the definitive guide to voice-based marketing automation
Post on 14-Sep-2014
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DESCRIPTION
Are Phone Calls an Important Part of Your Business? Few companies could survive without the phone. They generate leads and close business over the phone. They grow accounts and support customers over the phone. It’s the backbone of their entire organization. Voice-based marketing automation is the technology that enables businesses to manage, measure, and automate sales and support calls. Marketers, salespeople, and support professionals use it to generate and track leads, close business faster, and provide better customer service. This guide is designed to introduce you to voice- based marketing automation. It will explain what voice-based marketing automation is and how businesses are using it to generate revenue, improve efficiency, and cut costs. It provides tips for selecting the right system and answers questions such as: • Why is voice-based marketing automation becoming so popular? • How is it different from traditional marketing automation? • What features make up a voice-based marketing automation system? • What value do businesses get from using voice- based marketing automation? Hopefully this guide will help you decide if voice- based marketing automation is a good fit for your business.TRANSCRIPT
The DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO
VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 286-7684 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Table of Contents
Copyright © Ifbyphone, Inc.
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-0-615-79676-5
3 Introduction
4 Section 1: What Is Voice-Based Marketing Automation?
11 Industry Spotlight: Marketing Agencies
12 Section 2: Trends Driving Voice-Based Marketing Automation
15 Media Spotlight: Mobile Marketing
16 Section 3: How Is Voice-Based Marketing Automation Different From…
20 Section 4: Voice-Based Marketing Automation Features
41 Success Story: Sotheby’s
42 Success Story: Go Configure7
43 Section 5: Business Case for Voice-Based Marketing Automation
52 Success Story: FundNET Systems
53 Success Story: Pel Hughes
54 Conclusion
Voice-based marketing automation is the
technology that enables businesses to manage,
measure, and automate sales and support
calls. Marketers, salespeople, and support
professionals use it to generate and track
leads, close business faster, and provide better
customer service.
This guide is designed to introduce you to voice-
based marketing automation. It will explain what
voice-based marketing automation is and how
businesses are using it to generate revenue, improve
efficiency, and cut costs. It provides tips for selecting
the right system and answers questions such as:
• Whyisvoice-basedmarketingautomationbecoming so popular?
• Howisitdifferentfromtraditionalmarketingautomation?
• Whatfeaturesmakeupavoice-basedmarketingautomation system?
• Whatvaluedobusinessesgetfromusingvoice-based marketing automation?
Hopefullythisguidewillhelpyoudecideifvoice-
based marketing automation is a good fit for your
business.
Are Phone Calls an Important Part of Your Business?
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
3INTRODUCTION
Few companies could survive without the phone. They generate leads and close business over the phone. They grow accounts and support customers over the phone. It’s the backbone of their entire organization.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
SECTION 1”:
WHAT IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION?
To start, ask yourself a few questions.
If you work in marketing, do you spend money
on advertising to generate sales leads? Could be any
type of ad: TV, radio, print, billboard, Google search,
mobile, social media…even sky writing.
If yes, is it valuable for you to know which ads drive
calls to sales and which don’t? Would it be helpful to
reinvest only in strategies that work?
And what about being able to tell which ads
generated calls that turned into revenue?
Would you benefit from being able to prove to execs
or clients how your marketing is impacting their
earnings?
Now if you work in sales, do you or your reps
spend time fielding calls from leads that aren’t
interested in buying?
Would your team be more effective if these calls were
screened out so that only sales-ready leads were
passed to reps?
And would your team benefit if you could route calls
to the right rep, no matter where they were?
What about lead response time? Would being able to
get hot web leads on the phone in seconds instead
of days make it easier to close business?
Could you increase sales if you had a system that
called customers automatically to process reorders
and confirm appointments?
If you work in support, would your company
benefit from a call center that didn’t require
expensive hardware to run or programmers to
update?
Would you be more efficient if your support staff
could answer calls on any device from anywhere,
even at home?
Would your service levels improve if you had a
system that could ask callers questions and provide
answers before sending them to an agent?
Would being able to record support calls help you
train agents to provide better service?
Would your customers appreciate receiving a brief
phone survey to rate the service they received from
your support team?
Some Basic Questions 5WHAT IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION?
If you’re unsure if voice-based marketing automation can help your business, let’s find out.
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, voice-based marketing automation may be for you.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
What: Voice-based marketing automation is a type of cloud-based software.
How: It enables businesses to manage, measure, and automate sales and support calls.
Why: So marketers, salespeople, and support professionals can generate and track leads, close business faster, and provide better customer service.
Who: Voice-based marketing automation is used by companies of all sizes, from local businesses with less than 5 workers to Fortune 500 enterprises with large marketing, sales, and support teams. Early adopters were B2C organizations and marketing agencies, but today you will find businesses across all industries taking advantage of the technology.
Voice-Based Marketing Automation Defined 6WHAT IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION?
Learn the what, how, why, and who of voice-based marketing automation.
Voice-based marketing automation facilitates and automates many activities, including:
•Lead generation•Call tracking & reporting•Call scoring & filtering•Lead nurturing•Call routing & recording•Phone surveys•Voice broadcasts
Without voice-based marketing automation, these activities are either impossible to do manually or require a significant investment in time and employee resources.
If sales calls with prospects and voice conversations with customers are important to your business, you may benefit from voice-based marketing automation.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Lead Generation
• Voicebroadcasting
• HostedIVR
• SMSmessaging
• Webformcalling
Lead Tracking
• Calltracking
• Dynamicnumberinsertion
API Integration
• CRMintegration
•MarketingAutomationintegration
Lead Nurturing
• Phonesurveys
• Voicebroadcasting
• SMSmessaging
Call Scoring
• InboundIVR
Analytics
• Calltrackingreports
• GoogleAdWords,GoogleAnalytics,&UniversalAnalyticsintegration
• Callrecordingandtranscription
Virtual Call Center
• Virtualreceptionist
• Intelligentcallrouting
• Storelocator
• Agentpanel
• Managerdashboards
• Callrecordingandtranscription
Upselling & Cross-Selling
• Voicebroadcasting
• OutboundIVR
• SMSmessaging
• Over-the-phonepaymentprocessing
CRM Integration
• Salesforce.comintegration
• APIIntegration
Virtual Call Center
• Virtualreceptionist
• Intelligentcallrouting
• Callforwarding
• Agentpanel
• Managerdashboards
• Phonesurveys
• Voicebroadcasts
Analytics
• Calltrackingreports
• CRMintegration
• Callrecordingandtranscription
Help Desk Integration
• Zendeskintegration
• APIintegration
Voice-Based Marketing Automation Features7WHAT IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION?
One platform to better connect and align marketing, sales, and support.
FEATURES FOR MARKETERS FEATURES FOR SALES FEATURES FOR SUPPORT
Pass qualified phone leads to
sales
Monitor how leads progress through sales
funnel
Better retain customers
with first-rate support
Share customer interaction
data to improve upselling and cross-selling
Connect and align marketing programs, sales efforts, and customer support services with shared call data and call automation functionality.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Prove (and Improve) Marketing ROI with Call Tracking
Using voice-based marketing automation, you can
track inbound calls back to their marketing source.
You can attribute phone leads (and the pipeline and
revenue they generate) to specific ads, campaigns,
keyword searches, referring web sites, or any
other marketing source. This means you can prove
conclusively to your execs or clients exactly how you
are impacting the business. Plus you can use call
tracking data to pinpoint which activities are working
– and which aren’t – and make improvements.
Generate More Phone Leads (and Revenue)
By reinvesting only in marketing that generates leads
and revenue, you can grow your business without
increasing your spend. It’s a great benefit of call
tracking. Plus voice-based marketing automation
also provides tools like automated phone surveys,
voice broadcasts, SMS texts, and web form call
triggering to drive additional leads.
Increase Efficiency by Filtering Sales and Support Calls
Voice-based marketing automation makes it easy to
filter sales and support calls automatically using an
IVR. For sales, IVRs can qualify callers upfront and
determine if they are truly ready to engage with a
rep. Now reps don’t have to waste time answering
calls that aren’t sales-ready. Instead they’re free to
focus on closing business. For support, it means that
customers have access to an auto-attendant 24/7
that can answer basic questions and enable self-
service. Your business saves on personnel costs,
and callers with complex issues won’t have to wait
as long for a live agent.
What Voice-Based Marketing Automation Does for You8WHAT IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION?
How does voice-based marketing automation enable businesses to generate more leads and revenue, cut costs, and improve operational efficiencies? Here are some of the ways.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Cut Costs with a Virtual Call Center
Voice-based marketing automation makes it easy
for businesses to cost-effectively deploy a virtual
call center for sales and support teams. There’s
no hardware to buy, no software to install, and no
implementation or maintenance team to hire. It’s
extremely flexible, so your agents can work from
home or an office location while still operating
seamlessly as one team. It’s also scalable, so you
can easily accommodate extra agents during peak
seasons. Plus you can even extend your hours of
availability without paying overtime by employing
agents in multiple time zones.
Improve Customer Loyalty with Voice Broadcasts
The best customer service isn’t just reactive; it
reaches out to customers proactively. Voice-based
marketing automation enables you to deliver
automated phone messages (voice broadcasts)
to confirm appointments or deliveries, process
payments, conduct satisfaction surveys, and more.
