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15 Useful Advertising Techniques for Any Business

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Business owners need to do everything in their power to pull customers towards their products and brand. And the best way to do so is advertising and marketing what your company stands for. Effective advertising techniques can change the way potential customers interact with your brand and increase its presence in the market.

Make Your Business Visible: Effective and Creative Advertising Techniques To Try

Marketing your product and business includes creating a company profile and informing potential customers that you exist. It involves showcasing your talents or services and how they are useful and resourceful. From creating a logo to investing in social media marketing, there is a range of advertising techniques you can experiment with to see which grabs the most attention.

1. Create a Business Profile and Brand it

Just having a name and website or storefront is not going to work. You need to create a brand, a story, a connection. Think: logo, tag line, backstory, images, merchandise, etc. Hire a graphic designer to help you out with designing a logo that represents what your company stands for. Additionally, write up a story that emphasizes how and why you started this business. Customers who can relate to your story or idea or struggle are already one step closer. Use compelling images to get the message across. Then, capitalize on all of these elements and advertise everywhere.

2. Develop Your Website

In this digital age, having a website for your company is a must. Yes, word-of-mouth advertising works, but there’s no harm in doing more. Most customers will first Google a service or product they need before deciding on where to get it. A simple website that only highlights the service or product won’t be enough. Showcase your brand, include old and current portfolio, maintain a blog with educational and informational articles that show your expertise. Let people know that you are legit and understand your industry. And so, if you have a website and are actively posting on it, there’s a good chance that these customers will come across it and open it. And based on your experience, skillset, and expertise may choose your services over others.

3. Get Social (with Social Media)

Similar to the need for websites, social media is a must for enticing digital shoppers. Post, tag, comment, interact with your target client base. Here too, you can demonstrate your experience, improve customer service, and draw attention with promotions or discounts. Active social media posting reaches customers much faster than any other means. You can also invest in social media marketing so that your ads and posts can be displayed as sponsored ads on target clients’ feeds.

4. Design for the Smartphone

This, too, is to satisfy your tech-savvy clients. Mobile-friendly websites or apps are easy and fun to use. If your website or app is lagging and not user-friendly, it could cause frustration and customers may head elsewhere for their needs. Make sure your website is responsive and not slow. Make information easy to locate. Buttons should be large enough to work on the phone without issues. And so on.

5. Include Humor: Be Funny

A little humor never hurt anyone. Don’t be afraid to lighten the tone by including various humorous elements such as funny graphics, GIFs, memes, puns, etc. Something that sticks out and is funny stays with people. And if you stay on their minds long enough, they’ll consider investing in your company. In other cases, a funny caption can attract attention for customers who weren’t even looking for your product. As a result, you can increase brand visibility this way too.

6. Swag Hurrah!

Everybody loves free stuff; that’s no surprise. So, swag is a great way to get the word out and to promote different products you offer. You can do this in a couple of different ways: offer free samples, free swag, merchandise, or swag at a discounted rate. The point is to get customers excited and curious about your service. So giving them a sneak peek along with goodies will definitely pique their interest.

7. Creative Business Cards

One of the most popular advertising techniques is designing and marketing business cards. It’s hard to imagine that a tiny business card can do so much. But, if designed well, you can increase your email and call list quickly. When creating your card, ensure you include your logo and tagline, use a legible font, and provide contact information (business number and email). Leave enough white space so that attention is drawn towards the brand. Additionally, the back of the card is also an opportunity to advertise your product or service. For example, if you are a photographer, include one of your best photos. Let’s them see what you are capable of.

8. Consider Advertising with an Annoying Jingle

We all hate those annoying commercials with jingles that stay ringing in our ears forever, and ever, and ever! But those are the brands you remember. You can have a jingle with words or taglines highlighting your product. Or, you can capitalize on holiday music or popular music that customers enjoy and relate to. For example, a lot of ads have separate commercials for the Christmas season with Christmas visuals and music. Some even change the words to popular Christmas songs. These are some ways you can customize your ad with music.

9. Visuals in Commercials

Depending on the size of your business and budget, you may also want to consider making a commercial. You can use this to provide information about your service or create an emotional appeal by sharing your company story and vision. Or, you could use humor and misdirection to surprise viewers. For example, you could have a commercial showing polar bears sweating to talk about climate change. Or, have a commercial filled with tens of cats running around to promote the need for a lint remover.

