How a VoIP Phone System Improves Your Marketing Strategy
A good marketing strategy is the cornerstone of any competitive or growing business. But with new technologies constantly disrupting industries, how can you know what marketing tools will be a good investment for years to come?
VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) phone systems are rising in popularity across the board, from global enterprises to mom and pop shops. In fact, it’s expected that 90% of IT leaders will stop buying on-premise communication tools by the end of 2021.
What makes VoIP such a superior alternative to traditional, analog phone systems? Oh, just a few things like more features, better reliability, increased mobility, monthly savings, and *infomercial voice* a whole lot more!
For marketing teams specifically, VoIP systems make it easier to organize and implement campaigns, analyze your results, and track the performance of your sales team. Yes, these days a quality phone system really can do all that right out of the box.
So without further ado, here are the top ways you can use your VoIP phone to improve your marketing strategy.
Target Different Regions with Separate Phone Numbers
Local numbers are useful for both marketing and sales teams because most people prefer to work with local businesses. In fact, surveys have found that people are a whopping 400% more likely to answer a call from a local number. That’s four times more connections with the people you’re calling, four times the opportunities for sales to make their pitch, and four times the likelihood you’ll hit your quota.
Investing in local numbers is especially useful for small businesses looking to extend their reach nationally or even globally. No matter how small your team actually is, or where you’ve done business so far, adding local presence to your outbound calls puts prospects at ease and assures them that your services extend to their area.
Easily Manage Ad Campaigns
With a VoIP phone system, managing your different ad campaigns becomes as easy as assigning a different phone number to each ad type or region and comparing the results. No need to hire an ad agency. No need to pay someone else to look at your campaign performances and “optimize” them for “efficiency” or whatever other jargon us wacky marketers use all the time.
If you check your call reports and see that the phone number tied to one of your ads is performing much better than the others, you’ll know right away that next month you should take budget from under-performing campaigns and spend it where business is booming.
Alternatively, if you notice that some of your ads just aren’t gaining traction, VoIP allows you to delete the phone numbers you don’t need and cut those costs immediately.
Improve Team Performance With Call Recording and Analytics
One of the biggest (though indirect) advantages VoIP brings to marketing strategies is how much insight you gain into your sales team’s performance.
Setting up call recording on all or some of your extensions is as easy as setting a toggle to “On.” This offers a massive benefit to any company that focuses on customer service and sales, but also for marketers looking to see how qualified new leads are or what pain points they focus on.
How many calls each of your sales reps is taking, their average call lengths, how often they let a call go to voicemail, how often they log out of the queue — all those stats and more are at your fingertips when you have a VoIP phone system. Then, once you’ve assembled the data, you can track your marketing campaigns to see how well they’re performing over time and where your sales team could use additional training to close more deals.
With FluentStream, you can even create custom reports that show only the specific KPIs you’re looking for.
- Need monthly call totals for each of your marketing campaign numbers? Done.
- Need weekly statistics on how fast new leads are being answered? Done.
- Need comprehensive annual reports to see how much of an effect upping your ad spend actually has? You guessed it. Done.
Whatever marketing metrics you track, having a VoIP phone system makes staying on top of it all a breeze.
Stay Connected While On the Go
When you increase ad spend or start new campaigns, you never know when new leads are going to start rolling in. You also never know when you’re going to need to make quick changes to your call routing or how different campaigns are handled on your system.
Well, since VoIP systems aren’t tied to physical phone lines, your whole team can stay ready to call or text with potential customers anytime, anywhere.
VoIP extensions are virtual, meaning they can be assigned to as many devices as you need. Desk phones, home computers, laptops, your smartphone — all of these can be used to make and receive calls as long as you’re connected to the internet. Whether you’re traveling, working from your home office, or even just available after-hours, VoIP makes sure you’re available for customers at all stages of the sales funnel.
Consistently Save Money
This one isn’t necessarily specific to marketing, but the fact remains that switching to VoIP can help most businesses save up to 40% on their communications costs.
This is partially due to all of your services and infrastructure now being hosted in the cloud. No expensive PBX box repairs, no adding additional phone lines, no paying IT every time you have to make a simple update, etc. However, savings also come from the easy scalability inherent to VoIP systems. You can add extra phone numbers or remove them at almost no cost. Adding extensions for new sales reps when you’re busy can be done in minutes and then removed just as quickly if things slow down.
Best of all, with FluentStream you’ll never be locked into a long-term contract, meaning you can grow both your team and marketing efforts as quickly as you want without running into any paywalls.
Have more questions about how a VoIP system improves your marketing strategy? Want to learn more about how FluentStream helps you get more leads and increase revenue? Let us know at sales@fluentstream.com or by calling 303-GO-CLOUD and selecting Option 1.
A good marketing strategy is the cornerstone of any competitive or growing business. But with new technologies constantly disrupting industries, how can you know what marketing tools will be a good investment for years to come?
VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) phone systems are rising in popularity across the board, from global enterprises to mom and pop shops. In fact, it’s expected that 90% of IT leaders will stop buying on-premise communication tools by the end of 2021.
What makes VoIP such a superior alternative to traditional, analog phone systems? Oh, just a few things like more features, better reliability, increased mobility, monthly savings, and *infomercial voice* a whole lot more!
For marketing teams specifically, VoIP systems make it easier to organize and implement campaigns, analyze your results, and track the performance of your sales team. Yes, these days a quality phone system really can do all that right out of the box.
So without further ado, here are the top ways you can use your VoIP phone to improve your marketing strategy.
Target Different Regions with Local Presence Dialing
Local presence dialing is a communications feature that automatically matches your outbound phone number to the area code you dialed. Local numbers are useful for both marketing and sales teams because most people prefer to work with local businesses.
In fact, surveys have found that people are a whopping 400% more likely to answer a call from a local number. That’s four times more connections with the people you’re calling, four times the opportunities for sales to make their pitch, and four times the likelihood you’ll hit your quota.
On top of all that, local presence dialing is especially useful for small businesses looking to extend their reach nationally or even globally. No matter how small your team actually is, or where you’ve done business so far, adding local presence to your outbound calls puts prospects at ease and assures them that your services extend to their area.
If you’d like to know more about local presence dialing, check out our full blog on how it helps your sales team open more opportunities and close more deals.
Easily Manage Ad Campaigns
With a VoIP phone system, managing your different ad campaigns becomes as easy as assigning a different phone number to each ad type or region and comparing the results. No need to hire an ad agency. No need to pay someone else to look at your campaign performances and “optimize” them for “efficiency” or whatever other jargon us wacky marketers use all the time.
If you check your call reports and see that the phone number tied to one of your ads is performing much better than the others, you’ll know right away that next month you should take budget from under-performing campaigns and spend it where business is booming.
Alternatively, if you notice that some of your ads just aren’t gaining traction, VoIP allows you to delete the phone numbers you don’t need and cut those costs immediately.
Improve Team Performance With Call Recording and Analytics
One of the biggest (though indirect) advantages VoIP brings to marketing strategies is how much insight you gain into your sales team’s performance.
Setting up call recording on all or some of your extensions is as easy as setting a toggle to “On.” This offers a massive benefit to any company that focuses on customer service and sales, but also for marketers looking to see how qualified new leads are or what pain points they focus on.
How many calls each of your sales reps is taking, their average call lengths, how often they let a call go to voicemail, how often they log out of the queue — all those stats and more are at your fingertips when you have a VoIP phone system. Then, once you’ve assembled the data, you can track your marketing campaigns to see how well they’re performing over time and where your sales team could use additional training to close more deals.
With FluentStream, you can even create custom reports that show only the specific KPIs you’re looking for.
- Need monthly call totals for each of your marketing campaign numbers? Done.
- Need weekly statistics on how fast new leads are being answered? Done.
- Need comprehensive annual reports to see how much of an effect upping your ad spend actually has? You guessed it. Done.
Whatever marketing metrics you track, having a VoIP phone system makes staying on top of it all a breeze.
Stay Connected While On the Go
When you increase ad spend or start new campaigns, you never know when new leads are going to start rolling in. You also never know when you’re going to need to make quick changes to your call routing or how different campaigns are handled on your system.
Well, since VoIP systems aren’t tied to physical phone lines, your whole team can stay ready to call or text with potential customers anytime, anywhere.
VoIP extensions are virtual, meaning they can be assigned to as many devices as you need. Desk phones, home computers, laptops, your smartphone — all of these can be used to make and receive calls as long as you’re connected to the internet. Whether you’re traveling, working from your home office, or even just available after-hours, VoIP makes sure you’re available for customers at all stages of the sales funnel.
Consistently Save Money
This one isn’t necessarily specific to marketing, but the fact remains that switching to VoIP can help most businesses save up to 40% on their communications costs.
This is partially due to all of your services and infrastructure now being hosted in the cloud. No expensive PBX box repairs, no adding additional phone lines, no paying IT every time you have to make a simple update, etc. However, savings also come from the easy scalability inherent to VoIP systems. You can add extra phone numbers or remove them at almost no cost. Adding extensions for new sales reps when you’re busy can be done in minutes and then removed just as quickly if things slow down.
Best of all, with FluentStream you’ll never be locked into a long-term contract, meaning you can grow both your team and marketing efforts as quickly as you want without running into any paywalls.
Have more questions about how a VoIP system improves your marketing strategy? Want to learn more about how FluentStream helps you get more leads and increase revenue? Let us know at sales@fluentstream.com or by calling 303-GO-CLOUD and selecting Option 1.
Across the country, stay-at-home guidelines are being lifted and slowly, one by one, companies are starting to invite employees back to work. Things may not be back to normal, whatever that word even means anymore, but they’ll certainly be closer to the work environment we’re used to.
