Has your website suddenly lost a lot of traffic? Or did it never attract much traffic to begin with? If the answer to the above two questions is a "yes", then it is more than a probability that your website is too dull and unappealing. A video spokesperson could change all that!

Cater to the changing taste of your customers.

Times have changed and as a society we are use to getting the information we want quickly. If you are thinking that banner ads or having what you think is cool looking flash on your website will do it for you, then you must know that now a days people don't even notice banner ads, and usually skip right past your tricked out little flash. Why?  Because they want their information now, on-demand and aren’t willing to wait! They will be gone and off to a competitor’s website in less than 8 seconds.

Video spokesperson can increase sales and take your branding endeavors to the next level.

If you want to capture the interest of your potential customer, and get them to remain on your site then you have to go the extra mile. That is what makes a video marketing such an outstanding idea. A Video website spokesperson (or Virtual Website Spokesperson) works in two ways; the main goal is often to sell something straight away, but there is also the branding effect as well. If you get the branding right then it will mean that people will remember you and return when they have a need for your product or service. At the moment a video spokesperson is almost everywhere on the web; and the reason for that is, it works.

Using a video spokesperson will give you a few minutes window to tell the visitor what you want them to do, and more importantly, how your products and services are a perfect fit for them. You can do a lot to capture a visitor's imagination if you have a few minutes to talk to them personally through a video. See a live video spokesperon demo on your website right now, or Browse through some of our video spokesperson examples to see how other companies are benefiting from this innovative on-line marekting tool.

Virtual Media Group is a leader in video spokesperson technology and is ranked by topseos as one of the top ten virtual spokesperson company's. 

It is inevitable that at one time or another, you have no alternative but to put your client on hold; however, make this your opportunity to demonstrate to them how professional your company is. This may be the only opportunity you have to do business with them so you can't afford to get their on hold experience wrong. It is worth investing a little bit of time to get this right.

The on hold message needs to engage the caller, to defuse potential frustration. Make this an opportunity to educate and create a good impression of your company and products.

The Script:

First and foremost, tell the caller where they are and thank them for calling. "Thank you for calling [Company Name], please hold, an advisor will be with you shortly" is a good start. Don't bombard them with all of your information at once, the on hold script needs to be segmented and concise. Shorter paragraphs spread out over your chosen music will be received better and is more effective in smaller chunks. After the initial greeting, make the first three on hold segments the most salient. These should be points that the caller will be interested in and ensure that they stay on the line. For example, if your company is holding an annual event, has a special offer, a free magazine etc. make sure that this information is communicated in the few first messages.

You may say something like...

"Stay on the line and request your free magazine when you are connected"

OR

"Stay on the line and get your 15% discount code when you are connected"

Always try to tell them about things that may be of interest to them. Give them an incentive to stay on hold. Telling your caller that you offer a 15% discount at the weekends is much more helpful to them than continuously thanking them for holding. Build confidence in your brand and provide your caller with good information.

Here are a few ideas for this:

• Has you or your company won any awards?
• Do you / your company hold any relevant qualifications?
• What charitable foundation do you support?
• Do you attend / exhibit at any industry trade events?
• Do you have a useful blog or article archive?
• Have you taken steps to be “green” that is not being done by your competitors? 

Patience is a virtue, but not to the caller on hold. 

With many cutbacks in staff and personnel, callers are being forced to have prolonged wait or hold times.  In order to prevent caller abandonment (caller hang-ups/lost calls), it is always a good idea to thank the caller for remaining on the line and reassure them that their call is important and that you or your staff will be back to cater to their needs as quickly as possible.

So you should say something like, "Thank you for continuing to hold, your patience is appreciated" or  "Thank you for your patience, please continue to hold and we will be with you shortly”.

On Hold Message Content Changes.

Like anything else no matter how well your on hold message script is written, if the content is heard by the same people over and over and  no longer resonating with your callers that it’s no longer a good on hold message script. They key to successful on hold messaging is to update the message content frequently. 

On Hold Inc offers several on hold service pricing options and MVP (Messaging Value Packages) that allow you to quickly and easily freshen up message content for promotional offers, sale items, seasonal products/services, trade shows, etc. This will give your callers the impression that you care about their on hold experience, not to mention the potential for generating revenues by keeping callers informed. Let our staff go to work for you and create  a custom on hold message script and production for you to audition and evaluate in three days or less using our risk-free on hold demo trial offer.

Because video has become the new darling of search engines, many startups are rushing to create and post video on their websites. Just run a Google or Bing search on any topic, and links to video clips pop up right on page one. The reason for this is that search engines are tripping over themselves to provide blended search results¬--links to news, blog posts, photos, video and other specialized content all mixed together. To ensure video is included in the results, search engines give them preferential treatment. This trend presents startups that are able to produce quality video content with tremendous search engine optimization (SEO) opportunities. In fact, Forrester Research reports that compared with standard SEO techniques, a properly submitted video is 50 times more likely to achieve a first-page Google ranking. And because video is in such short supply, relative to other web-based content, the competition for search engine attention is less fierce.