It’s also an effective way to relay vital information,
such as changes to a customer’s account or travel
itinerary. These services keep people up to date and
make their lives easier, and that builds loyalty.
Connect and Align Marketing, Sales, and Support
You can see how voice-based marketing automation
helps marketing, sales, and support individually. But
by integrating with your CRM, help desk, and other
systems, it also connects all three groups together
and helps keep them aligned. Marketing can pass
lead source data to sales when they get an inbound
call, sales can pass lead lifecycle data back to
marketing to optimize programs, support can access
complete customers histories (including answers to
phone surveys) and sales call recordings to improve
service. All groups not only work better, but they
work better together.
What Voice-Based Marketing Automation Does for You9WHAT IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION?
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Is Voice-Based Marketing Automation Right for You?10WHAT IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION?
Take this brief survey to see if you’re ready to benefit from voice-based marketing automation.
STATEMENT Strongly Disagree Neutral Strongly Agree
My company uses the phone to close business and provide customer support.
An important percentage of our customers required a phone conversation before purchasing.
My company allocates an important percentage of our marketing budget to advertising.
Our marketing team spends a significant amount of time on driving traffic to our web site using email, social media, and content marketing.
Not every call that comes in is ready to make a purchase from sales. Some require nurturing.
Our marketing team uses data to make decisions on programs.
It would be difficult for our staff to call every lead and customer in our database in a timely fashion.
It’s important that we understand how our advertising is impacting sales.
Our call center would benefit from having some agents work from home.
Sometimes hot leads call in but can’t reach a sales manager because they are travelling.
Our sales team assigns leads based on the caller’s geographic location, company type, or product interest.
Our marketing team has lead generation and revenue goals they must hit.
If your total score adds up to mosre than 42, you’re so ready for voice-based marketing automation!
If you scored between 25 and 42, you’re definitely in the neighborhood. You would benefit from learning more about voice-based marketing automation.
If you scored less than 25, you might not be ready at this time. But perhaps as you read on it may change your mind!
Total:
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
How Does Your Agency Drive Leads?
Marketing agencies use a wide range of tactics to
drive leads for clients. TV, radio, PPC, SEO, direct
mail, social media, mobile, print, email…you name it.
And it’s critical that you can show your clients your
true worth. That means being able to track every
single lead you generate back to your marketing
efforts. It’s easy with web leads, but what about
phone leads? Can you get credit for every inbound
call you generate? Can you tell which Google paid
search or SEO terms are driving leads?
Get Credit (and Get Paid) for Every Lead
That’s why agencies are adding voice-based
marketing automation to their services. With voice-
based marketing automation, you can track every
inbound call you generate back to your specific
marketing source – and through to revenue. No
longer can clients claim that a phone lead “wasn’t
one of yours” – you have concrete proof. So you can
get credit (and get paid) for every lead you generate,
not matter how you generated it. Many agencies
even sell call tracking as part of their offering to
generate extra revenue. It’s a win-win.
More than Call Tracking
And agencies are finding value in voice-based
marketing automation beyond the benefits of call
tracking. Many are using voice-based marketing
automation to do things like:
• Deliverinteractivevoicebroadcastsforclientstogenerate leads and drive revenue.
• Captureleadsbyincentivizingthemtocallyouand take a custom IVR phone survey.
• QualifycallersautomaticallyusinganIVR,thenroute only the high-scoring ones to your clients.
• Useintelligentcallroutingtosendcallersfromyour campaigns to the right sales agent, or to the right store location, or to a custom voicemail box
to hear a message and leave one of their own.
To learn more about how marketing agencies are
using voice-based marketing automation, you can
visit the Ifbyphone web site and download the white
paper “Manage and Track Phone Leads with
Voice-Based Marketing Automation for Direct
Marketers”.
MARKETING AGENCIES11
INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT:
Voice-based marketing automation helps marketing agencies prove their value to clients.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
SECTION 2”:
TRENDS DRIVING VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Trend #1: Marketers Now Focus on Growing Revenue
Gone are the days when marketing could focus
solely on building brand equity. Today’s CEOs
aren’t concerned with building brand; they
care about revenue. They want marketers to
demonstrate how campaigns will help generate
business, not brand awareness. Marketers must
now go beyond metrics that simply show opens
and clicks by measuring leads, opportunities,
pipeline, and earnings. To do so, they must be
able to accurately measure the full business
impact of their campaigns – and that includes
inbound phone leads. Tools like voice-based
marketing automation now play an important
role in measuring marketing ROI.
Trend #2: The Importance of Phone Leads
Not all leads are created equal. While white
paper downloads and webinar registrations
are excellent vehicles for generating leads,
those prospects are often just beginning their
research. Inbound phone leads are different.
Someone who calls you is usually further
along the buying process. They have specific
questions they need answered in order to make
their decision and need to engage with a sales
rep (and usually won’t purchase without that
conversation). The high value of phone leads
makes technology for generating and tracking
them very attractive.
Why Has Voice-Based Marketing Automation Become Popular?13TRENDS DRIVING VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION
A number of trends have made voice-based marketing automation an attractive solution for businesses.
Why Are Phone Calls so Important in Sales?
77% of online adults say they would be interested in getting help from a real person before making certain online purchases.
82% say there have been times when they have not been able to get help from a real person.
58% have a question that cannot be answered by information on the web site.
52% of those who have not always been able to get the help they needed from a real person say it has affected their decision to not purchase the product.
Source: IMShopping and Harris Interactive Survey, August 2009
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Trend #3: The Popularity of Smartphones
There were over a billion smartphone users in
2012, and that number is expected to double
in the next three years. In the U.S. alone over
135 million people have smartphones, and
that figure is expected to grow 40% to reach
192 million by 2016. The rising popularity of
smartphones has changed the way businesses
market and advertise. Because smartphone
users would rather call a business than fill
out a web form, mobile marketing strategies
are focusing on how to generate, track, and
manage inbound calls. Voice-based marketing
automation has technology that is perfectly
suited to assist.
Trend #4: The Benefits of Moving Software to the Cloud
The software as a service (SaaS) or cloud
delivery model has changed the way businesses
purchase software. It is very easy for marketing
departments to purchase cloud-based software
like voice-based marketing automation and
get it up and running. First, it doesn’t require
IT support to deploy and maintain. Second,
because SaaS software is licensed as a
subscription with no hardware to purchase, it is
not a capital investment. Marketing departments
can therefore charge it to their discretionary
operating budget, like they would a tradeshow
or print ad. By making voice-based marketing
automation both easily available and affordable
to marketers, the SaaS model eliminated the
largest impediments to adoption.
Why Has Voice-Based Marketing Automation Become Popular?14TRENDS DRIVING VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION
A number of trends have made voice-based marketing automation an attractive solution for businesses.
Projected U.S. Smartphone Adoption• 2010: 62.2 million users (20.2% of population)• 2011: 93.1 million users (29.7%)• 2012: 115.8 million users (36.6%)• 2013: 137.5 million users (43.1%)• 2014: 157.7 million users (48.9%)• 2015: 176.3 million users (54.2%)• 2016: 192.4 million users (58.5%)
Source: eMarketer report, May 2012
2012 U.S. Smartphone Penetration by Age
• 18-23 years old: 64% have a smartphone• 24-32 years old: 72% have a smartphone• 33-46 years old: 61% have a smartphone• 47-56 years old: 39% have a smartphone• 57-67 years old: 28% have a smartphone• 68-88 years old: 16% have a smartphone
Source: Forrester report, May 2012
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Why You Should Consider Mobile Marketing
These days, it seems like everyone
has a smartphone. People spend a
significant amount of time each day
on their mobile devices, and that
includes time searching for and calling
businesses. If you aren’t making it easy
for them to find and call you – and if
you aren’t advertising your business on
mobile – you are missing a potentially
lucrative marketing opportunity.
How Mobile Differs from Other Marketing
If you decide to build a mobile
marketing strategy, keep this in
mind: When people are searching for
businesses on their smartphones,
they often prefer to call the company
rather than fill out a web form. It’s
easier and more natural. And it’s also
great news for marketers – inbound
calls are usually more valuable to sales
managers than web downloads. So
as you devise your mobile marketing
strategy, be sure to focus on driving
phone leads.
Some Tips for Driving Phone Leads from Mobile Marketing
• Haveamobile-friendlyversionofyour web site with a clickable phone number(amobileclick-to-calllink) prominently displayed. When clicked, it will automatically trigger a call to your business from that smartphone.
• TestoutdifferentGooglemobilepaid search ads. Include a clickable phone number for people to call your business straight from the ad. Be sure the mobile landing page for each ad also displays a clickable number prominently.
• Testoutafewbanneradswithacall to action of “Tap to Call”. You can run these with display networks targeting mobile sites and mobile apps.
• Besureallyouremailsaremobile-friendly. Chances are a good percentage of your audience is reading your email on their smartphones. Include a clickable phone number prominently in each one.
Some Ways Voice-Based Marketing Automation Can Help
• InserttrackablephonenumbersinyourGooglemobilepaidsearchads.Whether a lead calls you from the ad or from your landing page, you can track the call back to the originating ad source.
• Determinewhichmobilebannerads are either generating immediate phone calls (if the call to action is “Tap to Call”) or driving visitors to your mobile site who ultimately call you.
• DeliverSMStextmessageblaststo smartphone users. Include a clickable (and trackable) phone number in the messages to drive inbound calls.