10. Emotional Appeal

Emotional appeal is also one of the most important advertising techniques. This is because most customers will look for a good reason to purchase your product. So, you need to give them as many reasons as you can. For example, a commercial about quitting smoking that shows lung cancer or the debilitating effects of emphysema is much stronger than a commercial that simply says “Don’t Smoke.” Similarly, an ad that establishes and discusses a problem and then offers a solution makes for an effective marketing technique.

11. Bribe Them (with Promotions and Discounts)

Give customers that extra push or nudge towards purchasing your service by offering promotions and discounts. First-time customers appreciate a “first-time user” discount so that they can test the service out. You could also have a loyalty program where customers who recommend your service to others get extra points or credit. Similarly, you could implement a membership program for returning customers to get more discounts on bigger purchases.

12. Highlight Facts, Statistics, and Customer Reviews

Prove that your service, system, or product works. Include statistics, facts, product reviews, customer reviews, and testimonials. Use evidence as well as customer opinions to drive your sales. Respond to bad reviews to show that you are open to feedback and criticism that will improve the service.

13. Consider Color Psychology

Effective visual advertising techniques boost the way viewers and recipients perceive and interact with your business. An important factor in visual advertising is color. Pay attention to the colors you use for your logo, text, photographs, and the background. The colors should blend together and not appear jarring or loud. Think about the color palette when designing your flyers, business cards, etc. Something as simple as choosing a bold or dark color on a call-to-action button like “Submit” or “Click here” can influence click-through-rates.

14. Balance the Composition

Similar to color, notice how you organize and compose your copy or advertisement. You can arrange items to draw attention to specific areas or elements Or you can just arrange them in the most eye-pleasing way keeping Gestalt principles like simplicity and synchrony in mind. These principles focus on perception and how we perceive and absorb information.

15. Track Eye Movement and Create Visual Paths

A visual path is a design technique used on the journey of the content, pulling attention to specific elements. In other words, it is how a person moves along the content on your page. For example, left to right, top to bottom, and so on. You can estimate the visual path to highlight elements that you want them to focus on more.

16. Appeal to the Search Engines

Optimize your website content by adopting search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to rank higher in search results. This way, when people search for services related to yours or include certain keywords that relate to your business, they will be able to find your website quickly. You can also look into Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. These are sponsored ads that appear on top of search results. And you only pay for them when a viewer clicks on the ad. These are some advertising techniques that have proven to be successful for many marketing campaigns.

Increase Familiarity and Comfort Through Effective Advertising

Advertising techniques that are transparent and don’t try to trick customers are highly appreciated. Customers don’t want to be bullied or manipulated, but they do want to be informed and surprised. Keep your marketing efforts simple, educational, and supportive. And soon, you’ll drive your sales higher!

61 Local Businesses Directories for Backlinks and Marketing

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Every business owner wants their business to attract new customers on a regular basis. And one of the ways to ensure that your target audience is aware of what you have to offer is to list local businesses in online directories. Doing so brings more backlinks to your own website, generating more website views. Learn how to use online directories for marketing purposes and to increase brand awareness.

How Can Local Directories Help Your Business: What to Keep in Mind

Having your company’s description and information on business listings is an important step in getting the word out. This is a good way for potential customers to come across your brand when looking for similar products or services. And so, this is a good marketing strategy to consider implementing. To ensure your listed business does well, you should:

Build a Company Profile: Have a clear and detailed description of what your organization offers, the company’s mission, and its core values.

Maintain Consistency in NAP: When adding local businesses in different directories, make sure that the basic information — that is Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP) — is the same across the board. Don’t provide contradictory information.

Utilize Visual Media: Include photos and videos of your product, service, office, or employees to showcase your talent and expertise.

Create Relevant Backlinks: Backlinks are inbound links that link back to your website. This way, visitors can get to your website quickly. Additionally, if you put a tracking link at the end of your URL, you can track how many customers are reaching you through the directories.

Pick Directories With a Good Domain Authority (DA): A DA is a ranking score for search engines and tells you how a website will rank on a search engine result page. The higher the DA, the higher the website will rank, which is good for marketing purposes.

