your message is an introduction; the second time they can say they know of you; the third time they start to become familiar with you, but it takes four or more times for the prospect to feel like they are developing a relationship with you.

Follow the tips that I have just provided to you when setting up your automated dialer campaigns and you will see an awesome ROI.

Billy Williams, Ph.D., is president of Inspire a Nation Business Mentoring and Williams Family Agency Inc. The group currently has 23 member agencies and produces $360 Million in production annually. He is an expert at helping insurance agents and agencies double or triple their current production using no-cost conversations and processes, low-cost, efficient, marketing and advertising platforms, and technology.

by Kimberly Kohatsu, Director of Marketing

Last night, Dinesh and I attended a demo night of seven LA startups. It was a lively crowd at the VLounge in Santa Monica, and a meetup organized by the LA “Future Billionaires.” Though we’re both sociable people, neither Dinesh nor I is really the type to approach someone cold and strike up a conversation. Luckily for us, other people are, and we met quite a few interesting ones, at all different stages of business, and doing all sorts of cool things.

So why do we force ourselves to go to these events, where we’re out of our comfort zone and generally awkward? It’s simple.

We both like scotch.

But that’s not it. The truth: Almost every big deal we’ve ever landed, or important business relationship we’ve made, has come from a networking event.

There’s something about a face-to-face interaction that no marketing campaign, cold call, or landing page can ever match. When you meet a person, you can see their passion, you can ask them questions, and you can put a face to an idea. Your conversation, though it may sometimes feel forced, can more often lead you down new paths. For example, we met someone last night developing an iPhone application. When he told us about it, it seemed like the same application could be marketed two ways… once towards serious business people, and again towards serial daters (PlayaApp was the name we suggested, watch out for it). Would this developer have ever arrived there without meeting us? Perhaps. But… perhaps not. Each interaction is a new possibility.

Two weeks ago, Dinesh spent 5 days on a cruise ship with the Roots, Sophia Bush, Richard Branson, and some amazing philanthropists from Mexico at Summit at Sea. Poor him, right? He heard speeches, ate fancy dinners, and learned to make fire from wood and dead animal skin. But aside from all that, he also found potential new customers, some new opportunities (the G20 summit, WHAT?), and some potential celebrity partners for a business development project we’re working on. Who’d have ever guessed all that?

You just never know when you’ll encounter someone who will ignite a new idea, someone who wants to develop a partnership, or someone who needs exactly what it is that you offer. And the more people you meet, the more you up your chances of something amazing happening.

That’s precisely why CallFire has been so active lately with event sponsorships and attendance. We were at Twiistup, Startup Weekend LA, Spotlight:LA Tech, and Gov 2.0, to name a few. In August, we’re sponsoring Dreamforce in San Francisco. (and if you’ll be there, use discount code ECMCALLFR to get $100 off)

And now, we’ve done the ultimate: we’re holding our very own CallFire conference. We’re calling it Biz2Beach, and it’s shaping up to be incredibly exciting. The speakers include leaders from Klout, Myspace, and BetterWorks, and the guest list has company founders and high-level executives ranging in business size, scope, and industry. The response thus far has been tremendous.

If your business wants to grow, I encourage you to request an invitation to Biz2Beach, and see what incredible things might happen as a result of the people you’ll meet. I won’t even venture to guess what the networking will lead to, because from everything I’ve seen, the reality is so much better than I could have imagined.

by Kimberly Kohatsu, Director of Marketing

Marketers tend to think of opt-in marketing as a limitation, but I honestly think it’s a benefit. For one, opt-in means you’re communicating with people who say it’s okay for you to communicate with them. That means you’re not annoying them, which will help the success of your campaigns. And perhaps more importantly, opt-in voice broadcasts and text blasts save you money in the end. You’re not paying for calls or texts to people who don’t want them, which is only going to help control costs. So how should you get your opt-in list to grow? Here’s 10 suggestions:

1. Tell your customers what they’ll get if they opt in

Are you planning on sending a monthly discount code? What about exclusive, text-only invites to sales? Give your customers a good reason to opt in, as well as an idea of how frequently you plan to contact them (monthly, weekly, daily, etc). You can also incentivize opt-ins by offering an immediate benefit, such as a discount or free gift.

2. Make sure they know they can always opt out

Sounds a bit counter-intuitive, but customers will be a lot less hesitant to sign up if you reassure them they can push 8 or text STOP at any time to unsubscribe. CallFire will automatically add your unsubscribes to your internal DNC list, making your list easier to manage, and making your customers more comfortable in joining.