• SendcallerstoanIVRtobeinitiallyqualified before going to sales. Or send them to a store locator to be routed automatically to the nearest store location.
• Recordsalescallstorefineyourmarketing messages by hearing how prospects describe their pains and needs.
MOBILE MARKETING15
MEDIA SPOTLIGHT:
Voice-based marketing automation helps business get the most value from their mobile marketing.
To learn more about how voice-based marketing automation improves mobile marketing, you can visit the Ifbyphone web site and download the white paper
“Marketing to Smartphone Users:
New Mobile Strategies for Driving
Sales Calls”.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
SECTION 3”:
HOW IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION DIFFERENT FROM”...
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Traditional Marketing Automation 17HOW IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION DIFFERENT FROM…
How does voice-based marketing automation differ from traditional marketing automation tools? If you already have a marketing automation tool, why would you need a voice-based marketing automation solution?
Activity Traditional Marketing Automation
Voice-Based Marketing Automation
Lead Generation Uses emails and web forms to generate web leads Uses voice broadcasts, phone surveys, and SMS
texts to generate phone leads
Lead Tracking Tracks email success, web downloads, and web site activity
Tracks voice broadcast success and inbound phone leads
Lead Scoring Uses web forms to score web leads Uses inbound IVR to score phone leads
Priority Lead Alerts Sends sales an email when high-scoring web leads come in
Calls the right sales rep immediately when high-scoring web leads come in and then calls the lead to connect the two in conversation
Lead Routing Routes web leads to sales Routes phone leads to sales
Lead Nurturing Uses emails to nurture leads Uses voice broadcasts, phone surveys, and SMS texts to nurture leads
Lead Reporting Generates real-time reports on web leads Generates real-time reports on phone leads
CRM Integration Shares data with CRM tools like Salesforce.com Shares data with CRM tools like Salesforce.com
Marketingorganizationstodayaregainingtremendous
value from traditional marketing automation. When
implemented and used correctly, these tools like Marketo,
Eloqua, and HubSpot enable marketing teams to:
• Handoffmorequalifiedleadstosalesrepsatalowercost
• Betterunderstandwhichcampaignsareworking,soyoucanoptimizespending
• Getcreditfortheimpactyourcampaignshaveonpipeline
But while traditional marketing automation tools can
track leads from web forms, they simply don’t work if
a lead picks up the phone and calls you. Your web site,
emails, and advertisements could be driving high-quality
sales calls, but how would you know? These phone
leads won’t show up in traditional marketing automation
reports.
That’s where voice-based marketing automation
comes in. Using voice-based marketing automation to
complement your traditional marketing automation tool,
you can create closed-loop marketing where every lead
is captured, responded to properly, scored, nurtured, and
tracked through the sales process. You get a complete
understanding of which campaigns are working and how
they are impacting pipeline and revenue.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Ad Hoc Call Tracking Tools 18HOW IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION DIFFERENT FROM…
Some vendors only offer call tracking capability. How is that different than voice-based marketing automation?
Activity Call Tracking Only Voice-Based Marketing AutomationBasic Call Tracking Get unique phone numbers for use in your
adsGet unique phone numbers for use in your ads
Advanced Call Tracking -- Dynamically generate phone numbers to track calls back to SEO keywords, Google paid search ads, social media, and other sites
Phone Lead Reporting Generate basic reports on call quantity for each unique number
Generate basic reports plus advanced reports on call quality, which cities callers called from, which call sources are driving revenue, and much more
Lead Generation -- Generate phone leads with voice broadcasts, phone surveys, and SMS texts
Lead Scoring -- Automatically qualify and filter callers so only sales-ready leads get sent to sales
Lead Routing -- Route sales-ready callers to the best rep no matter where they are
Appointment and Delivery Confirmation
-- Cut costs and improve customer service by using voice broadcasts to confirm appointments and deliveries
Reorder Notification and Processing
-- Send phone messages that prompt customers to order more products and process payment over the phone
Store Locator -- Route calls to the nearest store location
Phone Surveys -- Automatically deliver phone surveys to measure customer feedback on your marketing and customer service
Call Recording -- Gather invaluable marketing data and improve customer service by recording your sales and support calls
Some vendors only offer ad hoc call tracking capabilities without all the other abilities you get with voice-based marketing automation. And while call tracking is an important part of voice-based marketing automation, using it in a silo robs you of the value of integrating it with the other lead generation, scoring, routing, and nurturing tools.
Voice-based marketing automation delivers all the benefits of call tracking along with integrated capabilities that you would otherwise have to cobble together using different standalone technologies. This can be a problem for marketing teams trying to reduce complexity and streamline operations.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
On-Premise IVR and Call Centers19HOW IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION DIFFERENT FROM…
Some IVR and call center solutions are on-premise, which means they require hardware to be installed at your office. How does that differ from the hosted IVR and virtual call center options in voice-based marketing automation?
Activity On-Premise Solutions Voice-Based Marketing AutomationHardware Installed at your office No special hardware to install
Cost to Deploy Expensive Inexpensive – pay for what you useTime to Deploy Weeks or months HoursDifficulty of Updating Very – requires programmers None – updates are installed automaticallyFlexibility Improvements can take weeks and
require extensive codingImprovements can be made on the fly by anyone
Supports Work-from-Home Agents
No Yes
Works with Any Phone No Yes, including landlines, mobile, softphones, and even Skype
Traditionally, IVR (interactive voice response) and call center solutions were all hosted on-premise. A business would have to purchase the equipment, deploy it at their own office, and maintain it throughout its lifecycle. That normally meant high setup, maintenance, and hardware costs, as well as lengthy deployment and update times. You would need to hire programmers skilled in IVR development and maintenance to keep things running and make improvements.
Voice-based marketing automation changed all that. Because it is a cloud-based solution, you don’t need to purchase and install expensive hardware. In fact, you don’t need any programmer assistance at all. Your IVR and call center can be up and running in minutes, and changes can be made on the fly by marketing, sales, and support personnel without any technical background.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
SECTION 4:
VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Features Overview21VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Voice-based marketing automation provides a wide range of functionality, including call tracking and reporting, hosted IVR, voice broadcasting, advanced call routing, virtual call centers, custom call forwarding, agent panels and manager dashboards, web form call triggering, SMS messaging, Salesforce.com and CRM integration, Zendesk and help desk integration, API integration, analytics, and more.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Whether you do marketing for your company or
generate leads for clients, you know how important
it is to track every lead back to its source. Not just to
understand what’s working, but also to get credit for
every lead you generate. Most marketers can do this
for web leads, but struggle when it comes to tracking
the source of inbound sales calls. And phone calls
are often the most valuable lead type.
Using voice-based marketing automation, you can
create closed-loop marketing where every phone
lead is captured and tracked back to its source:
your work. You no longer have to guess which
campaigns are really driving sales calls – and you
no longer have to bicker with sales or with clients
about which phone leads you brought in. Instead,
you get a complete, detailed understanding of which
campaigns are generating phone leads and how
those leads are impacting pipeline and revenue.
Track Calls from TV, Radio, Mobile, Billboards, Print, Direct Mail, and Other Advertising
Voice-based marketing automation makes it easy to
attribute phone leads (and the pipeline and revenue
they generate) to specific marketing ads. Here’s
how it works: the solution lets you insert unique
trackable phone numbers (local, toll-free, or vanity)
in your marketing material. When someone calls that
number, the solution knows exactly what source
they’re calling from. What’s more, if instead of calling
you right away, the lead first visits your site and and
then calls you after browsing around, the solution will
attribute that call to the source that originally sent
them there. You will still get credit for the lead.
Call Tracking and Reporting22VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Track inbound calls back to their specific marketing source to prove and improve marketing ROI.
“Call tracking is the critical next evolution of measurement. It gives businesses a better understanding of the overall attribution model, enabling marketers to truly understand where leads originate and budget accordingly.”
- Brad Henry, Beacon Technologies
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Call Tracking and Reporting23VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Track Calls from SEO, PPC ads, Social Media, and Referring Web Sites
Voice-based marketing automation can also track phone leads back to
specific keyword searches, pay-per-click ads, social media sites, or referring
web domains. It will automatically display a unique phone number on your
site based on where each visitor came from. If a visitor calls the number,
voice-based marketing automation will attribute the call to the proper source.
Imagine being able to understand what Google paid search ads generated
the most phone leads and revenue, for example. It’s easy with voice-based
marketing automation.
To learn more about the benefits of call tracking, visit the Ifbyphone web site
and download the white paper “Tracking Phone Leads: The Missing Piece
of Marketing Automation”.
Inbound phone calls are considered by many marketers to be the most valuable lead type (data taken from 2013 Ifbyphone survey)
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Hosted IVR24VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Build your own IVRs in minutes to route calls, qualify callers, process payments, and survey customers – no programmers needed.
IVR stands for interactive voice response. It’s an automated phone menu
that recognizes human interaction, either by telephone keypad or by
speech recognition. Voice-based marketing automation enables marketers,
salespeople, and support professionals to build and modify their own IVRs in
minutes without having to hire a programmer.
Use an Inbound IVR as Your Auto-Attendant
Build your own IVR to answer incoming calls with professionally recorded
greetings and route callers using interactive phone menus. Auto-attendants
can replace live receptionists, helping your business cut costs and increase
efficiency by automating routine business functions, like providing account
balances or relaying business hours. Auto-attendants are also available 24/7,
giving your customer around-the-clock service. You can make changes to
your auto-attendant anytime in minutes without any technical expertise.
