I’m sure you are familiar with the voice broadcasts technology; you know the frustrating calls you get at dinner time blasting through your ear a pre-recorded message that starts playing immediately after you say: “Hello?”
Well if you want to annoy your customers and open a floodgate of complaints, it’s the perfect tool. But if you still want to reach your customers at home or on their mobile device with a voice message and get a favourable reaction, switch from the voice broadcast to the ringless voicemail technology.
In this blog, I want to introduce or re-introduce you to a powerful communication tool that will drive crazy results to any automotive marketing campaign from any department of your dealership: Ringless Voicemails.
If this is your first time hearing about the possibilities of the ringless technology get ready to be amazed, but if you are already familiar with automotive ringless voicemails, you might still want to stick around because I will share with you a few add-ons that can make a huge difference in the results of your next campaign.
Ringing or Not Ringing? There Lies The Difference.
The major difference between voice broadcasts and ringless voicemails is in the ringing. The broadcast will ring and deliver a message to a person standing at the other end of the call and who faces two choices: (1) stand by the phone and listen to the pre-recorded sales pitch without having the opportunity to place a word or (2) hang up.
What do you think most people do?
Now you might be tempted to think that the difference isn’t that big between listening to a pre-recorded message playing “live” and listening to a recorded voicemail, but the difference is massive.
Here’s why:
When listening to a voice broadcast, there is absolutely no doubt for the prospect that he or she is listening to a marketing message because they’re not having a conversation with another human being, they’re listening to a recording that is probably being sent to hundreds if not thousands of customers.
But with a ringless voicemail, prospects pick up the phone when it’s convenient, usually because they noticed the blinking visual notification alerting them to the fact that they have a voicemail. Their phone never rang. They listen to the message giving the sender the benefit of the doubt, presupposing that it was left by another human being; while at the same time, knowing it will be a recording.
That’s the state of mind they have when listening to your voicemail, and that’s HUGE!
Don’t Make This Fatal Mistake
Here’s where most dealerships fail when launching a ringless voicemail campaign: they write a script and record a message that speaks globally to all their customers, instead of recording a personal, toned down message, speaking to one single individual.
While I was in the middle of writing this blog, I received an email from Nels Kelly, the General Manager at Crowfoot Hyundai while we were preparing for his next campaign. His comment perfectly captures the essence of the mindset required to create a winning ringless voicemail message that will connect with prospects.
Here’s what Nels wrote: "I don’t want to do a message that sounds like a generic ad. I do want to do one that sounds like I actually called them and am personally inviting them. I want them to believe I dialled them and invited them (…) Last time I actually coughed in the recording which gave it a bit more reality!"
Nels comment was music to my ears. If you approach the creation of your ringless voicemail message with this mindset, your campaign will perfectly fit with the expectations and the presupposition your customers will have when picking up the phone to listen to the voicemail.
Go the other direction and blast them with a corporate, impersonal sales pitch, and you will break their trust.
Ringless Voicemail And Do Not Call Lists
Make sure your dealership is always aware of the laws applicable to voice technologies in your PMA. Make sure people can easily call back and request to be removed from your distribution list and maintain a master unsubscribe list that you can scrub against each time you do a campaign to avoid compliance issues.
Technically, the ringless voicemail technology uses the Internet to place the voice recording in prospects voicemailbox. It doesn’t use phone lines to “make the call.” This makes ringless voicemails a powerful tool for conquesting. Some technologies, like the one we use here at Turbo, can automatically scrub against the National Do Not Call list of certain markets, making it even more simple to generate leads from people outside of your database using the technology.
Don’t Forget The Call For Action
As with any marketing message, make sure you have a strong, clear call to action. If prospects are intrigued by your message, they need to know what you want them to do next?
Should they call, visit the dealership, or visit a Website? Be clear! Also, avoid having
a dual call to action like this: “…call us or come for a visit”. Research has shown that when prospects are provided with two choices, two courses of action, conversions drop by 50%.
You can also combine your ringless voicemail drop campaign with a powerful IVR. This combo will allow listeners the ability to call back and choose to talk to someone “live” at the dealership or get a link to a video or URL sent to their mobile device.
Combining automotive ringless voicemails with marketing automation can be a lead generation monster for your dealership.
Don’t Hesitate To Ask For Help
If you require help to create or send your car dealership’s next automotive ringless voicemail campaign, don’t hesitate to ask the automotive marketing experts at Turbo Marketing Solutions. We have the know-how, the expertise and the technology to help you generate instant and immediate results to help you sell more cars today with ringless voicemails.
Sean Cassy is the Digital Marketing Specialist and Co-Owner of Turbo Marketing Solutions. You can contact him by email here or reach him by phone every weekday at Turbo Marketing’s head office