How do calling and emailing work together for marketing?

The dilemma of whether a rep should email or call their prospect is one that is faced by everyone from time to time. When reaching out to leads, businesses want to use every avenue available to them in order to optimally target their audience. Emailing and calling have been a big part of any marketing strategy but how well do the two work together?

If you’ve got a decision to make between the two, the best option to ensure you’re utilising all your resources is to create a strategy that includes both.

While email marketing provides a wider reach at a quicker pace, calling your leads and clients is more personal and offers an instant result. Using these two strategies in tandem can only help amplify your reach as well as figure out the right way to communicate with each customer or prospect. Since both have their own unique pros and cons, understanding and identifying when to use which is the key here.

Why call prospects and customers?

Whether a client or prospect wants to communicate with you is definitely up to them but one thing is for sure — ignoring emails is much easier than ignoring a call. At any given moment, our inboxes are filled with numerous sales and promo emails that mostly always end up in the trash box. Since there is a higher chance of your email getting buried amid these other sales ones, placing a phone call gives you the advantage of holding the prospect’s attention.

On a phone call, the rep can also take control of the conversation and improve it according to the person being spoken to. It allows you to be more interactive as well as make a meaningful connection with them. Real-time communication works very efficiently when reps need to make a sales call, get referrals, schedule meetings, talk about the next steps, and more.

Speaking over the phone is also a better option when there is a back and forth conversation to be had, especially when the prospect or rep has questions for the other person. A phone call becomes much more time-efficient and reduces unnecessary confusion, delays, and complexities.

Why use email marketing to reach prospects and customers?

Email marketing has been a tried and tested form of marketing for businesses and its effectiveness has been seen by all companies even in this age of social media. Research shows that for every $1 a business spends on email marketing, an ROI of $38 is generated.

The main benefit of using email marketing is the fact that it can reach an extremely huge number of people all over the world that too with a personalised message. Though for this to happen effectively, you must ensure that your emailing list is clean and updated so you can get a higher conversion rate.

It is true that while emailing has a wide reach, it is also more complicated than directly calling a prospect or customer. When you send an email to someone out of the blue, you cannot always expect them to pay due attention every time.

Employing the proper tactic like using a very targeted email with a captivating headline and message can definitely make your communication stand out. Identify and segment your audience in a way that completely customised communication is possible so that your email marketing efforts pay off tremendously.

As opposed to calling your prospects, sometimes emailing is a better way to reach them directly as top decision-makers in companies aren’t always going to be available on the phone. Emailing provides a better introductory or initial communication in such cases as it may not be possible to get managers, CEOs, C-level execs, and such high-level employees directly on the phone.

Another advantage of email is that it provides reps the time to compose the right message without having to hurry and think on the spot. Unlike on a call where the rep needs to be instantly engaging, it offers the option of testing out the performance and compose the best email for the intended purpose.

Following up is another aspect that can greatly help increase open and click-through rates for your email campaigns. Just sending one or two emails isn’t going to get you the results you desire and the only answer to this is following up. Following up via email is much easier as it is less intrusive and can be used more times as a communication medium than a call, without pestering the prospect or customer.

Create a strategy that incorporates calling and emailing

Using calling and emailing in tandem allows you to use one feature when the other doesn’t seem plausible. Here are some factors to consider when shifting between the two.

Day and time

Research shows that phone connect rates are higher as the day or week progresses. This means it is ideal to call your prospect or customer post lunch time on a given day or later in the week on Thursdays and Fridays. The first half of the day, much like Monday and Tuesday, is always busy and filled with immediate tasks that need to be complete.

When it comes to sending an email, you would think any time of the day is fine — the receiver will get to it when they have time. But the optimal time to send emails is ten minutes after the hour or ten minutes before the hour. Professionals usually have a few minutes between meetings and take the time to quickly go through their emails. Sending them at these targeted times will allow your email to stay on top of their inbox and not get lost in the crowd.

Main objective

What is your “ask” or objective when you are first reaching out to prospects? Do you want to introduce them to your products and services, set up a meeting, speak about a query they had, or referrals? Divide these objectives into “weak” or “strong” as that will help you determine whether you should call or email.

When you have a strong ask like a product trial or request for a meeting, choose to pick up the phone as such objectives require a certain amount of commitment from the prospect to take the next step. On the other hand, if your ask is weak, write them an email instead of taking up unnecessary time on the phone.

Buyer Persona

Choose between the two ways of communication depending on the buyer persona of the prospect as well. Depending on the business, industry, age, seniority leave, interest, and more, they may favour a particular communication medium over the other. For instance, people in customer-facing roles are more comfortable speaking over the phone while professionals who handle internal jobs may be more comfortable with emails.

Momentum of the deal

Depending on how swiftly your deal with the prospect is moving along, ensure to take advantage of the situation and use the right communication method. If things are almost at a close and your prospect is always responsive, don’t slow the process down with an email and instead place a call to speed things up and finalise.

However, if your prospect is slow to respond, still not sure about what you have to offer, or just taking their time, sending multiple follow-up emails can help the situation as constantly calling can get annoying.

Reaching out to prospects and customers can be challenging without the proper know-how and tools. With the above knowledge, you can ensure the research and planning you do for each campaign doesn’t go to waste and is instead optimally used. Use the above tips to understand which of the two approaches fits which situation for you best, helping your strategies do better and boost conversion rates.

Choosing a Customer Relationship Management system for your business is the next step towards gaining complete access to powerful and efficient features. Such a software is equipped with features that assist reps in telephony as well as email marketing strategies to reach customers and prospects in a timely and efficient manner.

Get in touch with FIVE CRM to know how we incorporate the above required features and try out new-age tech that is perfect for helping businesses grow.

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