Process Orders and Payments without a Live Operator
PCI-compliant IVRs can also be used to automate order processing and
payments securely without a live operator. For inbound callers, the IVR can
answer the call, collect caller information, process the purchase or payment
via credit card, and provide customers with additional order information. And
if you sell products that require reordering, automating the reminder process
with an outbound IVR can be a real cost-saver. The IVR automates an
otherwise manual process, taking the customer’s order and inputting it directly
into your CRM. If the call goes to voicemail, the IVR can leave a customized
message or put the number back in the queue to call later.
IVR
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Automatically Qualify Phone Leads before Passing to Sales
Depending on the nature of your marketing
campaigns, not every inbound call you generate will
be ready to engage with a sales rep. Many might
not be. And you don’t want to waste a sales rep’s
time by having them field incoming calls from leads
that aren’t sales-ready. Voice-based marketing
automation makes it easy to filter your inbound calls
automatically using an IVR. The IVR can answer calls
and ask callers the questions you determine work
best to qualify them. Leads that score high enough
are passed from the IVR directly to sales for an
immediate conversation. Others can hear a custom
marketing message, be given the option of leaving a
voicemail for sales, or even be sent to a second IVR.
Transfer Callers to the Closest Store Location
Does your business have multiple locations
or franchises? Using voice-based marketing
automation, you can advertise one phone number for
your franchise and route calls to the nearest location
based on area code or zip code.
Conduct Phone Surveys for Lead Generation and Customer Service
For marketers, phone surveys are an excellent
way to capture leads. You can create campaigns
that drive people to take your phone survey for the
chance to win a prize. You can also configure the
survey to function as an ROI calculator or conduct a
needs analysis, The survey will capture their contact
information and give them the option of being
transferred to a sales rep.
For support professionals, phone surveys are an
invaluable tool for measuring support effectiveness.
Customers can be sent to a quick survey after
speaking to a support agent, or you can have the IVR
call them to take a survey right away or several days
later.
To learn more about how marketers are using IVR,
you can visit the Ifbyphone web site and download
the white paper “IVR for B2B Marketing: New
Strategies for Lead Generation, Scoring, and
Nurturing”.IVR
Hosted IVR25VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
“I am really so blown away by the response we got on the IVR today. This blows email marketing right out of the water, results wise. My head is spinning with different ways to test this technology for other clients. I’m truly amazed.”
-Tresa N. Veitia, inktank LLC
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Voice Broadcasting26VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Generate leads, grow revenue, and improve customer service cost-effectively with personalized, interactive voice broadcasts.
Voice broadcasts are a way to deliver prerecorded
phone messages or IVRs to thousands of people
at once. They can be a powerful business tool to
automate phone calls for appointment reminders,
delivery confirmations, event promotions, reorders,
accounts receivable collection, phone surveys, and
much more.
Many businesses today use voice broadcasting as
an effective alternative to email. People may receive
a hundred or more emails in a day, and having your
message stand out can be difficult. Voice broadcasts
cut through the email clutter by calling your audience
directly.
Voice-based marketing automation makes it easy
for marketing, sales, and support to send out their
ownpersonalized,interactivevoicebroadcasts.You
simply use the cloud-based software to create your
message or IVR, upload a spreadsheet with the phone
numbers you wish to target, and let the system to do
the rest. It also brings together a wealth of features to
make voice broadcasting easier and more effective,
including:
• Message personalization with text-to-speech: Personalizeyourvoicebroadcastsforeachrecipient by having the text-to-speech feature insert their name, company, account balance, or any other information you want into their message.
• Interaction with IVR: Use outbound IVR to add interactive functionality to your calls to collect information or tailor specific messages based on responses.
• Complete scheduling control: Get complete control over when to schedule broadcasts, how quickly to send out messages, and when to pause your voice broadcast campaigns.
• Live transfers: Give voice broadcast recipients the option to be transferred directly to a live agent to confirm or update an appointment, place an order, or any other activity.
• Voicemail detection:Customizeyourbroadcastswith two messages: one for when a live person answers the phone, and an alternative for when the call goes to voicemail.
• Credit card processing: Process credit card payments over the phone without the need of a live agent.
• Real-time reporting: Why wait to receive reports from an account manager? Access real-time broadcast reports on your voice broadcast campaigns online whenever you want.
• API integration: Integrate voice broadcasting with your company’s software to trigger phone calls based on events in your database or to collect information and pass it back to your CRM system.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
There is a wealth of ways businesses use voice
broadcasting to cost-effectively generate leads, grow
revenue, and improve customer service:
• Lead generation: Deliver your messaging straight to leads and enable them to register for an event, schedule a meeting with your business, connect directly with a live agent right away., and much more.
• Upselling and cross-selling: Grow revenue from your accounts by delivering upselling and cross-selling messages.
• Promotions and discounts: Keep your contact base aware of your latest promotions and sales.
• Reminders and confirmations: Remind customers and patients of upcoming appointments, confirm or reschedule important deliveries before you send out your crew, and much more.
• Reorders and collections: Proactively solicit and process customer reorders or due payments without the need of a live agent.
• Alerts: Ensure customers are always aware of important changes to their accounts and itineraries or advise employees or community members of big news or emergency warnings. Businesses also use alerts internally to notify employees at home or in the field of important information.
• Fundraising: Deliver your political, charity, or other fundraising messages to a large audience and process donations over the phone.
• Recalls: Keep customers in the loop on important product recalls.
• Phone surveys: Gather valuable data on your customer base or measure their satisfaction with
your products, services, or support.
To learn more about the benefits of voice
broadcasting, you can visit the Ifbyphone web
site and download the white paper “New Ways to
Integrate Intelligent Voice Broadcasting into Your
Marketing and Sales Strategy”.
Voice Broadcasting27VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
“We have been able to reach out to customers quickly and efficiently by using Ifbyphone. This improved customer responsiveness has lead to increased business and marketing ROI.”
- Kevin P. Fitzgerald, iContact.com
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Advanced Call Routing 28VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Automatically route calls to the right person at the right time no matter where they are based on your business needs.
Voice-based marketing automation has advanced call
routing technology that enables your business to route
callsbasedonyourowncustomizablerules.Rules
can be easily set up and updated on the fly as needed.
Some call routing options include:
• Route by schedule: Create custom routing basedonyourofficehours,thetimezonesofyourcustomers, weekends, holidays, and more.
• Route by agent: Want your best agents to receive the highest call volume? Ensure that your best performing sales reps or customer service reps receive the most calls by routing a certain percentage to specific agents.
• Route by geography: If your business has multiple locations in various geographical regions, set up incoming phone calls to be routed to the nearest location.Bydetectingtheareacodeorzipcodeof the caller, the call can be routed to the closest location.
• Route between multiple call centers: Set up multiple call centers and route call flow based on caller information, distribution schedules, and location.
• Route by number: Screen incoming calls and set up custom routing and queuing rules for specific phone numbers.
• Route by marketing source: Because voice-based marketing automation can tell which ad, marketing campaign, or other source a person is calling from, you can set up rules to route those calls to the best place based on that source. That place may be a particular agent, store location, IVR, voicemail box, call group, or other option you feel works best.
• Route based on IVR responses: Have callers answer qualifying questions and route them based on those responses.
Reach Agents Anywhere on Any Phone
Minimizetheriskofimportantcallsgoingunanswered
by implementing conditional and selective call routing.
Use this type of forwarding to route incoming calls
to different types of phones (cell phone, work phone,
home phone, Skype, etc.) and agents based on
various schedules, including:
• Simultaneous ringing: Ring an agent’s home, work, and cell phone simultaneously to ensure that the call is answered, whether the agent is working from home or travelling.
• Specific ring order: Ring agent phones in a specific order, such as work phone first, cell phone second, home phone third, etc.
• Multi-agent ringing: Ring several agent phone numbers at the same time; the first agent who answers gets the call, even if they are working from home.
• Office schedule: Forward calls to various agents
based on your office schedule.
To learn more about the benefits of call routing for
sales calls, you can visit the Ifbyphone web site and
download the white paper “How Sales Teams Use
Integrated Virtual Call Centers to Close More
Business”.
“Ifbyphone has enabled us to take control. We can now manage our complex routing needs along very specific parameters...And all the tools we use with Ifbyphone are hosted in one efficient platform. Our business and customer acquisition has increased now that we can track and respond to leads—we love this technology.”
-Greg Smith Equipment Sales
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Virtual Call Centers29VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Any sized business can rapidly deploy a flexible virtual call center for sales and support that cuts costs and improves operational efficiency.
Voice-based marketing automation makes it easy for
businessesofeverysizetocost-effectivelydeploy
a virtual call center for sales and support teams and
help desks. There’s no hardware to buy, no software
to install, and no implementation or maintenance team
to hire. You can set up an IVR auto-attendant and your
custom call routing rules in minutes, and you’re on
your way.
It’s extremely flexible, so your agents can work from
home or any office location using any phone while still
operating seamlessly as one team. It’s also scalable,
so you can easily accommodate extra agents during
peak seasons.
Control Your Call Queuing Experience
When callers are placed on hold, you want full
control over their experience. Voice-based marketing
automation lets you select the music or promotional
messages they hear, the maximum amount of time
they’ll have to wait, the number of callers in your
queue, and much more.