Over the next two years, websites will start to resemble television commercials with video and multimedia. Advertisers spend billions of dollars each year on TV ads because they know what works. They know they have 3-5 seconds to grab your attention, and they aren't doing that with text! This is the future of the web, and your website home page is no different than a television commercial. With video, you have a chance to grab your perspective customer’s attention fast and in a unique way!

Like anything else, image is everything! The do-it-yourselfer videos will be ignored by viewers, nor will they be SEO friendly. Virtual Media Group is a full service multimedia production company specializing in producing rich media, web video productions including our video website spokesperson and high impact web infomercials.

Numerous studies have been conducted about the affects of music on hold in the business environment. Mood states are a particularly important set of affective factors, they form a part of all marketing situations and can influence consumer behavior in many contexts.

Analysis have shown that  there are three vital areas in which mood effects and states can be influenced by marketing tactics.

1. Increases on-hold waiting times (callers will wait on hold longer).
2. Stimulate purchasing decisions.
3. Sooth an angry customer.

Music communicates with our hearts and minds; it serves as a powerful connection into our emotions. Music is versatile, it has the ability to relax or invigorate. Music is memorable, it can transport us in an instant to places we want to be.  Music can be a critical component of atmosphere and plays a role in purchase decision making process.  Music creates an audio environment where customers feel comfortable, relaxed and happy to spend time and money. The use of carefully selected music creates an immediate distinction for a retail brand by establishing the right mood. Music on hold can motivate the subconscious and create a first and lasting impression.

In business music on hold can set the mood. What do your callers hear when they are placed on hold at your company? Are you doing your part to influence a positive customer experience? Listen to some of our client's music on hold demos to see what they've done for their business.

Contact On Hold Inc  at 1-866-88-ON-HOLD or visit www.onholdinc.com and learn more about our custom music on hold and message services to help transform and influence your callers experience by setting the right mood. 

Let’s start out first by understanding What a value proposition is? It is the analysis of where Value = Benefits – Cost.

So what is the value proposition of on hold marketing? How will you know if your company will benefit from an on hold message or not? Will you be able to measure whether an investment of marketing to callers on hold will return good results?

Sure, we could answer the question of “what is the value proposition of on hold messaging” with one simple question.  How much in additional sales has your company reaped by having your callers wait in silence, listen to canned music or a radio station?  The answer.... Zilch, Zip, Nadda, Bubcus - NOTHING!  So the value proposition of the alternatives to on hold messages is 0.

So let’s take a realistic approach to determine the value proposition of on hold messages for your business.

Over the course of a day, a week, or even a month…how many calls does your business receive? Have you ever thought about counting them? Have you ever tried? According to studies conducted, the average small- medium sized business receives approximately 15.6 calls per day or 78 calls per week. Now take that number, and times it by an average of 21 business days per month and your business receives approximately 327.6 calls per month.
Numerous studies conducted show that 70% of all calls are placed on hold. That’s 229.3 calls that get placed “on hold” per month or 2,751 calls placed on hold per year! (You can pick up your jaw from the floor now).

These same studies conclude that the average hold time (for small-medium sized businesses) is approximately  :45-60 seconds, but in many cases up to 3 minutes or longer with larger companies. 

If you’re one of “those” business owners who feel “we don’t put people on hold”, willing it not to happen doesn’t mean that it never does. Being On-Hold is a fact of life. 

1. Larger companies …like call centers, tech support, and customer service. These hold times tend to be on the longer side of the spectrum. As a trial, we contacted Jet Blue reservations today, and waited on hold for 12 minutes before an agent answered our call.

2. Small-Medium sized businesses. Don’t kid yourself there are still plenty of situations where your callers are being placed “on hold”. 

Here’s the proof:

Hold times that business owners often don’t even think about such as: Waiting while a representative looks up an order. What about being placed on hold while being transferred to the person with whom you would like to speak,  or while your employee checks the stock of an item, or checking the calendar for the availability of scheduling a service call. But wait, there’s more! What about being transferred to another person, or being sent to voicemail.
Having a professionally produced on hold message system will educate callers about your products or services, promote special offers or sale items, reduce caller abandonment rates (callers who hang-up), build brand awareness, improve the customer service experience and project a professional business image.

So What is the Value Proposition of On Hold Messages?

Value – 70% of all calls are placed on hold.... 50% of callers who hang-up won’t call back (caller abandonment).... 88% of callers prefer on hold messages to silence, music or radio.

