Marketing Strategy: #Technology Killed the #Landline

#Telephone trends have changed dramatically altering advertising effectiveness and spurring new marketing strategies, but the sweet spot of the future might not be where you think!

A new report from the CDC shows a 40% shift in the types of phone services Americans are using in the last ten years alone. Landline usage has reportedly dropped back to WWII era levels, with some demographic groups reporting 75.9% no longer have any landline phone at all.

What does this mean for marketing?

It obviously brings many challenges for telemarketing and outbound call centers. Many have offset this by delegating their call center operations offshore to low expenses as conversions drop. However, the resulting drop in phone agent quality is certainly also compounding the decline in advertising effectiveness, making room for the few onshore top guns to really stand out.

Most businesses immediately deduce that the future is all about mobile marketing and apps, though far too many still fail to develop their own apps.

Truly savvy marketers are able to get the edge in all types of outbound phone marketing by digging further into the data to target prospects and tailor messages based on types of devices and phone carriers. Bulk SMS, mobile ads and apps all still have their place, as does social if targeted well. Even cold calling can still work effectively if approached the right way.

At the same time it must be expected that saturation will also affect outbound mobile marketing in the next 24 months. This means it is more essential than ever for companies to also have strong and memorable brands, with highly visible toll free numbers as well as great content for attracting and closing inbound business too.