You can also set up priority queuing to speed VIP
customers to the front of the line.
Integrate with Your CRM and Help Desk Systems
Voice-based marketing automation integrates with
CRM and held desk systems like Salesforce.com
and Zendesk. For sales leads, this means that every
incoming call gets logged automatically in your CRM
either as a new lead or as part of an existing record,
along with data on the caller and the marketing
source that lead them to call. For support calls, it
means that every call gets automatically turned into
anactionable,organizedhelpdeskticket,saving
your agents time and enabling them to serve more
customers.
Record and Transcribe Calls to Improve Marketing, Sales, and Support
Voice-based marketing automation can also record
and transcribe every call for future review. Call
recordings and transcription can provide a wealth
of information from your leads and customers for
marketing and sales to mine. What terminology do
prospects use? How do they describe their pain
points? What are the sticking points sales have
to overcome? Use this knowledge to build more
effective marketing campaigns and sales pitches.
For support calls, you can also monitor the service
levels of each agent to ensure your customers are
getting first-class support.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Virtual Call Centers30VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
View Real-Time and Historical Call Reports
Monitoring call center activity is easy using web-
based real-time and historical reports. How many did
each agent handle in a given time? How long did calls
last? What was the average time a customer waited
to speak with an agent? How many hours a day does
each agent spend on incoming calls, outbound calls,
and break? What time do agents first log in and last
log out? All this data is at your fingertips.
To learn more about the benefits of deploying a virtual
call center, you can visit the Ifbyphone web site and
download the white paper “The Next Generation of
Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud”.
“We’ve successfully eliminated our reliance on our physical call center by using Ifbyphone to dynamically route and record thousands of phone calls to staff working on their own schedule, with their own phone, from remote locations. The technology and cost savings has already helped us build a local presence in four new markets.”
- Steve Peris, AIM Attendance
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
About Ifbyphone
Ifbyphone manages, measures, and automates voice
conversations with your customers and prospects.
These conversations cannot be managed using marketing
automation or CRM software alone. Without Ifbyphone’s
voice-based marketing automation platform, catching
these interactions is like fishing with a hole in the bottom
of your net – leads and information fall out.
The Ifbyphone suite is a set of software-as-a-service
applications including ad tracking, lead distribution,
hosted IVR, and voice broadcasting. Companies of all
sizesandacrossallindustriesuseIfbyphone,including
direct response, health care, real estate, home services, and
lead generation. Learn more at www.ifbyphone.com.
www.ifbyphone.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ifbyphone
Facebook: http://facebook.com/ifbyphone
(855) 882-5441
300 West Adams Street, 9th Floor
Chicago, IL 60606
Custom Call Forwarding31VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Never miss an important customer or conference call with custom call forwarding.
Ensure that important calls to you or your agents are
never missed, no matter where you are. Voice-based
marketing automation has call forwarding technology
that enables your hot leads and important customers
to reach your sales and support agents wherever they
are. It’s a great service if you have sales staff travelling
in the field or support agents who work from home
or at client sites. Businesses also use it to proactively
alert and connect groups for conference calls.
• Screen calls before accepting: Screen calls by listening to the caller’s announcement before choosing to accept.
• Forward calls based on your office schedule: Forward calls to different phones (office, cell, home, etc.) or a group of phones, based on your business hours.
• Forward calls in sequence or simultaneously: Ring several phones at once, in a specific order, or in a random order.
• Record calls: Keep a record of every conversation by recording phone calls.
• Receive emails with transcribed voice messages: Transfer missed or declined calls to voice mail and receive emails with both the voice recording and transcribed message.
• Connect groups for conference calls: Schedule the system to call each attendee and instantly connect them to the conference call. No more dial-in numbers or access codes to remember. Attendees can be proactively connected from their office, home, car, airport, or anywhere else they may be.
“As always . . . YOU’RE AWESOME!! Direct transfer of a client’s call to either our personal cell phone or voice mail depending on the business hours has eliminated human errors in routing calls.”
- Gary Millard, WoodenThumb.com
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Agent Panels and Manager Dashboards32VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Arm your sales and support agents with valuable data on each inbound call before they answer the phone. Centrally monitor and communicate with them in real time.
Know Who Is Calling Before Taking the Call
The more information sales and support agents have
upfront about inbound callers, the more successful
the call will be. So voice-based marketing automation
provides a web-based agent panel that displays on
each rep’s computer screen. Before taking a call, the
sales rep can see who is calling and what ad, Google
search term, referring web site, or other source led
them to call. If the caller has a record in your CRM
system, the panel provides one-click access to that
record. If not, that same click can create a new record
with pre-populated data.
Transfer Calls When You Are Working from Home
This panel can display on any computer, no matter
if the rep is working in your office or at home. If an
agent is working from home using their cell phone
and wants to transfer a caller to someone in another
location, the agent panel makes it easy.
Monitor and Message Your Agents
Voice-based marketing automation also has manager
dashboards that you can use to monitor agents. The
dashboard displays all data for agents, including the
open/busy/closed status, answered calls, outbound
calls, average hold and talk times, and more.
Additionally, managers can send messages to agents
via the dashboard.
“Good technology and excellent customer service – this is the way software-as-a-service is supposed to work!”
- Darren Kincaid, WSI Full Spectrum Web Solutions
Agent panels arm reps with valuable data on incoming callers
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Web Form Call Triggering33VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Convert more web visitors into instant phone calls and close more business.
Prospects are browsing your web site all the time.
They may have specific questions that, if answered
right away, could be the difference between a sale
and the visitor leaving for a competitor’s site. To
get answers, they often fill out a web form to have
someone in sales contact them, with that lead being
emailed to a rep or logged in a CRM system.
But how long will it take for a sales rep to respond
and get the lead on the phone? If they don’t call right
away, it could be hours, maybe even days. Research
shows that a sale is 22 times more likely to happen
when you make contact within the first five minutes.
Waiting even ten minutes dramatically decreases your
chances of converting that lead to a sale.
Convert Web Leads to Instant Sales Calls
Voice-based marketing automation has tools that
make it easy for prospects on your site to talk to
the right sales rep right away. Using voice-based
marketing automation, you can generate immediate
connections from any online form, including “contact
us,” “call me now,” demo request, and content
download forms.
Here’s how it works: Whenever a prospect completes
your form and clicks submit, the system will
immediately call your sales rep and “whisper” the
lead’s information in their ear. This can include the
name of the form that was downloaded, the lead’s
name, and their phone number. If the rep decides
to accept the call, the system will call the lead and
connect both parties over the phone. It can be a very
effective strategy for reducing web site abandonment,
decreasing lead contact time, and increasing lead
conversion.
Recover Lost Revenue from Shopping Cart Abandonment
If you have an online store, you probably worry
about shoppers that abandon their carts before
finalizingtransactions.Forsomestores,it’sa
big problem. But with voice-based marketing
automation, you can trigger a call to an agent
whenever a potential customer abandons their
cart. The system will “whisper” to the agent the
customer’s name and what is in their cart. With a
simple voice command, the agent can have the
system call the customer to see if they can save the
sale.
Trigger calls to your sales agents whenever someone fills out a web form
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
SMS Messaging34VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Communicate effectively with your audience by delivering notifications, reminders, and promotional offers via SMS text message.
Do you know anyone without a mobile phone? With
the overwhelming popularity of cell phones today,
text messaging has become an effective way for
businesses to communicate with a large audience.
Text message open rates and read rates are extremely
high, and studies have shown that most texts are read
within 15 minutes of being received, making them an
attractive delivery option for marketers.
Voice-based marketing automation makes it easy to
schedule and deliver SMS texts message blasts to
your target audience. Of course, text messages should
always be a permission-based vehicle, with recipients
opting in to receive your messages.
Here are a few ways to use SMS messaging to
communication with your customers:
• Appointment notifications and confirmations: Text your clients appointment reminders 24 hours before an appointment, asking for a “yes,” “no,” or
“reschedule” confirmation.
• Phone number verification: If a flight, truck, or bus is delayed, deliver a schedule notification to those affected by the delay, or provide a number your audience can text to request schedule updates.
• Travel and inventory confirmations: Your customers could text you asking, “when is my appointment?” or “where is the closest store to 60077?” or “is this product in stock?” and then you can automatically respond with the correct answer via text message.
• Promotional offers: Build your marketing database by inviting customers to text you to receive texts with discount codes.
• Clickable phone numbers: Drive calls to your business by including clickable phone numbers in your text messages.
Sending SMS messages with clickable phone numbers can trigger inbound sales calls
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Google Analytics and Universal Analytics Integration35VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Include phone call data alongside your other online and offline data to better understand what’s driving customer activity.
For years businesses have been using Google
Analytics to better understand activity on their web
site. In 2013 Google took their analytics platform
to the next level with the release of Universal
Analytics, which gives businesses the ability to track
and compare not just web activity, but also offline
interactions like phone calls and in-store visits, mobile
app traffic, and other sources – all in the same
interface.
Voice-based marketing automation integrates with
Google Analytics and Universal Analytics to add the
critical call tracking data piece to Google’s marketing
analyticspuzzle.GoogleAnalyticsuserscanviewand
analyzecalldataalongsidewebtrafficdatatobetter
understand how web visitors and callers find your
business and better measure campaign ROI.