Working from home posed numerous new challenges for businesses, but it also provided an opportunity to try out new ways of “working."
Some of these, like taking a work call without wearing pants, are better left for when you are working from home. But there’s no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are plenty of productivity ideas that you’ve been experimenting while at home that can enhance your ability to work when you are back in your office.
1. Write Yourself Daily and Weekly Task Lists
In our 10 Trusty Tips for Working from Home, we discussed how setting agendas ahead of time leads to higher productivity. While your office has probably fewer distractions than your home, writing manageable task lists at the start of every week and every day is a great way to stay focused no matter what curveballs come your way.
It’s called hyperbolic discounting, and it works the same way that making a shopping list beforehand helps keep you from buying unhealthy or unnecessary food. Especially during the excitement of returning to the office, it’s equally important to stay on-task and not over-commit. Having concrete, achievable goals laid out for both your day and week is an easy way to accomplish both.
2. End Your Day by Starting a Fun Project
Whether you’re working from home or back at your desk, starting a new project can be daunting (especially first thing in the morning). If you’re like me, you tend to procrastinate by getting a cup of coffee, chatting with the receptionist, getting a second cup of coffee, checking ESPN, getting a third cup of… you get the idea.
Instead, try to plan out and even start new projects at the end of your day so you can dive right in the next morning. The fewer mental hurdles there are between you and productive work, the less likely you are to stumble over some distraction or another.
Plus, this strategy allows you to look at your projects with a fresh set of eyes before you get too far to change course if needed. Especially when it comes to editing or long-term planning, I find that looking over my afternoon ideas with a morning mindset saves me from a lot of headaches.
3. Schedule Shorter Meetings More Often
As everyone adapted to the disjointed pace of working from home, it became much more difficult to schedule meetings with multiple people.
Kids needed to be attended to. Lunch wasn’t going to make itself and. And naps, well, naps needed to be taken.
By necessity, team or department powwows were boiled down to the truly essential topics and questions.
Instead of going back to the way things used to be – with meetings so long you had to order food in the middle of them just to keep employees invested – continue keeping things short and to the point. If a question doesn’t involve everyone present, save it for a direct message. If you haven’t yet made progress on a project, don’t bother bringing it up. Questions like “How was everyone’s weekend?” may break the ice, but if your team is anything like ours, they always lead to lengthy tangents.
Much like we suggest setting task lists for yourself every day, always set agendas with your meeting invites and then stick to them.
4. Keep Forwarding Your Calls When You’re at the Office
While working remotely, making sure that your calls were being forwarded to your cell phone was a necessity. Now that you’re back in the office with your beloved desk phone, is it still?
Yes!
No matter how much of the day you spend at your desk, there are still opportunities for you to miss important calls. Maybe you got bamboozled into a string of meetings. Maybe you went out for lunch with a few coworkers you haven’t seen for a while. Maybe you just decided to stretch your legs and take a lap around the office. Whatever the case, having your extension forwarded to your cell phone makes sure you never miss a thing – just like it did at home.
5. Don’t be Afraid to Set Work Time Boundaries
At home, surrounded by partners, kids, and pets all clamoring for our attention, many of us were forced to set “Do Not Disturb” hours. These peaceful, critical time blocks allowed us to buckle down and focus on projects without fear of interruption.
Don’t be afraid to do the same at your office. Coworkers constantly stopping by your desk to chat or ask questions can derail your train of thought just as quickly as a hungry toddler.
For example, I block off the start and end of every week for the administrative tasks I tend to forget. On Monday morning, it helps me set priorities for the week. On Friday afternoons, it’s the time I take to send follow up/reminder emails and be sure we’re making good progress on long-term projects.
6. Work Out Before Work
Stuck at home for months, morning workouts became mandatory if you wanted to combat the lethargy and snack intake of quarantine. They also helped wake up your brain and start every day with a win.
Waking up early to work out before your morning commute may not sound like the most enjoyable thing in the world, but it will allow you to carry the benefits back into your normal work life. I can tell you from personal experience that I’ve only been drinking about half as much coffee since I started doing yoga instead of hitting snooze until right before my morning meeting.
7. Maintain Your New and Improved Work-Life Balance
I just have a grumpy cat to take care of during these uncertain times, so I turned to our very own Marketing Director Eli Gurock to explain how the extended period of working from home has affected his scheduling.
“My wife and I plan meals and child care responsibilities for the week on Sunday evenings. When we were both working from home, we talked about who had early morning or late afternoon meetings and calls so the other knew when they’d need to put their Primary Parent hat on.
Now that we’re back in the office, those Sunday planning sessions are just as helpful to talk about daycare pick up duties and deadlines for when we each need to be home.”
One of the most important lessons to take from this pandemic is that sometimes it’s okay to plan more around your family and less around your office. Keep doing what’s best for you and you’ll notice how much more productive you are at work without the added stresses you left behind.
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