Do not call list: A new reality for Canadian marketers. Where will they go next?
Once upon a time, direct mail was the most cost effective way for national customer acquisition campaigns.
Rising postal and production costs drove many marketers to telemarketing.
Thanks to VOIP and off-shore outsourcing, it was possible to achieve better ROI by calling every household in Canada a few times a year from India then to send direct mail pieces.
All that is about to change again.
Established by the Canadian Radio Television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the Do Not Call List will allow consumers who no longer wish to receive unsolicited calls from telemarketers to add their phone numbers to a centralized list. Compliance will have huge implications for many Canadian companies, whether organizations operate large contact centres or rely on individual sales professionals to generate new business.
This new legislation will require that organizations completely revisit customer data management.
With the do not call list going online in Canada at the end of September 2008, marketers will have to look at other contact channels for customer acquistion campaigns.
Where will they go?
Simply, the time is right to shift to Mobile and Interactive marketing. That includes a return to email - a channel that many had been given up for dead due to SPAM and SPAM filters. Current best practices in email are proving that email can still be highly effective.
A new mind-set will be required.
Although you can still reach large mass audiences through online media, there are smarter and more cost effective ways of acquiring customers through digital media.
Over the next few weeks I’ll explore some of these topics which include behavioural targeting, current best practices in email, and how mobile could be right too.
Photo credit: blognetnews.com
5 comments
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Chris Tackett
With an increasing number of legal guidelines and societal/philosophical approaches upsetting the traditional push marketing, it seems marketers are trying harder to communicate with, rather than at customers.
I don’t think it will be long before the ’social’ web becomes a marketers dream…
Thanks Keith - i fully agree. The next step will be for us to figure out the best way of measuring ROI in this channel… and / or Return on Customer (ROC).
Your mention about calls from India reminds me of my country’s own call center culture. In the recent years, we have experienced a boom in this industry. It makes me wonder what will happen if the tide shifts over to email and other mediums? What if more people and companies adopted this no call option. Just a thought.
Jay - although outbound telemarketing may eventually fall out of favour (either due to regulations or shifting consumer preferences), I believe countries like India are still really well positioned to continue to provide cost effective technical and marketing support regardless of the actual medium (IVR vs. email for example)
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