How  To Increase Your Local Businesses Visibility: 61 Business Directories to Get Listed in

Here’s a list of local businesses alongside their domain authority so that you can select the right ones for your company:

Google My Business (100)
Facebook (100)
Apple Maps (100)
LinkedIn Company (98)
Bizjournal
Glassdoor
Crunchbase
Yelp (94)
Merchant Circle
WhitePages
Bing (94)
Better Business Bureau (93)
MapQuest (92)
Foursquare (92)
Yahoo! Local (91)
HubSpot (91)
Yellow Pages (91)
Angie’s List (91)
Manta (87)
Merchant Circle (86)
Super Pages (84)
Yellow Book (83)
Thumbtack (82)
Chamber of Commerce (79)
Bing Places (79)
Local.com (77)
Hot Frog (76)
Communitywalk.com (75)
Blogarama (74)
Brownbook.net (73)
Tupalo.com (72)
La Cartes (68)
ezlocal.com (67)
ebusinesspages.com (67)
2findlocal.com (67)
Cylex USA (66)
Spoke (66)
City Squares (66)
World Web Directories (65)
BOTW (65)
Fyple.com (63)
ibegin.com (63)
Finduslocal.com (60)
Call Up Contact (60)
Company.com (60)
Hub.biz (59)
My Huckleberry (59)
City Insider (58)
where2go.com (58)
n49.com (58)
My Sheriff (57)
opendi.us (56)
Smartguy.com (55)
Wherezit.com (55)
Bizhwy.com (55)
DiscoverOurTown.com (54)
macraesbluebook.com (52)
USdirectory.com (50)
Tripadvisor
Bizadee (48)
Wand.com (47)

Should You List Your Business Online?

There are countless benefits to including your organization in online directories to generate local citations (online mention of your business’ NAP).

1) Increase visibility and discoverability: Since most customers are going to be looking for services/products like yours on the internet, having your business listed online can help them find you easily. This is also a good way to make target audiences aware that your brand exists.

2) Develop your reputation and credibility: When prospects see your organization is different and trustworthy in directories, they begin to feel more confident about it. They see your business as professional and established and not a new, shell company.

Online Directories Helping Local Businesses Grow Brand Awareness

As owners, it is important to keep your local businesses present everywhere so that customers find your service easily and quickly. Consider using online listings to boost your digital presence and attract new customers to your service. Don’t forget to use your business phone number for call metrics.

5 Practical Marketing Tips for an Accountants Office

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With a rise in globalization and growing economies, tax environments are becoming more and more complicated. And because of this, accounting services are in higher demand. This is why your accountants office should be doing everything it can to promote your services and garner customer attention.

Marketing for an Accountants Office: 5 Things You Need to Do

Marketing is absolutely essential for any firm or organization. Marketing allows businesses to present their services to the public. It is a way of showcasing what you have to offer and why target customers should come to your business over competitors. Let’s look at 5 marketing tips that are a must for any accountants office looking to stand out among the crowd.

Make a Plan: Establish Goals

It is important for everyone to be on the same page when it comes to determining how to market your company and services. Promoting, if done right, is the best way to create and maintain a business’ professional image. And so, make a plan and, together with your team, set goals and milestones to achieve. This way, every member of your team is working towards the same objectives.

Research the Market: Identify Targets

With any business or service, conducting market research is significant. You need to know what other similar services exist and how they are succeeding or failing. Learn from their achievements and failures and model your office accordingly. This way, you can also identify what services are lacking and choose to offer those, making you appear as the only office offering something different. Additionally, research target customers to determine how to market to them. If you don’t know who needs your services, you will not know how to get their attention. Marketing strategies will differ for various target groups. And so, it helps to be specific when identifying your accountants office’s ideal customer.

Draw a Budget: A Reasonable One

If not careful, marketing expenses can sneak up on you. Set aside specific budgets by the month or each quarter and keep tracking it. Often times, people overdo their marketing budgets. So, create one that is practical and won’t make a large dent in the office’s overall expenses. This way, you can measure and consider increasing or decreasing the amount based on return on investment (ROI).

Market Everywhere: Content, Social Media, and Email Marketing

It is alright to start by experimenting with any one form of marketing such as content marketing, social media marketing, or email marketing. However, over time, tapping into every form of marketing will be more effective. Content marketing focuses on developing the business’ website by improving information and content published on it. It’s necessary to establish expertise, explain difficult concepts, and demonstrate processes. Potential customers need to know that your accountants office knows its stuff and can actually help them. And content marketing can help you achieve this image.

Additionally, social media is also an effective way to get on target customers’ radar. Use paid social media ads to your advantage and keep your social media accounts up to date and informative. Also, use social media to provide promotions and other incentives to get clients. Email marketing can be used for the same: promotions, offers, membership discounts, newsletters, and more. These are some good methods of staying on customers’ phones and inboxes.

Let Them Reach You: Provide Different Communication Channels

Business numbers: they are a necessity. Get a business phone number and advertise it everywhere: website, emails, business cards, billboards, social media, and more. A virtual number from a reliable service provider can ensure you are always accessible by routing your calls over the internet. This way, wherever you are and whatever device you are using, clients can reach you. And customers will appreciate that.