3. Use your existing sign-up pages to drive subscriptions

If your customers use any sort of form on your website, include a check box to opt in to your text or marketing campaigns. You might want to put this directly below the field where your customers input their phone number, like in the example below:

4. Create an email marketing campaign

Email your customers and tell them about your great new marketing initiative. Tell them what you plan to send to them via phone calls or texts, and include an opt-in call-to-action such as “click here to subscribe” or “Text SMSFIRE to 88202.”

5. Drive subscriptions with social media

Encourage your Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and LinkedIn contacts to subscribe to your list. Have your whole team share these posts with their contacts, so that their contacts can tell their contacts, and so on.

6. Get their attention with point-of-purchase signage

Got a physical storefront? What better place to reach your existing customers? Make a sign to hang near the register, in the window, or on tabletops. One note of caution, however—don’t simply have a clipboard where people can add their phone numbers, because most carriers won’t accept a paper sign-up as a valid opt-in should you ever face a complaint. Instead, encourage your customers to subscribe with their cell phones, such as “Text SMSFIRE to 88202.”

7. Hold an employee competition for signups

Do your employees spend a lot of time interacting with customers? Run a month-long competition to see who can get the most subscriptions, and offer a great prize to the winner, like a gift certificate or a paid day off.

8. Append an opt-in message to your sales receipts

Include a short message about your voice and text promotions every time the register rings.

9. Design a CallFire IVR to solicit opt-ins from customers who call your business

When customers call your business, add an option to your phone menu to subscribe to your list. Example: “Press 1 to receive discounts via text message, and Press 2 to speak to a representative.” When callers press 1, design your IVR to record the calls and prompt the caller to leave the cell phone number he’d like to subscribe. If you need help doing this, my colleague Ryan can show you how in this video.

10. Keep an online archive for reference

Once you’ve been doing voice or text broadcasts for a while, house some of your past deals somewhere on your website. Then, when prospective subscribers are considering  opting in, they will have a good idea of whether they’d benefit from your company’s messages. Visit “Past Deals” on LivingSocial if you need an example.

If you have your own tips to share, please do so in the comments. And if you have success with any of these suggestions, please share your stories too. Good luck with your marketing campaigns!

CallFire announces a new Do-It-Yourself Lead Generation webinar for businesses interested in generating leads by using Power Dialing, Opt-in Voice Broadcast & intelligent Call Tracking to drive new business in the United State,  Canada, or Internationally

The DIY Lead Generation webinar series first aims to educate business owners and at-home sales agents on how to save money by using Cloud Call Centers and Cloud Telephony tools to quickly connect themselves to other businesses.  The second half of the seminar covers how to use opt-in Voice Broadcast notification and Call Tracking to communicate important messages to existing clients and track marketing efficacy of your campaigns.

Session 1 How to use Cloud Call Centers and Power Dialing at 11:00 AM

* Preparing an Excel list of my business telephone phone numbers.
* Optimizing ROI by developing a thoughtful callback strategy.
* Monitoring other sales agents that work from home.

Session 2: How to use Voice Broadcast & Call Tracking for notification & lead gen at 12:00 PM

* Preparing an Excel list of my customer phone numbers.
* Developing an effective recorded message for my voice broadcast campaign.
* Creating Call Tracking campaigns to track marketing efficacy & continued notification.

To Sign up, send an email to sales@callfire.com with DIY Lead Gen Webinar in the subject line

* By Signing up ahead of time, you have the opportunity to ask any questions you want answered during the Webinar in your sign-up email.

*Please include which session(s) you wish to attend.

To attend CLICK HERE at 11AM PST 2/18/2010

Sign up for the CallFire Spark newsletter and learn about Cloud Telephony here.

The Free Do-It-Yourself Lead Generation webinar will be conducted as a 2-part series.

Session 1:  How to use a Virtual Call Center and Predictive Dialer to optimize
my time and contact 1000’s of businesses weekly.
• Preparing an Excel list of my business telephone phone numbers.
• Optimizing ROI by developing a thoughtful callback strategy.
• Monitoring other sales agents that work from home.

Session 2:  How to use Voice Broadcast to communicate with my existing, opt-in, customers.
• Preparing an Excel list of my customer phone numbers.
• Developing an effective recorded message for my voice broadcast campaign.
• Creating follow-up call-campaigns for continued notification.

To sign up for CallFire’s free “DIY Lead Gen” webinar, please submit your contact information here: https://www.callfire.com/dialer/usersignup.do
To learn more about CallFire products and services, please visit: http://www.callfire.com/dialer/cm/info/products_and_services.html
To speak with a CallFire representative, please call 877.897.FIRE.

About CallFire
We provide highly-scalable and affordable Cloud Telephony solutions, including Voice API, Voice Broadcast, Virtual Call Center, Hosted IVR, Call Tracking and VoiceXML services.