The New Year is just around the corner and for small business owners the often daunting task of developing a solid marketing strategy for 2012 looms ahead, too. What should small business owners focus their marketing efforts on in 2012?
According to research just released by The Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute, 2012 won't be a walk in the park for most small businesses. Continuing economic uncertainty, access to capital, and politics will all affect small businesses in the coming year. One of the “biggest” challenges predicted for small businesses in the coming year Larger companies plan to aggressively marketing to prospects once considered "too small" in the past. In other words, the Big guys will be coming after your market share like never before!
In marketing, gone are the days where “less is more.” Today, we make sure to give more to our customers by constantly reminding them that our brand exists and it’s better than the rest. We make sure that every time prospective customer comes to us, we captivate them with our advertising. This philosophy holds true in on-hold marketing.
Implementing an on hold message system for your business in the coming year will go a long way. While it’s true callers don’t like to be put on-hold, on hold messages have proven to have high success rates in caller retention (callers will wait on hold with music and messages 3 times longer vs. music or silence - ) increased sales inquiries ( 40% increase in offers mentioned on hold) as well as increased revenues (sales increased by 20%+).
With on-hold marketing, you can convey your message, make offers, and advance your relationship to your callers who are put on-hold in your business’ phone system. Custom Music On-hold and messages are one of the most promising marketing strategies today and companies are making sure that they have utilized this kind of advertising method. With on-hold marketing, you will have better chances at winning customers, instead of losing them.
So if you’re planning your New Year’s marketing strategy, it had best include an on hold message system! Rather than having callers feel annoyed when in hold, or even worse “hang-up” due to silence causing lost revenues (oh by the way, which is exactly what the big boys want!), you’ll be able to provide an improved customer experience, a positive brand image and turn what’s often considered annoying waiting time into a positive experience.