You can also get local numbers in different states and countries and expand your business there. Local numbers make it easier for international clients to contact you as they don’t have to pay long-distance charges. The same goes for toll free numbers: they charge the receiver instead of the caller. All of this makes calling your accountants office attractive as customers don’t have to pay extra.

Customize your business number by getting a vanity number from United World Telecom. Personalize it by adding memorable patterns or letters. For example, 1800-432-4322 or 1-866-ACCTNTS. This makes your number easier to recognize and remember.

Measure, Track, Improve, Repeat

Finally, measure your success by tracking metrics and watching incoming profits. Identify areas that are successful and ones that can use tweaks or improvements. The most important aspect of effective marketing is to maintain strategies and stay up to date. Invest in a marketing team that looks over strategies and ensures they are continuously running. And before you know it, you will have customers seeking your services.

Why United World Telecom and Grandstream are Perfect for Customer Support Teams

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Trying to make your company’s customer service better? Look no further. Combine the services of two powerhouses: United World Telecom and Grandstream to make your customer relations approachable and manageable.

What Is Good Customer Service?

Good customer service involves time and effort. A strong sales or customer service team will make and answer calls in an efficient way and increase the company’s sales. But it is also important to assist them in their endeavors. Here’s where call center technology, software, and communications solutions come in. United World telecom and Grandstream Networks are two such companies that can facilitate your business’ customer interactions.

United World Telecom and What They Offer

United World Telecom offers international call forwarding as well as local and toll free numbers in more than 140 countries worldwide. UWT can easily hook you up with a virtual number that routes your calls through the internet. Since they operate digitally, you can use them with any device, smartphone, VoIP line, or landline. Virtual numbers can be purchased as local, international, toll free, or international toll free numbers. Calls made to toll free numbers are charged to the receiver instead of the caller. This makes calling your company free for your callers. Additionally, toll free and local numbers reduce calling costs for long-distance and local calls.

Grandstream customer support
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Virtual Communication Solutions

UWT continues to find virtual communications solutions that make the correspondence between businesses and their clients easy and cost-effective. And so, besides phone numbers, they also offer other virtual solutions to improve communication. All of their phone numbers come with free features such as:

  • Time of Day Routing: to route calls to alternate destination numbers during certain times of the day.
  • Black and White Lists: to block unwanted calls and prevent wasted minutes.
  • Simultaneous Calling: to enable incoming calls to ring on multiple phone numbers ensuring calls are answered anywhere.
  • Advanced IVR: interactive voice response (IVR) that handles high volume calls and assists callers by helping them navigate to the right
  • departments.
  • Customized Greeting: to boost your company’s professional business and add a personal touch.
  • Call Transfer: transfer calls to other departments in different office locations.
  • Voicemail to Email: access voicemail from computers, mobiles, or fixed phones.
  • Fax to Email: save electronic versions of your faxes.
  • Dedicated Account Manager: to assist your company’s every need.
  • 24/7 Customer Support: chats, phone lines, email, trouble tickets, etc.

But these aside, you can also get Rollover Minutes, Outbound Calling, an SMS Plan, and Call Recording for additional prices. The services provide businesses and companies with large volumes of inbound and outbound calling with tools to support their work.

Grandstream And What They Offer

Grandstream Networks is a leading manufacturer of internet protocol (IP) communication solutions. Their products are assisting businesses in over 150 countries across the world. Grandstream offers a variety of products and services to benefit communication between two parties. Some of the products and features are:

  • IP Phones: for voice calls
  • IP Video Phones: for video calling
  • Audio and Video Conferencing: to encourage team conferencing and collaboration
  • Extension Modules: additional modules that connect to the main system
  • Cordless and Wireless Devices: additional devices connecting to the main system that mobilize communication
  • Cloud Management: allow the ability to monitor and manage networks across multiple locations
  • IP intercoms and speakers: for office buildings, enterprises, etc. that require a mode of mass communication.

Grandstream Networks’ phone systems are easy to use and contain useful features. They provide voice and video phones to encourage collaboration between different parties. Additionally, with cloud management, you can access your business’ network anywhere and on any device, making it extremely accessible.

Perfecting Customer Service: UWT and Grandstream

Grandstream provides the medium and UWT provides the service and together they can revolutionize your customer support team. You can help customers not just through voice calls but video calls as well. Imagine collaborating using video with your international customer through a virtual number! Customers appreciate efforts made by businesses to make processes easier for them. If you can find a way to do that, your company can develop quite a fanbase.

