How SMBs Can Leverage VoIP to Boost Marketing Strategies

The following is a guest blog post by John Allen, Director and Global SEO of RingCentral.

When people think of modernizing a small and medium businesses (SMB), they think of using live chat or exploring secure video conferencing . We no longer consider a good, old fashioned phone call. 

However, this channel is a much better way of bringing us into the 21st century than we realize.

A VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, phone setup combines the traditional with the modern and is an excellent way of boosting your marketing strategies. 

Right now, the thought of using VoIP may seem a little confusing, but the tech is nothing to be feared. For SMBs, start-ups, and entrepreneurs, it’s a little bit of magic that will help your business soar like an eagle. 

A VoIP system allows you to talk to customers by phone call over the internet. Using VoIP as part of your marketing strategy helps you connect with clients in a more personal way, making you seem more approachable and less “business-like”. At the same time, it gives you the competitive edge and lets your small or medium-sized business operate like a big business. 

How else can SMBs leverage VoIP to boost marketing strategies?

Boost Customer Satisfaction

Everybody likes to feel special and unique, especially customers.

Sometimes, contacting customers through a generic email just won’t cut it. Emails are all well and good for those looking for simple answers, but every now and again, you need to get into the nitty-gritty of a product. Occasionally customers need — or want — to talk to an actual human being to get the answers they want.

Using a VoIP system allows you to talk to buyers in-depth over the phone. It lets you make the most of sales prospecting, too. VoIP systems also allow you to speak to clients about things they may not have otherwise known about. 

According to a study from Genesys,  the biggest part of customer satisfaction is human interaction. This means that talking to customers through VoIP phone calls will optimize the customer experience. 

It’s a bit like learning from customer review examples. You can interact with customers and see what you need to work on or find out what is already working well. 

Having this in your marketing strategy means your customers will receive personalized customer service that allows for real human interaction and for in-depth discussions about products or services they’re interested in. 

Increase Your Presence

You’ve got your name out there on social media. You have built your marketing strategy. And you have managed to set up live chat to communicate quickly with customers. 

Yet, it still feels as though you could be doing more to maximize your presence. 

There is one way VoIP can solve this: Giving customers a VoIP number to call ensures you are covering all areas of communication. 

Many companies solely use FAQ sections or online communities to deal with problems. This can end up with the customer going in circles trying to get an answer to unique question. 

What’s more, some people simply don’t like relying on computers and social media for everything. They may not have spotted your bold and witty ad on Facebook or it may not occur to them to go to your website to ask the chatbot a question. 

Giving people the option to contact you via internet phone covers all bases. You can even set up a phone answering service, allowing customers to leave a message. Just make sure to actually respond to the messages. 

Understand Which Strategies Are Working

When you think of VoIP, the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t advertising. However, it is the perfect way to keep track of the ads and marketing strategies that are working the best. 

This is because using a VoIP phone system allows you to give out several different numbers; for example, you can give clients internationally a number local to them. This way you can create a globally connected audience. 

You can assign different numbers to different advertisements. This enables you to track how many calls are coming in from each campaign. Then you can cater to your marketing strategy according to the results.

Different numbers also allow you to use your business for different things. For example, you may decide to take part in some virtual fundraising. A separate number can be set up for this and it can then easily be answered alongside your regular inbound calls.

Knowing what’s working and what isn’t can help you calculate your profit margin and determine where to invest your marketing budget. 

There are many ways in which a VoIP phone setup will improve your marketing strategy. 

It’s a piece of tech that unites the old with the new and is a great way of modernizing a company while optimizing traditional methods of communication. 

Using this system will bring customer satisfaction through the option of human interaction, will increase your presence in your field, and lets you track which strategies are working the best. 

If you haven’t already, it’s time to adopt this technology to bring your company into the future whilst still keeping communication old school. 

As a final piece of advice, if you are looking to outsource to communication experts, there are many excellent hosted VoIP providers that can offer you specific help in your field. Whether you are looking to increase your presence or you want to create more specific marketing strategies, there is a host out there for everyone.