VOICE-BASED. The DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO MARKETING AUTOMATION

Transcription

1 VOICE-BASED The DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO MARKETING AUTOMATION

2 Table of Contents 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 Copyright Ifbyphone, Inc. All rights reserved ISBN Ifbyphone, Inc. (855) twitter.com/ifbyphone Ifbyphone.com/blog

3 INTRODUCTION 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. 3 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 voicebased 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 voicebased marketing automation? Hopefully this guide will help you decide if voicebased marketing automation is a good fit for your business.

4 SECTION 1 : WHAT IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION?

5 WHAT IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION? Some Basic Questions If you re unsure if voice-based marketing automation can help your business, let s find out. 5 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? If you answered yes to any of these questions, voice-based marketing automation may be for you.

6 WHAT IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION? Voice-Based Marketing Automation Defined Learn the what, how, why, and who of voice-based marketing automation. 6 What: Voice-based marketing automation is a type of cloudbased 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 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.

7 WHAT IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION? Voice-Based Marketing Automation Features One platform to better connect and align marketing, sales, and support. 7 FEATURES FOR MARKETERS FEATURES FOR SALES FEATURES FOR SUPPORT Lead Generation Virtual Call Center Virtual Call Center Voice broadcasting Hosted IVR SMS messaging Web form calling Lead Tracking Call tracking Dynamic number insertion API Integration CRM integration Marketing Automation integration Lead Nurturing Phone surveys Voice broadcasting SMS messaging Call Scoring Inbound IVR Analytics Call tracking reports Google AdWords, Google Analytics, & Universal Analytics integration Call recording and transcription Pass qualified phone leads to sales Monitor how leads progress through sales funnel Virtual receptionist Intelligent call routing Store locator Agent panel Manager dashboards Call recording and transcription Upselling & Cross-Selling Voice broadcasting Outbound IVR SMS messaging Over-the-phone payment processing CRM Integration Salesforce.com integration API Integration Better retain customers with first-rate support Share customer interaction data to improve upselling and cross-selling Virtual receptionist Intelligent call routing Call forwarding Agent panel Manager dashboards Phone surveys Voice broadcasts Analytics Call tracking reports CRM integration Call recording and transcription Help Desk Integration Zendesk integration API integration Connect and align marketing programs, sales efforts, and customer support services with shared call data and call automation functionality.

8 WHAT IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION? What Voice-Based Marketing Automation Does for You 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. 8 Prove (and Improve) Marketing ROI with Call Tracking Generate More Phone Leads (and Revenue) Increase Efficiency by Filtering Sales and Support Calls 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. 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. 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 selfservice. Your business saves on personnel costs, and callers with complex issues won t have to wait as long for a live agent.

9 WHAT IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION? What Voice-Based Marketing Automation Does for You 9 Cut Costs with a Virtual Call Center Improve Customer Loyalty with Voice Broadcasts Connect and Align Marketing, Sales, and Support 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. 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. 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.

10 WHAT IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION? Is Voice-Based Marketing Automation Right for You? Take this brief survey to see if you re ready to benefit from voice-based marketing automation. 10 STATEMENT 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 , 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. Sometimes hot leads call in but can t reach a sales manager because they are travelling. Our call center would benefit from having some agents work from home. 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. Total: Strongly Disagree Neutral Strongly Agree If your total score adds up to more than 42, you re so ready for voicebased marketing automation! If you scored between 25 and 42, you re definitely in the neighborhood. You would benefit from learning more about voicebased 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!

11 11 INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT: MARKETING AGENCIES Voice-based marketing automation helps marketing agencies prove their value to clients. 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, 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 voicebased 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: Deliver interactive voice broadcasts for clients to generate leads and drive revenue. Capture leads by incentivizing them to call you and take a custom IVR phone survey. Qualify callers automatically using an IVR, then route only the high-scoring ones to your clients. Use intelligent call routing to send callers from your campaigns to the right sales agent, or to the right store location, or to a custom voic 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.

12 SECTION 2 : TRENDS DRIVING VOICE- BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION

13 TRENDS DRIVING VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION Why Has Voice-Based Marketing Automation Become Popular? A number of trends have made voice-based marketing automation an attractive solution for businesses. 13 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 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

14 TRENDS DRIVING VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION Why Has Voice-Based Marketing Automation Become Popular? A number of trends have made voice-based marketing automation an attractive solution for businesses. 14 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 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. Projected U.S. Smartphone Adoption 2010: 62.2 million users (20.2% of population) 2011: 93.1 million users (29.7%) 2012: million users (36.6%) 2013: million users (43.1%) 2014: million users (48.9%) 2015: million users (54.2%) 2016: million users (58.5%) Source: emarketer report, May U.S. Smartphone Penetration by Age years old: 64% have a smartphone years old: 72% have a smartphone years old: 61% have a smartphone years old: 39% have a smartphone years old: 28% have a smartphone years old: 16% have a smartphone Source: Forrester report, May 2012

15 15 MEDIA SPOTLIGHT: MOBILE MARKETING Voice-based marketing automation helps business get the most value from their mobile marketing. 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 Have a mobile-friendly version of your web site with a clickable phone number (a mobile click-to-call link) prominently displayed. When clicked, it will automatically trigger a call to your business from that smartphone. Test out different Google mobile paid 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. Test out a few banner ads with a call to action of Tap to Call. You can run these with display networks targeting mobile sites and mobile apps. Be sure all your s are mobilefriendly. Chances are a good percentage of your audience is reading your on their smartphones. Include a clickable phone number prominently in each one. Some Ways Voice- Based Marketing Automation Can Help Insert trackable phone numbers in your Google mobile paid search ads. Whether a lead calls you from the ad or from your landing page, you can track the call back to the originating ad source. Determine which mobile banner ads 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. Deliver SMS text message blasts to smartphone users. Include a clickable (and trackable) phone number in the messages to drive inbound calls. Send callers to an IVR to be initially qualified before going to sales. Or send them to a store locator to be routed automatically to the nearest store location. Record sales calls to refine your marketing messages by hearing how prospects describe their pains and needs. 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.