With UWT’s easy-to-use control panel giving you access to all your phone lines online and Grandstream’s cloud management, the internet can improve your communications exponentially. You can keep track of and manage your calls and phone system from anywhere in the world. Businesses with customers spread over the globe can utilize international call forwarding or time of day routing to ensure that someone is always available to answer calls.

Good customer service depends on good customer service agents or reps. You can use call recording and call logs to conduct quality assurance. Call recording lets you record calls for the future, which is helpful when doing performance analysis. And call activity logs will help you track metrics. For instance, calls per month, average time per call, average answering time, etc. You can also create phone surveys with IVR to collect feedback on your company and its services.

The Sky’s The Limit

With these two services, you can do so much to improve your enterprises’ customer interaction. Purchase a virtual number from United World Telecom today and combine it with Grandstream, to give your clients the highest level of customer service possible!

Best Countries To Start a Business in 2019

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2019 has been a great year for businesses of various kinds. Particularly, this year has been good for educational services, real estate agencies, marketing services, IT support, landscaping, dental offices, to name a few. We have also seen more from small businesses focusing on virtual reality, meal kit sales and delivery, home renovations, bike sales, and rentals, etc. But some companies and industries are doing better in certain countries than others. And, new countries are emerging at the top for favorable business conditions. So, what are the best countries to start a business in 2019?

Best Countries to Start a Business
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Best Countries To Start a Business in 2019

When choosing where to start or to expand your business, it is necessary to consider a variety of factors. These factors include affordability, customer demographics, manufacturing costs, tax climates, and governmental involvement. Market research is essential to understand and project how your product or service will grow in different countries. According to The World Bank’s Doing Business, here are the 5 best countries to start a business in 2019.

Best Countries To Start a Business in 2019
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#1 New Zealand

The World Bank ranks New Zealand #1 for the best country to start a business in 2019. In 2016, they claimed that New Zealand is the easiest place in the world to conduct business. The sectors gaining the most traction are health, engineering, and information technology. There is a great presence of highly skilled labor for construction, trade, and business services. Additionally, New Zealand’s tax system is easy to understand and navigate, which makes it one of the most attractive systems because of predictability and fairness.

Reasons to start a business here: Cheap manufacturing costs and a favorable tax environment.

Best Countries To Start a Business in 2019
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#2 Singapore

Singapore gets the best of emerging economies from its neighbors India, China, and the Southeast Asian countries. A majority of large companies are moving here due to cheap yet talented labor and its booming infrastructure. The World Bank rates Singapore high in Asia for logistics performance because of its location and proximity to growing economies. Singapore’s seaport infrastructure has also been ranked highly, offering 200 shipping lines to about 600 ports across 123 countries.

With over 21 free trade agreements (FTAs) with about 27 economies, Singapore has great trade relations that benefit both parties involved. That aside, the tax system is quite favorable with the highest corporate tax rate on taxable income at 17 percent. Industries currently in demand are tourism, editorial business, electronics, cleaning services, and courier services.

Reasons to start a business here: Cheap manufacturing costs, bureaucratic, growing infrastructure.

Best Countries To Start a Business in 2019
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#3 Hong Kong

It is easy to open and run a company in Hong Kong with low corporate taxes and tax breaks for certain types of businesses. Small businesses and start-ups are thriving in this rapidly developing country because of resources made available by the government. Hong Kong is often considered the gateway to China and it easily connects to other South and Southeast Asian nations. This makes the country a great location for building and maintaining networks. The most popular sectors in Hong Kong are information technology, call centers, tourism and travel agencies, business and product sourcing consultants, and manufacturing.

Reasons to start a business here: Cheap manufacturing costs, growing infrastructure, governmental support for small businesses.

Best Countries To Start a Business in 2019
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#4 Denmark

Denmark’s market is focused on innovation and development providing solutions for technology and environmental issues. The World Bank ranked Denmark high for trading across borders and protecting minority investors, among others. Key industries in Denmark are tech and cleantech, maritime, design and innovation, and life science. Start-ups are thriving in Denmark due to the availability of public and private funding and the existence of a large network of entrepreneurs and supporters.

Reasons to start a business here: Cheap manufacturing costs, transparent government practices, and an entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Best Countries To Start a Business in 2019
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#5 Republic of Korea

South Korea ranks highest for ease of doing business and job security among Asian countries. It is also the 7th largest exporter in the world. Sectors like technology, automobile, manufacturing, and oil and gas are the country’s major gross domestic product (GDP) booster.

That aside, like Denmark, the South Korean government also supports start-ups and small businesses by providing proper funding with long-term views. More recently, South Korea has seen a rise in female entrepreneurs starting and managing their own companies.

