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Chris Beam
Q: faster than direct mail, more responsive than an insert, and gives you more bang for your buck than ever before? A: Take a look at what's on your desk; it's probably ringing right now. Telemarketing is a powerful tool often overlooked in favor of less expensive efforts--but it just may be worth a new evaluation. Maybe you're a small magazine never before inclined to telemarket your product, or maybe you've been doing telemarketing in-house and are thinking about shipping it out. Maybe you've decided to start hitting the phone earlier in a renewal series, despite the added cost. Under what circumstances should you consider telemarketing, and what kind of system is best for you? Here are a few guidelines.
First of all, telemarketing doesn't have the same stigma that it did years ago, now that everything from garden supplies to computer equipment is sold over the phone. With vastly improved technologies, telemarketing is now faster and less expensive, and companies are emphasizing service instead of simply calling people and reading scripts like zombies. Telemarketers can serve as a customer service center; and in soliciting new business, the callers are better trained to know your magazine thoroughly so that they can answer any questions and discuss the content of what they're asking a customer to buy.
"The mental picture of telemarketing is that it's interruptive and defined as a single outbound call with no relationship built," says Larry Etienne, vice president of teleservices at Omaha, Nebraska-based Reed Telemarketing, a firm that handles telemarketing for nearly 500 trade magazines. "As the industry matures, we're seeing [expanded] services, where callers are building relationships and the scope of what they do is much broader."
A decade ago, it was primarily consumer magazines that turned to the phones. Now business titles, which telemarket both initial quals and requals, are the fastest-growing sector. For example, DialAmerica, based in Mahwah, New Jersey, had no trade title business until 1992. Now trades represent 10 percent of the company's 350 magazine customers. Says Mary Conway, vice president in charge of publisher services at DialAmerica, "Ten years ago, the phone was a last-ditch effort; you had pretty much given up on those subscribers. But now, people are telemarketing much earlier in the series."
So how do you begin to set up your new--or evaluate your old--telemarketing system? First, advises Etienne, prioritize your needs. Are renewals sagging? Do you need to clear a rate-base hurdle? Want editorial feedback from your readers? Each of these scenarios could be addressed with telemarketing, but each requires a different sense of timing and type of approach.
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