Today’s blog post is a little different than normal, because we’re taking you behind the scenes at Jungo.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been trying something new in our marketing department: voicemail drops. Now, if you’re reading this, your ears may have just perked up. Yes, that voicemail you recently received from us may have been a voicemail drop!
What is a voicemail drop?
You’ve probably heard of, or even used, a voicemail drop software while calling leads. Perhaps it was built into your auto dialer, or you utilized it for a specific call campaign.
But, in case you don’t know what a ringless voicemail drop is, here’s a summary. A voicemail drop software is just what it sounds like: it allows you to “drop” a voicemail message into someone’s phone, without their phone actually ringing.
This means that you can reach a larger number of contacts in a shorter period of time, because you don’t need to individually dial each number, and leave a new message every call.
Voicemail Drop Softwares
There are many different voicemail drop software available for you to choose from. Some of the most popular are, SlyDial, Drop Cowboy, RingDNA, and VoiceLogic. For our recent experiment with voicemail drop software, we used Drop Cowboy with great results.
Pricing of Voicemail Drops
Voicemail drops are normally very affordable, and are often billed based on the number of messages successfully delivered. This means that you will only pay for the voicemails that actually reach your target audience.
You can expect to pay an average of a few cents per delivered message, depending on your software’s billing structure.
When is a voicemail drop effective?
There are many times when a voicemail drop could be effective for you to use.
Reach More People
First, as mentioned above, if you need to reach many people with limited resources, this could be a great solution. For instance, when we recently launched a new product for our Jungo clients, we invited them to join us for a live launch. However, we knew that we couldn’t call our thousands and thousands of customers individually.
Instead, we recorded a voicemail, dropped the message to their phones, and then sent a follow-up email to them. We experienced a great response to this, and we wouldn’t have been able to reach even a small percentage of our client database with traditional calling.
Connect On Their Schedule
Additionally, one of the major downfalls of traditional calling is that you are interrupting your contact in the middle of their work day, or worse yet, at their home. With a voicemail drop, they can listen to the message and call back when it’s most convenient for them.
When is a voicemail drop not effective?
Although there are many benefits to voicemail drops, there are times when they may hurt you more than help you. If you complete voicemail drops very frequently, to the exact same list of contacts, you may see your conversion rates dwindle. Additionally, if your voicemails sound robotic or too generic, your reputation may also be damaged.
Because of all of these challenges, we put together a list of voicemail drop best practices that we discovered.
Decide On Your Segment
Just because you’re recording one message for many people doesn’t mean that you should be generic. Decide on a specific group of people you’d like to reach, and why you’re calling them. For instance, are you hosting a community event soon? Record a voicemail for locals in your area, inviting them to join you!
By focusing on specific segments and messages, your voicemails will be much more effective and well-received.
Strategize Your Timing
Like any marketing, timing is everything. It’s important to consider when your chosen segment will be receiving the voicemail. Even though their phone won’t actually be ringing, it’s probably best to choose to send them this message during business hours, in their time zone.
Plan Your Messaging
One benefit of a voicemail drop, is that unlike a normal voicemail, you have the chance to redo. You don’t want the recording to sound stilted or robotic, so we suggest avoiding writing a word-for-word script. Instead, brainstorm what points you’d like to get across.
A very basic voicemail outline may cover:
- Your name
- The reason for calling
- Why they should call back
- Your contact information
- The promise that you will send a follow-up email
Once you decide the content of your message, it’s time to practice and record. Listen back to your message: does it sound natural, friendly, and personal? If not, rerecord.
Keep It Short
It’s important to keep your voicemail messages very short. After all, how many times have you received a lengthy sales call and listened to the whole thing? Probably not often.
Because of this, your message should be 30 seconds or less. Every second past 30 decreases your response rate by 2%.
Give A Call Back Number (And Answer!)
It may go without saying, but whatever number you include in your voicemail needs to be answered! If someone wants more information, this will be how they reach out to you. Therefore, it’s important that you have a plan in place for how you will manage the response.
For example, when we recently used voicemail drops in our product launch campaign, we needed to be prepared for potentially hundreds of people to call. Because of this, we set up a round robin so that if someone called our main office number, someone from our staff would call them back. Whether you have a team to help you manage calls, or it’s just you, it’s important to think ahead about how you will handle any return calls.
Send a Follow-Up Email
One way to minimize the number of calls that you may receive is to send a follow-up email. This is also a great way to ensure that your intended audience receives your message. For instance, if someone’s voicemail box is full or they don’t check their messages regularly, an email may be the best way to follow-up.
Keep the email simple, and just focus on the basics that they need to know.
For example, you could say something like this: “Hi! I just left you a message about an upcoming event that I am hosting. I wanted to invite you to join us on Sunday, May 24th for a Memorial Day BBQ. Give me a call back at (555) 555-5050, or reply to this email to let me know if you can make it, or if you have any questions. Have a great day!”
This will confirm the information for your listener, and if they respond to your email instead of calling you back, you’ll be able to manage the response better.
Track, Track, Track
Many voicemail drop programs come equipped with the tools to track the effectiveness of your campaign. Determine how many messages were successfully delivered, who called you back, and how many people took whatever the desired action behind the message was. All of this information will help you plan for your campaigns in the future.
Bottom Line
Voicemail drops can be a great option for sales and marketing professionals looking to add a tool to their virtual toolbox. Like any strategy though, it’s not one-size-fits-all. Carefully consider how and when you should deploy this tool for it to be its most effective.
We had a great experience using voicemail drops, and fully intend to use them again! They helped us reach more of our customers, in less time, with fewer resources.