Universal Analytics users can view rich, context-
specific call tracking data alongside their other online
and offline marketing analytics, so you can:
• Seewhichads,searchkeywords,orsocialmediaplatforms are driving web visits and phone calls to your business
• Comparewebvisitsandphonecallsfromorganicvs. paid search on one screen
• Seewhichofyourwebpagesorvideosapersonviewed before and after calling you
• Seewhichofyourcontenttheydownloadedoritems they purchased before and after calling you
• UsephonecalldatainyourwebpageA/Bteststohelp determine a winner
• Accessacolor-codedmaptoseewherepeopleare calling you from
Including call tracking data in Universal Analytics helps marketers create meaningful customer profiles
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Salesforce.com and CRM Integration36VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Track revenue from phone leads and improve sales team efficiency by integrating voice-based marketing automation with Salesforce.com and other CRM systems.
Voice-based marketing automation is designed to be a
standalone platform. But it also integrates easily with
CRM systems like Salesforce.com, giving businesses
additional value. CRM integration enables you to:
• Have customer information at sales’ fingertips before every call: When a call comes in from an existing customer or prospect, voice-based marketing automation instantly triggers a screen-pop with information on the lead, contact, and organization.Notimeiswastedsearchingforthecorrect CRM record.
• Boost agent productivity and reduce input errors: When a new lead calls your business, voice-based marketing automation creates a lead record in your CRM and auto-populates the contact number, lead source, and other information. This keeps your agents productive and improves the quality of your data.
• Track which activities generate phone leads and revenue: Voice-based marketing automation tracks which ad, search term, referring domain, or other source drove the lead to call your business. It’s recorded in your CRM so you can generate reports detailing how your marketing is driving leads and how those leads are turning into revenue.
• Never miss a phone lead: If a call from a new
lead goes unanswered, voice-based marketing automation creates a new lead record for you with an open case to ensure proper follow up. If the number is associated with an existing CRM contact, a new case is automatically added to the record.
• Gather extra demographic data for callers: Oftentimes you want more data on a phone lead than you were able to capture initially. Using
“reverse lookup” you can quickly retrieve the associated name, city, and state for a given phone number and populate it in your CRM lead record.
• Trigger voice broadcasts based on CRM events: By integrating voice-based marketing automation and CRM systems, you can schedule voice broadcasts to occur automatically based on events in your database. For example, have the system call customers and offer them a discount on their birthday. Or call customers to remind them that their annual subscription will run out in 30 days.
• Enable customers to access and update their records: Don’t waste an agent’s time answering routine questions from callers. Instead, callers can use your IVR to access account information from your CRM. Give them the power to access and reset passwords, look up their order status, view account balances, and much more.
• Record IVR responses in each lead record: Inbound and outbound IVR surveys collect a wealth of information that sales can use to close more business. Through CRM integration this data can be automatically added to each contact’s record.
DPS Uses IVR to Drive Revenue for their Clients
Dealer Product Services, Inc. is a provider of marketing solutions to over 1,600 automotive retail clients. DPS wanted to integrate voice broadcasting into its clients’ CRM systems to automate phone calls to advertise warranty renewals, oil changes, and other services.
“We chose Ifbyphone due to their flexibility and their programming expertise,” said Tim O’Neal, President and CEO of DPS. “They have helped us integrate our systems, streamline processes, and automate all of our call delivery.”
Using Ifbyphone, DPS was able to generate more revenue to their clients while realizing a cost savings of 20%.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Zendesk and Help Desk Integration37VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Improve customer support and help desk agent productivity by integrating voice-based marketing automation with help desk systems like Zendesk.
Your business may handle hundreds or even thousands of support calls each week.
But even if you only get a handful a day, each call is important. If your support team
is taking too long to respond, customers get frustrated, their satisfaction level drops,
and your churn rate goes up.
By integrating voice-based marketing automation’s virtual call center technology with
your customer support help desk system like Zendesk, you make customer support
trulyorganizedandefficient.
• Turn voice messages into support tickets: Ensure customer voicemails are automatically captured and acknowledged. When a customer leaves a voicemail, your agents will automatically receive an email with both the transcribed text message as well as the recorded file. The system will automatically open a support ticket for the caller in your help desk system, and the caller will receive an email acknowledging receipt of their ticket.
• Enable your own virtual call center: Many help desk systems like Zendesk don’t include a phone component. By integrating them with voice-based marketing automation, you can implement a professional call center in minutes without any expensive hardware.
• Manage calls and tickets on one platform: Agents simply sign in to their Zendesk account and they are automatically logged into the call center. They can then make and receive calls without leaving the Zendesk system.
• Enable agents to work from anywhere: If you have agents that work remotely, now you can enable them to make and receive customer support calls on any phone, even Skype. All agent activity can still be monitored centrally by their manager.
“We’ve successfully helped ourselves and helped our clients through this automated integration. I highly recommend Zendesk customers consider Ifbyphone as their phone solution!”
-Jonathan Hunt, FundNET Systems Inc.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
API Integration38VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Add voice-based marketing automation to your business applications quickly and easily using API integration.
You want flexibility when running your business. The flexibility to choose the
applications that work best for you and the flexibility to use those applications
so they return the most value. That’s why voice-based marketing automation is
designed to seamlessly integrate with your existing systems with a full suite of
APIs, including:
• Call Initiation APIs: Establish conditions in your other applications that automatically trigger voice broadcasts. For example, send a delivery notification one day in advance and another the day of a service call with the option to reschedule if necessary.
• Account Management APIs: Forward calls in real time based on responses to automated questions. For example, a customer that needs a taxi can be automatically routed to the right dispatcher based on answers to simple questions such as location and destination.
• Reporting APIs: Take all the real-time reports from the voice-based marketing automation platform and integrate them into your other reporting applications.
• The NetGet APIs: Enable call data to be pushed into your other systems in real time as a call progresses. The data can be stored in your own database, used to look up info in your database, and then sent back as a simple XML-formatted response.
• Post-Call Action APIs: Send data to your web server as soon as a call is completed. The data can include such things as the date and time of the call, call duration, caller ID, actions taken, and more.
Voice-based marketing automation platforms are also compatible with white label,
co-branded, or reseller solutions that wish to manage multiple client campaigns
through one reseller portal.
“I had a critical need to add voice services to some internal tools. With very little effort, (less than an hour start to finish,) I was able to tie together our phone list with our groupware’s calendaring system and have a powerful and dynamic system that’s been 100% reliable.”
-Joshua Barratt, CTO, Media Temple
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Analytics39VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Use real-time web-based reports to understand and improve marketing ROI, monitor call center activity, measure voice broadcast success, and much more.
Reporting and analytics play an essential role in
helping businesses measure, monitor, and improve
their processes. Voice-based marketing automation
has a wide range of reports you can view and
customizetoaccessreal-timeandhistoricaldataon
your business’s inbound and outbound calls. This
detailed data can be used to better understand how
marketing is generating leads, how sales is closing
business, and how support is helping customers.
Reports can be viewed in real-time via the online
portal. Alternatively, you can schedule ad hoc or
daily/weekly/monthly reports to be emailed to key
stakeholders or clients automatically. Plus, you can
integrate call report data into you existing applications
(such as Salesforce.com, Google Analytics and
Universal Analytics, Google AdWords, or other
business software) using API integration.
Marketing Analytics
To make better decisions, it’s important to constantly
measure your marketing effectiveness. Voice-based
marketing automation analytics enable you to
determine which activities – online, offline, and mobile
– are generating phone leads, so you can adjust your
strategy and increase marketing ROI. And because
voice-based marketing automation integrates with
your CRM system, you can see which activities are
not just driving phone leads, but revenue as well.
SEO and Paid Search Analytics
Tying a phone lead to a search keyword gives you
unique insight into how leads are finding you, what
they care about, and the phrases they are using.
Voice-based automation reports show you exactly
which search terms are driving inbound calls. Also,
if a lead called you after clicking on a paid search
ad, you can include that data as part of your Google
AdWords reports to fully understand ad conversion
rates.
Lead Funnel Analytics
Tracking the marketing source of phone leads is only
the first step. Voice-based marketing automation also
enables you to generate reports that follow phone
leads through each stage of your lead funnel. For
example, you can generate reports on which ads
converted phone leads to opportunities and revenue
at the highest rate. Or which ad sources generate the
best ROI.
Call Geography Analytics
Understanding which geographic areas generate the
most leads helps marketers better plan their local
programs. Voice-based marketing can generate
graphic reports showing you exactly which area
codes, cities, and states are calling you the most.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Analytics40VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES
Call Center Analytics
How many calls did each sales or support agent
handle in a given time? How long did each call last?
What was the average time a customer spent on hold?
How many hours a day does each agent spend on
calls? What time do agents first log in and last log
out? You can monitor activity in real-time via the online
portal or generate historical reports to understand
each agent’s effectiveness.
Voice Broadcast Analytics
Access detailed reports on the success of each
broadcast. Data is updated in real-time so you
can pause campaigns mid-broadcast to make
adjustments. If your voice broadcast is an IVR that
requests and collects data, you can view reports on
each recipient’s responses and pass that data to your
CRM system or other business applications.
Inbound IVR Analytics
Businesses use inbound IVRs to route callers to
the right agent, qualify and score leads, survey
customers after interacting with an agent, and much
more. You can generate reports showing the number
of callers to each IVR, their answers to IVR questions,
where they sent based on their responses, and other
data.
