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Finding Your Niche: Replacing Telemarketing
by Karyn Zoldan, Bridge Marketing.com
As of October 1, 2003, the telemarketing industry is about to come unplugged. Goodbye and good riddance to call centers, call
center hardware and software, and pesky anonymous phone calls morning, noon, and night. We no longer have to hear our names mispronounced (or worse asking for the man of the house) with human and robotic pitches for
long distance phone service, windshield repair, unlimited credit and low interest mortgages, free vacations, vacations won but must pay for some bogus fee in order to receive them, and who knows what else. Although
until September 30, be prepared to be bombarded with the last push of tele-opportunism.
The bad news is that thousands of mostly young adults will lose their pretty-much slightly better than minimum wage jobs. We
already have high unemployment and this will spike it.
Niche marketing replaces telemarketing
However, the good news is that if you are a marketer--now is the time to jump on the proverbial bandwagon with an alternative plan aimed at companies
relying on telemarketing. Will door-to-door sales reappear as an alternative? Probably not; people don't open up their doors to strangers or live in gated communities. Spam is another option (one that I don't
advocate) but hopefully spam filtering is becoming more sophisticated. Opt-in makes the most sense but would you opt-in to an email marketing list for windshield repair or carpet cleaning? Unlikely.
Improve brand marketing
Companies
minus telemarketing will have to think smarter and more honestly. They'll have to improve brand marketing so when the customer needs the service or product, they know whom to call. Newspaper and magazine advertising
will get a bigger piece of the advertising pie while radio and television sales that flattened after dot bombs will notice peaking. Yellow Page ads may become bigger as well as coupons. All of these are not
intrusive and except for coupons, not measurable either. Web sites should be the most polished user-friendly experience. PPC ads (pay-per-click) and search engine marketing will boom. Smart companies will sponsor
niche newsletters and e-zines so email marketing could blossom as long as they mind their vocabulary and get past the spam filtering, opt-in included.
So marketers, it's time to strap on those thinking helmets, get in high gear, and start pursuing the mountain of opportunities
that awaits.
Replace Telemarketing © BridgeMarketing.com 2003
Karyn Zoldan is owner of www.bridgemarketing.com. Does your business need effective,
search engine optimized web content that converts browsers into buyers or an email marketing columnist with attitude?
Did you benefit from this article? Do you think your site or e-newsletter can benefit from posting it? It's available for
recycling.
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