Reasons to start a business here: Cheap manufacturing costs, a favorable tax environment, and governmental support for small businesses.

Thinking of Starting a Business In Any of These Countries? Get a Business Phone Number

Now you know the best countries to start a business in 2019. It is time to start considering where you can move or extend your company to increase sales and profit. United World Telecom has virtual numbers in over 140 countries. Feeling inspired and want to expand your business to new countries? We can easily hook you up. Give us a call at 1-(877)-898-8646 or sign up on our website and get a virtual business number for your company today.

Why Your Current Phone Marketing Strategy Isn’t Working

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So, you’ve managed to set up a foolproof phone marketing campaign. The lines are open, your staff is waiting, and the only thing to do is wait for the calls to roll in.

The only problem is that it is not working. Why?

Phone Marketing for your Business

In this article, we’ll cover why your current phone marketing strategy isn’t working and how to fix it. We will cover the following points:

  • Employees do not have proper training and equipment
  • Your offers aren’t compelling enough
  • Customers can’t (and won’t) reach you
  • Embracing automation as the future of marketing

Employees Are Not Properly Trained and Equipped

Sometimes, your organization’s successes and failures come down to how experienced your staff is at phone marketing. Whether you’re making outbound cold calls or processing inbound ones, if things aren’t working, it may mean your employees aren’t up to snuff.

Most notably, there is no single reason for poorly-performing employees. Some people just aren’t suited for over-the-phone marketing. Perhaps they may have introverted qualities that make them more suited to “back of the house” operations. Additionally, others need commission-based incentives to make a real effort.

Along these lines, there’s also the failure fn the organization to take responsibility for how their staff performs. For instance, some organizations don’t take the time to bring their employees up to speed and ensure that they know how to use their devices. Luckily, United World Telecom’s virtual phone services work with any audio and Internet-equipped devices to communicate with leads. This means that your employees can use their own devices (if permitted), as this is what they’re most familiar with. This makes cell phone marketing a possibility for both staff on your premises and those working remotely. Employees are thus more comfortable and better able to communicate.

Why Your Current Phone Marketing Strategy Isn’t Working
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Your Offers Aren’t Compelling Enough

Cell phone marketing captures a waiting audience that is accessible around the clock. Considering most people have a smartphone within reach, you just need to create a compelling offer that motivates them to make a move. In other words, you must be compelling.

United World Telecom offers a variety of ways to get the attention you deserve. One way is by using vanity numbers as a way of garnering attention. Simply put, a vanity number is a phone number with a visually-appealing and memorable series of digits. Tying this into your phone marketing campaigns (such as billboard advertisements, radio ads, and more), customers will remember your brand AND how to contact your business (which is certainly a win-win).

Customers Can’t (and Won’t) Reach You

You may have the most carefully crafted marketing campaign, but it is useless if customers can’t reach you. Thanks to United World Telecom, your customers can reach you no matter where in the world they’re calling from. Virtual phone numbers can be purchased in various target markets, which means:

  • No long-distance fees
  • No service blockages by a foreign network provider
  • Ease of localization efforts

How You Can Make Improvements in Phone Marketing

The last point is crucial, as customers don’t want to reach out to a business in another country versus one that is perceived as doing business domestically. By subscribing to an Ireland Virtual Phone Number, for instance, you can penetrate Irish markets and open up lines of communication that would otherwise be ignored.

Bridging the Digital Divide

Let’s be honest: people can be lazy. In order to reach customers, you have to streamline how customers can take in your advertising and then take action. CallMe Click is one such add-on from United World Telecom that translates from a passive experience to an active, motivated one. By equipping your website and advertising material with CallMe Click, it only takes a tap of the screen or a click of the mouse to convert on your marketing campaigns.

* * *

Closing

In conclusion, United World Telecom offers a wide variety of methods to enhance your marketing strategies. By using these methods and many more, your marketing dollars can convert directly into increased revenue.

Quality Assurance vs Quality Control: Improving Support Calls in Business

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Are you looking to improve the quality of support calls for your business? If so, we’ll cover a number of topics to do so in this article, including:

  • The difference between quality assurance and quality control
  • Using quality assurance to improve support calls in business
  • Using quality control to improve support calls in business

The Difference Between Quality Assurance vs Quality Control

First, there’s a big distinction when it comes to the definitions of Quality Assurance Vs Quality Control in support calls. Quality assurance is process-oriented, which focuses on preventing defects and errors in support calls. Quality control, on the other hand, is product-oriented and focuses on identifying defects.