“As a marketing firm, we are committed to providing transparency to our clients. Ifbyphone allows us to present a call detail report that shows the effectiveness of our campaigns.”
-Bobby Vickers, VRB Analytics
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Challenge
Sotheby’s International Realty
specializes in selling luxury properties.
They were spending millions of
dollars on print advertising without
having a clear understanding of its
effectiveness. They needed a way to
measure what ad programs were really
working.
Solution
1. First, using Ifbyphone’s call tracking, Sotheby’s was able to understand exactly which ads were driving phone calls.
2. Second, by setting up call routing, they directed every phone lead from their ads directly to the listing agent’s primary phone. If the agent didn’t answer, Ifbyphone “finds” them by calling a progression of their other numbers (desk phone, mobile phone, home phone, etc.).
3. When the agent answers, Ifbyphone “whispers” the phone number and the newspaper in which the ad appeared. For example, a whisper from a Connecticut ad would say, “Call from The New York Times for 120 Peacock Rd.”
Result
Using Ifbyphone’s call tracking,
Sotheby’s reduced their newspaper
advertising spend by 30% without
affecting lead flow. In some cases,
they were able to use Ifbyphone data
to renegotiate advertising rates. “We
used Ifbyphone to get print ads in line
with where they should be,” said Brad
Nelson, VP of Marketing of Sotheby’s.
“We reinvested these dollars into other
advertising mediums that increased our
listing’s total exposure.”
Not only did Ifbyphone help measure
ad effectiveness, but it also helped
Sotheby’s office in Sarasota increase
sales by 25 percent. Agents were now
missing fewer calls: “We realized our
agents were missing calls because
of poor cell reception,” said Nelson.
“Ifbyphone call reports gave our agents
the opportunity to see what calls they
missed and call those leads back.”
“Our agents also get excited about
the ‘whisper.’ When agents know
where the call is coming from, they
immediately know the quality of that
lead,” said Nelson. “I believe these
added benefits keep our agents happy
and productive, which ultimately helps
retention.”
Sotheby’s41
SUCCESS STORY:
Luxury realtor uses voice-based marketing automation to reinvest 30% of budget in better-performing ads and boost sales by 25%.
“We used Ifbyphone to get print ads in line with where they should be. We reinvested these dollars into other advertising mediums that increased our listing’s total exposure.”
-Brad Nelson, Sotheby’s
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Challenge
Go Configure, Inc. is an outdoor
products delivery and installation
company with over $14 million in sales.
While the company sought growth
opportunities, they were constrained by
staffing expenses. Go Configure saw
an opportunity to increase efficiency
while also reducing expenses by
automating the five phone calls their
in-house staff was making for each
delivery.
Solution
Using Ifbyphone’s outbound IVR
technology, Go Configure was able
to automate voice broadcast calls
to suppliers, drivers, and customers
regarding each delivery. As a result of
using voice broadcasting to automate
the notification and confirmation
process, “we have had the opportunity
to grow our business without
increasing our staffing expense,” said
Dawn Rivera, Director of Operations for
Go Configure.
Result
Overall, Ifbyphone provided an easy
and reliable outbound IVR service that
positively impacted Go Configure’s
daily business operations, while saving
the company over $70,000 per year.
Go Configure42
SUCCESS STORY:
Voice-based marketing automation saves delivery company $70,000 per year.
“We have been able to double the efficiency of our staff and reduced the cost of staff and overtime by 60%. Without this technology, we would not have had the opportunity to grow our business without increasing our staffing expense.”
- Dawn Rivera, Go Configure, Inc.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
SECTION 5”:
BUSINESS CASE FOR VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Voice-Based Marketing Automation Benefits44BUSINESS CASE FOR VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION
There are three main benefits to using voice-based marketing automation:
1. Measure and Optimize Marketing Spend
John Wanamaker has a famous quote: “Half the money I spend on advertising
is wasted…the trouble is, I don’t know which half.” It’s never been more critical
for marketing teams to track the full ROI of every dollar you spend. That means
knowing exactly how many leads – and revenue – each program generates.
• Track phone leads back to your marketing: Most businesses find that inbound calls are the best type of lead, yet few have the ability to track where they came from. Voice-based marketing automation enables you to understand exactly which marketing programs are driving phone leads. It lets you generate truly closed-loop reporting where every lead is captured, tracked, and reported on.
• Prove to execs and clients how you are impacting revenue: Get credit for every lead – and revenue dollar – your marketing helps generate. Be able to
stand in front of your executive team with concrete proof of how your programs are driving revenue. Or if you do lead gen for clients, get paid for every single call you generate.
• Renew campaigns that work, cancel those that don’t: Make intelligent campaign decisions based on what’s really working. You can stop wasting money on advertising that isn’t generating leads and instead funnel that money into proven performers. It’s an easy way to grow lead volumes without extra budget.
“Call tracking has really opened our eyes
and helped us close a big loop in providing
marketing optimization tactics in a multi-
channel manner.”
-Paul Stackpole, Pel Hughes
1. Measure and optimize marketing spend2. Grow revenue faster3. Save time and money
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Voice-Based Marketing Automation Benefits45BUSINESS CASE FOR VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION
2. Grow Revenue Faster
At the end of the day, growing revenue is really what matters. Voice-based
marketing automation helps businesses grow revenue by improving lead
generation, converting more web leads into phone leads, and delivering automated
voice broadcasts.
• Better leads = more revenue: Voice-based marketing automation helps marketers pinpoint what campaigns are really bringing in revenue. You can then reinvest in the most successful programs and give sales the high-quality leads they need to close more business.
• Faster lead response = more revenue: Research shows that a sale is 22 times more likely to happen when you make contact within the first five minutes. Voice-based marketing automation has tools that make it easy for prospects on your web site who fill out a form to get a sales call in seconds. It also has intelligent call routing that gets inbound calls to the right sales agent faster – and no phone leads gets missed.
• Automate upselling /cross-selling calls and reorder reminders: Maximizethe revenue you receive from every customer with automated voice broadcasts. They are an effective way to promote the value of upgrading to a higher-tiered product or purchasing additional services. They also help remind customers when it time to reorder or renew.
3. Save time and money
Beacon Technologies Sees Over 400% Higher ROI with Call Tracking
Beacon Technologies is a web technology and marketing agency. Beacon uses Ifbyphone as the critical link between online marketing spend and offline phone call conversions.
For one client, Beacon used unique phone numbers from Ifbyphone to track call activity from sites like Lawyers.com, FindLaw.com, Google Local, and social media outlets. They now understood which channels were working and adjusted spending accordingly. The end result was a significant increase in ROI.
“A lot of companies don’t just get leads that take place on the web. Consumers often pick up the phone and call,” said Brad Henry, Director of Web Marketing at Beacon. “It’s important to know where that lead originated, particularly if the web is involved, in order to optimize marketing initiatives moving forward.”
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Voice-Based Marketing Automation Benefits46BUSINESS CASE FOR VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION
3. Save Time and Money
Making your business more efficient while reducing costs are two benefits near and
dear to your CFO’s heart. Here’s how voice-based marketing automation does it:
• Cut staffing costs: Voice-based marketing automation has technology that handles tasks previously requiring head count. For example, you can use an IVR as your business’s virtual receptionist to answer phones, provide information, and qualify and route callers 24/7. Or you can deliver thousands of voice broadcasts, IVR surveys, and SMS messaging blasts to large groups in minutes
– something that would take a team of agents days to accomplish.
• Make staff more efficient: Each time a sales rep answers a call from a customer who isn’t ready to buy, it costs you money. Each time a support agent has to spend time helping a customer locate their password or account balance, it costs you money. By filtering out these calls and automating manual processes, voice-based marketing automation frees your sales and support teams to focus on what really matters: closing business and better servicing customers.
• Cut equipment costs: Installing and maintaining call center equipment is extremely expensive. By using voice-based marketing automation to deploy a virtual call center, you can eliminate your hardware and maintenance costs while enabling your agents to work from anywhere.
• Reduce no-shows: Customer no-shows can be costly. If your business relies on customers keeping their appointments or being present for deliveries, voice-based marketing automation can handle the reminding, confirming, and rescheduling for you automatically.
3. Save time and money
“I love the flexibility and wide range of features offered by Ifbyphone. We’ve only been using it a few months so far, but have designed all sorts of backend programming that allows us to reduce our dependence on live inbound call centers. What a money saver!”
- Kirsti Hegg, Gorilla Marketing
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Investment and Costs47BUSINESS CASE FOR VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION
Unlike on-premise solutions that are sold as software licenses or per-user “seats,”
voice-based marketing automation is delivered via the cloud and sold as a
recurring subscription. Most subscriptions are monthly and can be cancelled at any
time, though some larger deals can be sold as an annual contract with many built-
in discounts. Subscriptions can start as low as $49.95 a month and scale up based
on your call volume.
The main factors determining the cost of a subscription are:
• The functionality you require: Not all the features discussed in this guide are available in the basic editions of voice-based marketing automation. For some advanced functionality, you must select a higher product tier.
• Phone numbers and usage minutes: Most packages include a certain number of phone numbers and calling minutes per month and then charge extra when you exceed that amount.
• Extras: Some functionality, like SMS text messages and call recording, are extra charges each month based on usage.