Benefits – increased sales opportunities, cross promotion of products/services/sale items,  reduce caller abandonment rates (callers will wait on hold longer), build brand awareness, improved overall customer experience.

Cost – Just pennies per day. On average the cost of a professional on hold system is less than the cost of a cup of coffee per day.

Measure the value of what a custom On-Hold message from On Hold Inc can bring to your company. Begin our risk-free on hold system trial now, or call us at 1-866-88-ON-HOLD.

Not everyone likes to read. This is especially true online. Not many people would read 250 word introductions to a product, they would rather scan through the different pages of the site in the hope of finding what they. What if the information were just given to the users? What if SOMEONE actually TALKED to them and told them what they needed to know? What if someone just walked in and told them about the special features of the site, its promos and services without having to make them click this and that? That would surely make things a lot easier for the user, wouldn’t it? Fortunately, technology is in sync with consumer needs and that SOMEONE is already here. It’s the a Video Website Spokesperson or A.K.A. Virtual Website Spokesperson.

Online marketers are learning that interactive technologies can present a message in an innovative way and create a better user-experience for their audiences while boosting returns on their marketing investments. That’s why Smart and savvy marketers are looking for ways to effectively incorporate video into their websites and with good reason. It’s never good to get left behind.

The benefits to be gained from a more interactive site are:

Engage and Create an Emotional and Personal Connection Develop Strong Brand Awareness and Lasting Impression Increase Response Rates Improve Conversion Ratios Acquire New Clients and Enhance Customer Satisfaction Improve Overall Business Performance A recent study found that 79% of respondents found great value in video and believe this format is an effective tool that enhances brand awareness, educates customers, underscores the value of products and makes online content more compelling. A Virtual Website Spokesperson is easily integrated in any web site and can appear over text, images or interactive forms by inserting simple code to your existing web page. This will help you stand out, get noticed, increase response rates and make more money from your marketing initiatives.

There is a lot to learn about online video production and many marketers are now being tasked with incorporating video and other multimedia into their corporate web sites to take advantage of sight and sound that will engage visitors at a whole new level.

Virtual Media Group is an innovator and leader in rich, interactive multimedia productions. We’re willing to put our money where our mouth is! We’ll provide you with a FREE Virtual Website Spokesperson to try out on your very own website for 14 days. No Money. Call us at 1-888-345-VIDEO to get your FREE video trial offer today!

A warm, helpful, professional and friendly voice on the phone can build customer loyalty, or if missing, drive them to a competitor. Extend the common courtesies to your callers and create a reputation of legendary service to keep your customers coming back through effective, well-written and produced on hold messages.

The top 3 tips for great customer service and telephone etiquette include:

1. GREET
A warm, friendly, professional voice says a lot to your callers. It psychologically makes the callers feel at ease while they have to “hold on”. In fact, studies have proven that even callers who are contacting your company with a complaint are less agitated when they are greeted by a warm, friendly voice. The same study showed that callers who waited in “dead silence”, or were forced to listen to annoying muzak elevator music were more enraged by the time your human representative answered their call. These studies have suggested that whatever the reason for the call, callers who hear a professional on hold message believe that you are willing to help.

2. TONE
Since you are not face-to-face, the most important measure of good communication in this case is voice quality and tone. Professional on hold messaging allows you to keep the callers experience positive and enthusiastic. Remember, the image the customer has of the person who is answering your company’s phone is the image the customer has of YOUR COMPANY. Is it flat, monotone or upbeat and perky? Is it abrupt, indifferent or polite and empathetic? You want to hire NICE people to answer your phone who will be NICE to your customers. And that’s exactly what an on hold message does for your business.

3. APPRECIATION
Everyone wants to be appreciated. Having a professional on hold message program allows you to effectively communicate sincere gratitude for your customer’s patronage.

In closing, an on hold message just makes good business sense when it comes to enhancing your customer service and professionalism. It makes a positive, lasting impression on the customer. The “Golden Rule”  for any business is service, service, service and your on hold message is your company’s ambassador when it comes to good customer service.

On Hold Inc. is a full service custom music on hold and messages production company offering a wide variety of message on hold equipment and production options for any size business and any size budget.

Let’s face it in today’s business climate you want to get more with spending less! That’s exactly where a professionally produced music on hold message can pay tremendous dividends. An On-hold message program wears many hats it’s your receptionist, sales reps, marketing team, technical support and customer service agent all rolled into one.

It’s your Customer Service Agent: it can tell callers about the provision of order processing information, special phone numbers, etc.

It’s your PR Firm: Your on-hold message can present Public image applications that tout your community involvement, special awards won or accomplishments as well as inform callers of industry news and new technology.

It’s your Tech Support Staff:  Your on hold message can provide callers with answers to frequently asked questions and problem solving tips. 