Still confused? If so, the easier distinction between the two is that quality assurance is what happens before rolling out your customer support. This includes training programs and equipping your staff with functional hardware/software. Quality control is a way of refining your process. This includes debugging and streamlining how your staff delegates problems to different technicians. As a result, you can see that they’re both related to providing support to your customers.

Of course, this begs the question: How do you improve support calls specifically?

Quality Assurance vs Quality Control: Improving Support Calls in Business
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Quality Assurance Vs Quality Control: Using Quality Assurance to Improve Support Calls in Business

As mentioned, training goes a long way in improving support calls. Those in charge of training employees and new hires must thoroughly understand company policies and protocols. If, for example, a customer calls needing support for their non-functioning device, is there a strategy for handling the call? During the call, your staff discovers the reason for the malfunction is that service was cut off due to non-payment. The phone support staff must know these calls require forwarding to the billing department, not the IT department. This can make your phone communication more optimized, as there’s less time spent transferring calls. This, in turn, is the epitome of quality assurance. All measures of support are in place before the calls come in, ensuring they are handled appropriately.

United World Telecom makes this easy by providing a number of functionalities to upgrade support calls. By setting up a PBX directory (short for Private Branch Exchange), inbound callers can self-select which department they need to contact. Or, inbound calls can automatically reroute to the appropriate department based on their phone number and/or customer identification numbers.

Quality Assurance Vs Quality Control: Using Quality Control to Improve Support Calls in Business

Similarly, when it comes to improving quality control for direct support calls, United World Telecom offers “call recording.” As the name implies, inbound calls are recorded and stored for later use. During the training process, your business can use examples of successful calls and error-laden ones to educate your trainees on what they should do when in the field.

Also, call recording can improve quality control by verifying the service of a particular employee. Suppose your managers review an employee’s support call, only to find out that they were giving redundant information, easily accessible online or through your directory system. By learning from these calls, you can improve the quality of inbound calls, redirecting callers immediately to information by using another popular add-on from United World Telecom called IVR.

Short for Interactive Voice Response, IVR enables callers to use voice commands to access staff, departments, and information. As an example, suppose that you automate a greeting: “Please state why you are calling today. For instance, for access to tech support, say ‘tech support’.” You can then automatically redirect callers to the appropriate department, reducing call times for efficiency and causing less frustration all around.

In Closing

As you can see, we are just scratching the surface when it comes to improving quality assurance and quality control in your business. Above all, these measures should be in place to ensure your phone staff offers the highest level of customer service. With the right tools, your business will have no problems ensuring optimal communication. Contact United World Telecom today to speak with a telecom expert to optimize your business’ support calls today.

Sales Management: Building a Global Call Center Sales Team

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A sales team functions as the core of any sales-oriented business. In order to have a successful sales team, the business must have a focused and effective sales management system in place. Similarly, management systems include systems and metrics to track sales. The sales management plan should also include follow up and periodic reviews. Above all, these components are necessary for a sales team to grow and thrive in a consistent manner.

What is Sales Management?

Sales management involves developing a sales force, coordinating various sales operations, and putting sales techniques in place. Therefore, the ultimate goal of sales management is to allow an organization to consistently meet and surpass sales targets. So, for any business that brings in revenue, a sales management strategy is extremely important.

Sales Management Processes

Research shows a clear split between organizations that establish well-defined sales management processes and those that don’t. A few of the most critical sales management processes include systematic hiring, coaching the sales force, business planning, establishment of common goals, and performance management.

  • Systematic Hiring: It is extremely important to hire top-level sales staff. An effective hiring process includes methods to examine whether a candidate is fit for the position from many different angles. Using the same list of questions for interviews allows for a systematic and focused process.
  • Coaching: This is the number one activity that drives sales. Companies that have a well-understood coaching program in place consistently outperform those that do not.
    Business Planning: Business planning at the sales manager level means identifying key customers within the region and creating customer plans accordingly. Business planning allows for better targeting of sales efforts.
  • Common Goals: A sales manager makes sure the sales team aligns with the company goals.
  • Performance Management: Setting objectives and reviewing performance, both periodically and annually, is imperative. Figuring out how the organization will deal with non-performance is also key.
Sales Management: Building a Global Call Center Sales Team
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Running the Call Center

Many organizations find that allowing their call center specialists to work from home is a win-win for everyone involved. This allows the staff flexibility and allows the organization significant cost-savings.

Taking the Call Center Global

Particularly when forming a global call center, allowing for sales staff to work remotely is typically the best option. A business owner with a well-trained, knowledgeable staff that is familiar with the company policies and the product or service they sell can operate a call center from anywhere.