• Customer support: Some voice-based marketing automation providers have
free customer support, but others will charge you extra.
No matter what package you choose, most voice-based marketing automation
users find tremendous value in the solution. For sample pricing, please visit the
Ifbyphone web site at http://public.ifbyphone.com/pricing.
Once you decide that voice-based marketing automation is a good fit for your business, you should understand what factors influence pricing.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Selecting the Right Vendor48BUSINESS CASE FOR VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION
We won’t lie – we think Ifbyphone is the best voice-based marketing automation
solution provider. But here are a few things to consider when selecting the right
vendor for you:
1. Determine Your Goals
What are you looking to achieve by implementing voice-based marketing
automation? Establishing your goals upfront will help you select the vendor that
best fits your needs. For example:
• Areyoulookingtotrackphoneleadsbacktoyourmarketingactivities?
• Areyoulookingtodelivervoicebroadcasts?
• Areyoulookingtoconductphonesurveys?
• Areyoulookingtoestablishavirtualcallcenter?
Not every vendor can do everything you will want to do, so be sure to determine
your goals and priorities upfront so you aren’t having to select multiple ad hoc
vendors later.
So you’ve decided you’re ready for voice-based marketing automation. How do you select the right vendor?
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Selecting the Right Vendor49BUSINESS CASE FOR VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION
2. Ask the Right Questions
Once you know what you want to
accomplish, first be sure to ask
prospective vendors the most
important question: can you do them?
Some will be able to, and some won’t.
If that question helps you narrow the
field, you can then ask some other
goal-specific questions.
If you are interest in call tracking, for
example, you may wish to ask:
• Doyouspecializeinmobileoronlinecall tracking?
• CanyouintegratewithGoogleAnalytics and Universal Analytics?
• DoyouhaveGoogle-certifiedspecialist on staff to assist?
• Doyouoffer“whisper”messagestoannounce each caller to agents?
• Doyouofferacallrecordingoption?
• Doyouoffercustomcallroutingoptions?
• Doyouofferbothtoll-freeandlocalphone numbers? Do I own these numbers?
• Whattoolsareavailableforanagency managing call tracking for multiple clients?
• Doyouhaveaphonenumbercleansing process to make sure the ones you give weren’t recently used and aren’t already receiving calls?
When evaluating IVR technology, you
may wish to ask each vendor if they
provide:
• Onlineconfigurationwithnoprogramming needed?
• Speechrecognition?
• Real-timeanalytics?
• TheabilitytoupdateIVRsinreal-time?
• Voice-to-texttranscriptionservices?
• Intelligentcallrouting?
• Answeringmachineandhumandetection?
• Theabilitytointegratewithyour
CRM and servers?
For voice broadcasting, you can
inquire about the following:
• Doestheproviderhaveanon-timedelivery guarantee?
• Canyoumanageandscheduleyourown broadcasts, or will you need to rely on a middleman?
• Dotheychargeextraforatransfer?
• Whataretheirextraorhiddenfees?
• Dotheyofferyourcustomersan“unsubscribe” or “opt-out” option?
• Canyoupauseacampaignmid-blast?
• Cantheydetectwhetheraliveperson or voicemail answers your call?
• DotheysupportIVRcapabilities?
• Cantheyroutecustomersbacktoyou during the call? To the nearest store? To an available sales agent? To your office, cell, and home phone simultaneously?
• Cantheyrecordcallsthatgettransferred to an agent?
• Doyougetinstantaccesstoreports? Can you download them
into multiple formats?
Finally, if you are interested in
implementing a virtual call center,
you can ask:
• CanIcustomizetheon-holdexperience?
• Canmyagentsreceivecallsatanylocation on any type of phone? Even softphones and Skype?
• CanIsetupschedulesbasedonmyindividual agents?
• Howcanmyagentsreceivecallerinformation before answering?
• CanIaccesscallreportsandrecords online?
• Doesyourserviceoffercallrecording and transcription?
• Arethereanysetupfeesorcontracts?
• AmIabletotransfercallerstoanother agent, department, or IVR?
• Doyouchargeper-agentorper-seatfees?
• Doesitintegratewithapplicationslike Salesforce and Zendesk?
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Selecting the Right Vendor50BUSINESS CASE FOR VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION
3. Consider a Few Non-Technical Factors
After looking at the technology, you may wish to consider a few other things before
making your final decision.
• What kind of support do they offer? Will you be able to get them on the phone and get help when you need it? Does support cost extra? Are the people you talk to pleasant to deal with and helpful?
• Do they have references? What other businesses in your industry are using their solution? How are they using it? What results have they experienced? Are theretipsyoucanusetohelpmaximizeROI?
• Will they help you get started? If you decide to go with a vendor, do they have programs in place to help you get started? How long will it take to get up and running?
“I have never worked with a company that gave so much value for the money. Our requirements from Ifbyphone were not standard. These guys took the extra mile and made sure that whatever I needed I received the same day. And that’s really what impressed me. I work with a lot of people and I don’t see this type of commitment and service.”
- Leo Nov, RestorationSOS
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Why Ifbyphone51BUSINESS CASE FOR VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION
A Complete Solution
Ifbyphone is the only vendor with a truly complete voice-based marketing
automation solution. Others may be able to help with a piece here and a piece
there, but only Ifbyphone offers a comprehensive suite of applications that
covers everything in a single platform.
Connects with Your Business
Voice-based marketing automation works best when it is integrated with your
business applications. Ifbyphone comes with pre-built integrations for a wide
variety of applications, like Salesforce.com, HubSpot, Google Analytics and
Universal Analytics, and Zendesk. It also has a full suite of APIs for you to
easily integrate Ifbyphone with your existing applications.
What Makes Ifbyphone Different?
Easy to Get Started, Easy to Use
Ifbyphone is cloud-based, so there is no hardware to buy or software to install
and maintain. And our platform was built for marketers, salespeople, and
support professionals, so you know it is easy to use. You don’t need to hire
developers or programmers to assist you.
Our People
Ifbyphone has great technology, but our customers tell us our greatest asset
is our people. We have helpful experts to get you up and running quickly and
to answer your phone calls whenever you have questions down the road.
Ifbyphone’s Integrated Platform
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Challenge
FundNET Systems provides web-
based communication software for
financial services professionals. They
wanted an automated way to increase
support for FundNET’s advisor clients.
They also needed to ensure that all
support requests received via phone
were automatically entered and tracked
in Zendesk, the company’s help desk
ticketing software. At the time, their
existing phone company charged
FundNET high rates for basic phone,
voicemail and toll-free services – which
did little to help either the company
or its clients. FundNET knew there
had to be a better, more cost-effective
solution.
Solution
Ifbyphone helped FundNET setup the
following solution:
1. When financial advisors call FundNET for support, their support question is recorded and transcribed.
2. The transcription, along with an attachment of the audio recording, is then automatically entered as a support ticket in Zendesk.
3. The advisor then receives an email confirming their support request that includes the transcription and a link to the audio recording.
Result
By using Ifbyphone, FundNET reduced
their phone costs by almost 80% while
adding substantial functionality to their
system. Now, all of FundNET’s phone
support requests are automatically
logged in Zendesk. Because Zendesk
is also integrated with Solve360, the
CRM system FundNET uses, they
now have end-to-end visibility of client
requests.
“Before Ifbyphone, a client would
leave a voicemail and we’d have to
listen to the whole message, then
open Zendesk and enter the request
manually,” said FundNET President
Jonathan Hunt. “Plus, the client
didn’t know the voice message was
received nor did they have any tracking
on it. This integration of Ifbyphone,
Zendesk, and Solve360 has enabled
us to automate support, keep clients
informed, save administrative time, and
reduce telco costs.”
FundNET Systems
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 324-3600 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
52SUCCESS STORY:
Software provider uses voice-based marketing automation to cut support costs and better serve customers.
“The Ifbyphone-Zendesk integration reduces our firm’s phone costs by 80%, ensures our clients receive high-quality customer service, and saves our support team time by aggregating all support inquiries, via phone, email, and web, in one place.”
-Jonathan Hunt, FundNET Systems Inc.
Next Steps53CONCLUSION
We hope you found this guide helpful as you explore whether voice-based marketing automation is right for your business. If the phone plays an important role in how you acquire and support customers, voice-based marketing automation has a lot to offer you.
Voice-based marketing automation is an exciting technology that continues to evolve. If you wish to stay on top of the latest news and best practices, you can visit the Ifbyphone blog and resource section of our web site at www.ifbyphone.com.
And please give us a call at 855-290-4190 if you wish to speak to an Ifbyphone representative or schedule a demo.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 290-4190 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
About Ifbyphone
Ifbyphone manages, measures, and automates voice
conversations with your customers and prospects.
These conversations cannot be managed using marketing
automation or CRM software alone. Without Ifbyphone’s
voice-based marketing automation platform, catching
these interactions is like fishing with a hole in the bottom
of your net – leads and information fall out.
The Ifbyphone suite is a set of software-as-a-service
applications including ad tracking, lead distribution,
hosted IVR, and voice broadcasting. Companies of all
sizesandacrossallindustriesuseIfbyphone,including
direct response, health care, real estate, home services, and
lead generation. Learn more at www.ifbyphone.com.
www.ifbyphone.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ifbyphone
Facebook: http://facebook.com/ifbyphone
(855) 290-4190
300 West Adams Street, 9th Floor
Chicago, IL 60606