Digital Marketing Is Driving Inbound Sales Calls to Businesses

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that digital marketing in the 21^st century is a big deal. In fact, if you’re like most businesses today, then you’re increasing your digital marketing spend to try and dominate your portion of the digital landscape. However, to truly have a winning strategy, you need to also consider how your digital marketing affects offline channels, and one channel in particular is the telephone.

Why do you need to consider what effects your digital marketing strategy will have on your telephone? Here’s why!  According to the 2016 Call Intelligence Index, digital marketing drove 92 percent of sales calls to businesses — an increase of 84 percent over the previous year. Similar studies show that 6 out of 10 people make their purchase offline, especially in industries such as home services, automotive and financial services.

So, if you thought the rise of digital technology would make good old phone calls to businesses obsolete — then think again, because studies prove that digital marketing is actually inspiring more calls to businesses, not fewer. This also begs the question, what are you doing to make the most of these increased inbound sales calls? The answer is telephone on hold messaging.  

According to research from live-chat software vendor Velaro, almost 60% of customers will hang up in less than one minute when waiting on hold in dead-air or canned music. This is known as caller abandonment, and it presents two very big problems that no business can afford.  First, you’ve wasted the dollars you’ve invested in your digital marketing, and to compound the problem, lost calls mean lost sales opportunities and revenues. Alternatively, a Call Center Magazine study shows that callers will stay on the line up to 3.5 minutes longer with on hold messages.

Since we know digital marketing is actually driving more sales calls, here’s a few additional eye-popping statistics on how messages on hold helps to make the most of your inbound sales calls.

–  Sales & Marketing Magazine reports businesses experience a 25% increase in requests for additional products and services mentioned on hold

–  Teleconnect survey shows 38% of callers make a buying decision after hearing an on hold message.

–  U.S. West Communications reports study shows Sales & Marketing Magazine reports businesses experience a 20% increase in requests for additional products and services mentioned on hold.

So, while we know that in the 21^st century digital marketing is a must have, we’ve also discovered that it’s also driving offline connections, and more specifically inbound sales calls. If you want to get the most out of the digital marketing investment, then you also need on hold messaging to complement your digital marketing, otherwise your wasting money because your strategy is incomplete.