What is a Virtual Number?

A virtual phone number is a number that works through the use of the Internet versus the use of a hard-wired phone line. Virtual phone numbers offer many benefits. For instance, they give business owners flexibility and mobility unmatched by traditional phone lines. Calls made to virtual phone numbers automatically forward to any phone number, depending on the changing needs of a business. Virtual phone numbers also allow for a business to meet global needs, such as offering services in various time zones.

How Do I Get a Virtual Number For My Business?

Getting a virtual phone number for your business is simple. With a simple search, you will see that various providers offer virtual phone numbers. Therefore, it is important to go with a provider that has experience and a reputation for offering a great product along with excellent customer service. United World Telecom has been offering global communications solutions to businesses for over two decades. Along these lines, UWT also offers many features and virtual numbers in over 150 countries worldwide.

“Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.”

When focusing on sales management and building a successful global call center sales team, careful planning must take place. Above all, with proper systems employed and everyone on the same page, an organization is well prepared to take the success of the business to great heights.

Is Using a VoIP Phone Service Right for Me?

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In today’s global business environment, staying connected with clients and team members is more critical than ever. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has emerged as a a versatile, cost-effective solution for modern cloud communication. From helping cut down communication costs to providing scalability and flexibility, VoIP phone services are far more advanced than traditional phone systems. Whether you’re a small startup or a large enterprise, understanding why VoIP is a necessity in the digital age could be the key to unlocking your company’s communication potential.

Why You Need a VoIP Phone Service for Business

So, is VoIP phone service right for you? In this article, we will briefly cover how a VoIP phone service with virtual phone numbers can impact and improve your business communication; we’ll look at the following reasons:

  1. Communicate with International Customers
  2. Expanding Your Business Model
  3. Virtual Offices and Locations
  4. Professionalism and Efficiency

#1: Communicate with International Customers

One of the significant benefits of using VoIP phone services is the convenience and affordability of communicating with international clients. Traditional phone systems usually come with expensive long-distance charges and complicated pricing structures that can limit global communication. However, VoIP technology utilizes the internet to transmit voice data, which significantly lowers the cost of international calls. This implies that businesses can now reach out to customers across the world without worrying about high phone bills.

#2: Expanding Your Business Model

Using voice service can greatly impact how quickly your business scales. Traditionally, in a business environment, it would take a company a vast amount of resources to open up a branch location in another part of the world. However, with the aforementioned virtual model taking precedence in the 21st-century, this is no longer necessary. Instead, businesses can adopt a lean startup approach by scaling down their overheads while also maintaining a human element by phone.

#3: Virtual Offices and Locations

Virtual offices are the way of the future, with many large corporations and startups embracing this lean model of operation. While virtual offices are held primarily online, there still is the need to speak with individuals over the phone to clarify information, resolve disputes, provide a more human, personal connection to staff, and more. Businesses can use a VoIP phone service in conjunction with an online collaboration platform can create an efficient and cohesive office-like environment.

Similar to virtual offices, virtual locations offer a way to virtualize your business anywhere around the world. Thanks to the instant routing capabilities of virtual phone numbers, your business can create the image of a branch office and interface with locals seamlessly.

Is Using a VoIP Phone Service Right for Me?
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#4: Professionalism and Efficiency

In business, appearance is everything. One of the main benefits of using VoIP phone numbers is that you gain a professional aesthetic by using them.

Think about the last time that you contacted a high-volume professional organization by phone. Chances are, that call was a toll free number using a VoIP  service. These toll free numbers enable users to automatically route calls around the world instantly — something traditional telecom networks don’t provide.

Businesses that want to extend toll free calling can choose ITFS numbers to accommodate those located abroad. Short for international toll free service numbers, these numbers use a familiar toll free prefix to connect international callers with your business without incurring a fee. UIFN, or Universal International Freephone Numbers, work in a similar fashion, enabling your business to provide toll free calling to two or more countries at once.

One common complaint about regular phone service is that businesses lack the ability to easily alter their service. United World Telecom makes this easy with an intuitive interface and dashboard geared towards the ultimate in efficiency. You can make changes in your service and track data analytics in real-time.

For instance, you may want to remove problematic callers from reaching your organization. To do so, simply blacklist the problem numbers. On the flip side, you can whitelist numbers to enable only those calls to go through (perfect for VIP callers).

To Conclude

In closing, now you know how VoIP phone service can impact your business and personal life. Therefore, you should have a better grasp of how VoIP Can benefit your communications. To take things further, you can start subscribing with United World Telecom today!