16 SECTION 3 : HOW IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION DIFFERENT FROM...

17 HOW IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION DIFFERENT FROM Traditional Marketing Automation 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? 17 Marketing organizations today are gaining tremendous value from traditional marketing automation. When implemented and used correctly, these tools like Marketo, Eloqua, and HubSpot enable marketing teams to: Hand off more qualified leads to sales reps at a lower cost Better understand which campaigns are working, so you can optimize spending 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, s, 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. Get credit for the impact your campaigns have on pipeline Activity Traditional Marketing Automation Voice-Based Marketing Automation Lead Generation Uses s and web forms to generate web leads Uses voice broadcasts, phone surveys, and SMS texts to generate phone leads Lead Tracking Tracks 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 when high-scoring web leads come in Calls the right sales rep immediately when highscoring 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 s 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

18 HOW IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION DIFFERENT FROM Ad Hoc Call Tracking Tools Some vendors only offer call tracking capability. How is that different than voice-based marketing automation? 18 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. Activity Call Tracking Only Voice-Based Marketing Automation Basic Call Tracking Get unique phone numbers for use in your ads Get 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 salesready 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

19 HOW IS VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION DIFFERENT FROM On-Premise IVR and Call Centers 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? 19 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. Activity On-Premise Solutions Voice-Based Marketing Automation Hardware Installed at your office No special hardware to install Cost to Deploy Expensive Inexpensive pay for what you use Time to Deploy Weeks or months Hours Difficulty of Updating Very requires programmers None updates are installed automatically Flexibility Improvements can take weeks and require extensive coding Improvements 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

20 SECTION 4: VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES

21 VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES Features Overview 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. 21

22 VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES Call Tracking and Reporting Track inbound calls back to their specific marketing source to prove and improve marketing ROI. 22 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 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

23 VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES Call Tracking and Reporting 23 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)

24 VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES Hosted IVR Build your own IVRs in minutes to route calls, qualify callers, process payments, and survey customers no programmers needed. 24 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 voic , the IVR can leave a customized message or put the number back in the queue to call later. IVR

25 VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES Hosted IVR 25 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 voic 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 IVR 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. I am really so blown away by the response we got on the IVR today. This blows 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

26 VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES Voice Broadcasting Generate leads, grow revenue, and improve customer service cost-effectively with personalized, interactive voice broadcasts. 26 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 . People may receive a hundred or more s in a day, and having your message stand out can be difficult. Voice broadcasts cut through the clutter by calling your audience directly. Voice-based marketing automation makes it easy for marketing, sales, and support to send out their own personalized, interactive voice broadcasts. 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: Personalize your voice broadcasts for each recipient 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. Voic detection: Customize your broadcasts with two messages: one for when a live person answers the phone, and an alternative for when the call goes to voic . 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.

27 VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES Voice Broadcasting 27 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 crossselling 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. 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

28 VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES Advanced Call Routing Automatically route calls to the right person at the right time no matter where they are based on your business needs. 28 Voice-based marketing automation has advanced call routing technology that enables your business to route calls based on your own customizable rules. Rules can be easily set up and updated on the fly as needed. Some call routing options include: Route by schedule: Create custom routing based on your office hours, the time zones of your customers, 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. By detecting the area code or zip code of 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 voicebased 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, voic 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 Minimize the risk of important calls going unanswered 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

29 VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES Virtual Call Centers Any sized business can rapidly deploy a flexible virtual call center for sales and support that cuts costs and improves operational efficiency. 29 Voice-based marketing automation makes it easy for businesses of every size to cost-effectively deploy 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 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 an actionable, organized help desk ticket, 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. 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.

30 VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES Virtual Call Centers 30 View Real-Time and Historical Call Reports Monitoring call center activity is easy using webbased 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

31 VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES Custom Call Forwarding Never miss an important customer or conference call with custom call forwarding. 31 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 Screen calls before accepting: Screen calls by listening to the caller s announcement before choosing to accept. that enables your hot leads and important customers Forward calls based on your office schedule: to reach your sales and support agents wherever they Forward calls to different phones (office, cell, home, About Ifbyphone etc.) or a group of phones, based on your business are. It s a great service if you have sales staff travelling hours. in the field or support agents who work from home or at client sites. Businesses also use it to proactively Forward calls in sequence or simultaneously: Ifbyphone manages, measures, and automates Ring several voice phones at once, in a specific order, or alert and connect groups for conference calls. conversations with your customers and in prospects. a random order. 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. Record calls: Keep a record of every conversation by recording phone calls. Receive s with transcribed voice messages: Transfer missed or declined calls to voice mail and receive s 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. 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 sizes and across all industries use Ifbyphone, including direct response, health care, real estate, home services, and lead generation. Learn more at Twitter: Facebook: (855) West Adams Street, 9th Floor Chicago, IL 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

32 VOICE-BASED MARKETING AUTOMATION FEATURES Agent Panels and Manager Dashboards 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. 32 Know Who Is Calling Before Taking the Call Transfer Calls When You Are Working from Home 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. Good technology and excellent customer service this is the way software-as-a-service is supposed to work! 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. - Darren Kincaid, WSI Full Spectrum Web Solutions Agent panels arm reps with valuable data on incoming callers