It’s your Sales Rep & Marketing Team: Your on hold message will reinforce branding, elaborate your strengths and build trust in the way you conduct business. Plus it provides timely information about your products, services, special offers and sale items. It can even promote your various social media platforms by informing callers about your twitter, facebook or youtube channel.

Your on hold message is your best employee. Why? It never calls in sick, never asks for a raise, is always pleasant to your customers and prospects and it never  asks to take a break.

Your customers' time is valuable. When they are placed on hold, their perceived length of waiting time is magnified by the sound of dead air. However, that on-hold time can be positive when you use the opportunity to inform, educate, motivate and entertain your callers with on hold messaging. Test drive it an on hold message today with our Risk-Free On Hold System Trial Offer. We're so confident that you'll absoutely love it, or you pay nothing!

In today’s ever changing world, innovation is one of the primary tools for leading the competition. Video Website Spokesperson  or Virtual Spokesperson is probably the most effective in making your website earn a high page ranking in search engines. They add an altogether new lease of life into your websites.
If you want to generate more visitors to your web site don’t just rely on written content. Not all people like to read content online. Many are attracted by learning visually. This is why video marketing is so powerful. You now see Google video ads, video newsletters, video sales letters and so on.

Top 7  benefits of website video marketing using a video spokesperson or web infomercials

1. Attract a large audience
Video enables you to capture people who like to watch rather than read. This extends the reach of your content because you can appeal to visual learners.

2. Educates the Viewer
Seeing is in fact believing for many people, and what better way to show your customer more about your product or service by providing them with a detailed marketing video. To produce video traffic, you should create a video filled with useful information or instructions. This is the perfect opportunity to provide your visitor with the information they seek while targeting your website for increased sales.

3. It Creates a Business Brand
One of the hardest things to do for an online website is to create a business brand. There are so many companies on the Internet in competition with one another that it can be hard to stand above the rest. With video marketing however, you are given the chance to reach out to visitors. You can connect with your video traffic by providing personal or detailed information on your product or service and about yourself as well. This forms a bond between you and the viewer, and makes them more likely to visit your website, or recognize your name in the future.

4. Achieve top rankings in the search engines
Google recently introduced Universal Search. This means videos now appear in the search results pages. For example if you Google “Mustang” you’ll see video listings of mustang cars on the first page of Google.

5. Become known as an expert in your field
If you consistently create high quality video content that your visitors want and need you will soon become recognized as the expert in your field.

6. Engages the senses
If a picture is worth a 1000 words, then video does even more because you can create live movies with sound. This engages more senses than written text which only uses one medium.

7. Access at any time
You can view videos with all kinds of devices these days (ie.) ipods, cell phones, laptops, etc. allowing you to access video content anywhere at any time.

In this technological day and age it is easier to get a visitor to watch a two-minute video then it is to try and get them to read a long website article. Also, while visitors might stop reading an article after only a few paragraphs, if your marketing video is engaging, then they will be more likely to watch it till the very end. This provides your product, service, or website with more exposure, and increases your chance of getting a click through to your site.

If you want to get your slice of the video marketing pie in order to drive video traffic, and start building targeted videos for your website. Visit www.virtualmediagroupusa.com or call us at 1-888-345-VIDEO for a free, no-obligation consultation.

Meet John Doe - a smart and savvy business person and a potential new customer of yours. John has a need for the products or services you provide and the budget to pay for them. He is also well-connected with a large network of business associates, co-workers, friends, and family with whom he frequently shares his impressions regarding his business experiences.

John expects the companies with whom he does business to provide the high level of service she provides to her customers. Those who do are rewarded with a loyal customer and a rich source of referrals. Those who drop the ball not only lose a valuable customer, but they miss out on the referrals, and may even earn a negative reputation. John is about to pick up the phone and call your business for the first time. What will his experience be?

John understands that you may be busy with other customers and unable to help her immediately, so he's willing to wait on hold for a short time. How will his on-hold experience color his impressions of your company? This is her first contact, and it is likely to have a lasting impact and play a major role in his decision as to whether or not to do business with you. A music-on-hold-message is a combination of elements including music, words, voice, audio production, and on hold equipment. Music on-hold messages range tremendously in style, quality, and content.

They can project a definite image about the business in terms of who they are, what they do, how they do it, why they are in business. Is your on-hold music and message an accurate reflection? While John is waiting on hold are you projecting an image of a professional, responsive, considerate company that is motivated to meet his needs? By the time John's call is answered will he be better informed about your company, aware of pertinent company news or specials, better educated and better equipped to make a buying decision? Words and music can be powerful conveyors of emotion. What emotions do you want John to be feeling when you answer his call?

When John hangs up from this call will you have won or lost his business? Your music on-hold message can help determine that outcome. Music on hold are an important part of any serious business. Let the professionals at On Hold Inc help you make the most of your customers on-hold experience.