A prospect database is to a business like fuel is for a car – it’s vital to move forward! Using telemarketing to build a high quality database containing useful information is a great starting point for any marketing activity and should not be overlooked.

The power of having a two-way conversation with prospects through telemarketing should not be underestimated. The level of insight and information that can be gained through a two-way conversation is so much greater than through any other channel. Yes you can use data capture forms on your website to generate leads and build profile information. There will however always be a trade-off between asking the questions that you want the answers from without putting people off submitting the form.

Good telemarketers are able to glean information from potential customers about their existing solution, when they might be looking to change, what they are finding challenging and how and when they might like to be contacted in the future. This level of insight is invaluable as it enables for bespoke nurture programmes to be set up with tailored messaging delivered to the right people at the right time.

As well as obtaining detailed account profiling and market intelligence, telemarketing is still a highly effective form of lead generation. But with modern buyers wanting to engage with sales at a later stage (and often once they have partially validated the potential supplier), lead nurturing needs to be implemented to support all lead generation activity. A combination of lead generation through telemarketing and lead nurturing using sophisticated marketing automation software can be very effective.

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Prospects that have a requirement for your solution, but not right now, should be nurtured with high quality content over a period of time. By using marketing automation technology you can deliver the right message at the right time, whilst also tracking behaviour to identify levels of engagement. Lead scoring can then be used to identify when would be a good time to make contact with a prospect again.

Once a marketing automation programme starts to reach maturity and the prospect database is receiving good quality, personalised and relevant content; inbound enquiries are generated. These enquiries will usually be of a high quality (much greater than other inbound leads) as they have already established the supplier’s credibility and bought into their messaging. This is an example of where telemarketing can be used to drive the performance of other marketing channels – content marketing and marketing automation.

Clearly not every business will have a content marketing or marketing automation programme in place (although for most B2B businesses they should!). But even businesses that use email marketing or direct mail will benefit from the enhanced prospect database that telemarketing will deliver.

Find out more from Beanstalk about integrated marketing campaigns