The popular opinion today is that cold calling to a virtual phone number is a redundant sales strategy and should be abandoned. With newer technology round the corner, there are several other sales strategies that are now available to the sales team. These reach a larger group of people, make them more well-informed and help to generate better leads.
While there can be an ever-going debate about the potential of cold calling on the virtual mobile phone number, we can definitely discuss some of its top alternatives as well. These work as a great sales strategy and give newer opportunities to create leads.
So, here are some of the top alternatives to Cold Calling that must not be underestimated.
Top 8 alternatives to Cold Calling
- Email Campaigns
Email campaigns are a very cheap and effective way to reach out to a large number of people at one time. Such campaigns help to draw interest since you are able to send the relevant content to potential leads. Another great advantage is that unlike in the case of cold calling through voice calls made using Cloud Phone System, the recipient can read them when they have time. But the emails should definitely be informative, personalized and must include a call-to-action.
- Blogging
Blogging is now being popularly used as a marketing tool by a number of businesses today. It does not just help to create web traffic but also draws the people towards the website of the company when they click on the blog. When the prospects read the blogs, they regard the company as an expert in the field and more and more leads are generated by the collection of email addresses.
- Webinars
Just like blogging, hosting informative webinars is a great way to spread knowledge and awareness about your product or company. The potential customers understand the importance of your company and leads for future communication are also prepared. Just like in the case of blogging, individuals will consider you as an expert in the field and will come back for more if they are well-informed.
- Membership only content
While you are sharing a major part of the content with the general public, you must leave some for the customers that choose to be engaged. There should be a sign-in for the customers who wish to read the content and they should provide their email for the purpose. This will help to get more email addresses and generate warm leads. But this alternative is helpful only in the cases where websites already have a substantial following. People would definitely be apprehensive about sharing their email addresses with companies they know nothing about.
- Use of Social Media
One of the most popular forms of marketing tools, social media is also an effective medium of reaching out to a large group of people or community. While Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are very popularly and widely used, there are other smaller platforms as well that help equally well. Facebook helps to direct people to related content or blogs and LinkedIn helps in adding to the email list of the company. Such platforms help to collect the customer base which is crucial for any marketing technique.
- Customer Referrals
Referrals that come from current customers are very helpful in generating leads. The existing customers are nothing less than an important resource to the company. Ask them for a testimonial, a feedback; reward them in the form of discounts or special services every time they get a new customer to the business.
- Social networking events
Meeting new people face-to-face in events is a great way to explore and expand the knowledge and reach of your business. Make time to create an impact and talk about your product or services but do not try to close a deal in the first meeting. Exchange business cards or connect on LinkedIn so it will be easier to follow-up from where you left.
Such an influence can definitely not be achieved by making cold calls to US Virtual Phone of prospective customers.
- Direct Mail
We cannot ignore the traditional direct mail here! Even though it is expensive, time-consuming and complicated, it is effective. There are several researches that have proven that the content is the king. So, if you can ensure that the content you are offering is informative and well-crafted, you can also be sure that the people will respond to it.
In short, it is no match to making a cold call on the virtual mobile phone number. However, once the first contact is created with a potential customer, persuade the prospect to join the email community since the regular use of direct mail will be expensive and time-consuming in the long run.
Our list ends here. What, among these, is your favorite method of cold calling, by the way?