Does Voicemail Drop Marketing Work?

It’s been a long time since you had to answer the phone when it rang to see who was on the other end – and a longer time still since missing that call meant not knowing what the person wanted. As a result, voicemail drop marketing is gaining in popularity.

Now, call recipients can check the caller ID on their phone and decide whether it’s worth their time to answer. They have little to lose by not answering because voicemail exists to record any important information. In fact, as of 2020, 94% of calls from unknown numbers go to voicemail. That’s up from 80% in 2014, making it ever more critical to reach customers through voicemail.

What Is Voicemail Drop Marketing?

Since many people don’t answer their phones at all these days, particularly if they don’t recognize the number, a voicemail drop is a great way to get your message out. Instead, a pre-recorded voicemail message is sent to the recipient; if they do not answer, the message is left on their voicemail to listen to later. They’ll get the notification that they have a new voicemail and often listen to the message. Voicemail marketing is a way to use this technique to reach potential customers.

Related: What Are Automated Voicemail Drops? Do You Need It?

The Benefits of Using Voicemail Drop for Your Marketing

The nature of phone marketing is changing, and advanced voice broadcasting is an essential element of that change. People were never happy being interrupted from their day by pushy salespeople, and now technology provides a means for marketing departments to reach customers via phone in a less intrusive and more effective manner. Some of the reasons companies choose to use voicemail drop marketing are detailed below:

It’s Affordable

Rates differ depending on the provider you choose, but sending messages through voicemail drops is usually affordable compared to other marketing options. Voice broadcasting usually costs only a few cents per delivered message.

It’s Easy

When you choose a quality voicemail drop provider, you won’t have to spend a lot of time learning how to use the tools. Easy and intuitive controls will allow you to record your message, gather and view useful analytics, manage your contact list, and more. 

It Saves Time

Having a salesperson manually call every lead wastes a lot of time. With humans doing the calling, the time it takes to leave a voicemail message to each intended recipient must be multiplied by the number of recipients. With voicemail drop, the message is recorded a single time and can be sent out to as many recipients as needed with no additional labor on the part of your staff.

It Won’t Irritate Your Customers

Hearing a phone ring and having to take it out of your pocket or go over to where you left it to see who’s calling takes you away from whatever you were doing. If it’s an unknown caller, this distraction is unwanted and even irritating. Communication through voicemail drop allows the recipient to listen to the message at their own convenience. 

It Works

Given the small cost per message, the ease of setting up the calls, and the customization allowed by a good provider, voicemail drop marketing can bring you a terrific return on investment. It allows you to take back time lost from leaving voicemail messages while also offering you better tools to refine your message.

Tips for Effective Voicemail Marketing

Once you’ve found your platform and learned your way around it, you can begin writing and recording the voicemail broadcast messages you’ll be using to send out to customers and potential customers. We’ve assembled a few tips to help get you started:

Adapt Your Existing Copy

Since you aren’t having a conversation, your existing marketing material can serve as a basis for your voicemail drop message. Remember though: you aren’t making your full sales pitch here. Focus on the parts of your existing copy designed to grab a reader or listener’s attention and adapt that to a voicemail drop message.

Apply A/B Testing

Like any other copy you use in marketing, A/B testing can help you in the process of continually refining your messages so that they achieve the best possible response rates. Your chosen platform should provide you with tools to track the metrics needed to measure the success of your messages. 

Use Market Segmentation

Your buyer personas tell you a lot about how to best reach each segment of your customer base. Don’t forget to take advantage of those when crafting your messages. They’ll allow you to send personalized and relevant information that hits just the right tone for the intended recipient. 

Keep it Short

Nobody wants to listen to a voicemail that drones on and on. The benefit of voicemail drop marketing is that you can allow the recipient to quickly listen to a message on their own time. The longer your message is, the more that benefit is diminished. Try to keep the message under 30 seconds, as customers are not likely to listen to a message longer than that.

Related: Top 5 Voicemail Drop Best Practices

Features to Look for in a Voice Drop Platform

Examine your options carefully to ensure that the voice drop platform you choose will bring you the greatest ROI. Stay away from anything labeled “ringless”. The ability deliver calls without a ring to cell phones dried several years ago when most major providers shut down the backdoor access numbers to their voicemail servers. When evaluating a voice broadcasting provider, you want to keep an eye out for a few key features. The list below provides some of the most important or useful features offered by quality voice drop providers.

Optimized Messaging

Have you ever gotten a voicemail and found that the recorded message took a while to start playing? Poor quality software won’t accurately detect when the message should start, leading to a delay that could cause the recipient to skip to the next message before ever hearing yours.  It may also cut off the first part of your message by playing too early. High-quality software will avoid this.

Copper Lines

Many voicemail providers rely on VoIP for leaving their messages. Although there are some great uses for VoIP, voicemail drop marketing isn’t one of them. Copper lines ensure high-quality, low latency, minimal background noise, and better reliability. They can also help avoid scam caller warnings.

Opt-Out Availability

Just as with sending emails, anyone you leave a voicemail for should be given the ability to opt out of receiving calls from you.  A good provider will make it easy for the customer to put themselves on your do not call list and easy for you to set up the functionality required for them to do so. 

Quality Analytics

You likely already know the benefit of good analytics solutions for your business. The ability to properly measure metrics allows for more accurate A/B testing, tracking of marketing campaigns, and more. A good provider will offer access to tools that allow you to drill down into the details of your voice broadcasting, giving you information on response rates and other important metrics.

Call Scheduling

Part of optimizing your response rate is getting the timing right. Some of your customer segments may respond better to morning calls, while others may prefer the evening. The ability to schedule calls combined with the analytics feature mentioned above will make a powerful combination for dialing in to the perfect voice drop strategy. 

Easy Recording

Pay attention to the various options available for recording your messages. Most services will let you dial in and record your messages, similar to setting up the voicemail on your phone. Others may also give you the ability to upload an audio file, so you can use whichever tools you’d like to perfect your recording before sending it out to customers. 

Text to Speech

Personalizing your messages is just as important with voicemail as it is with any other marketing channel. However, recording a separate message for each customer reduces the time-saving benefit of voice drops. By utilizing natural-sounding text-to-speech, a good voice broadcasting platform will let you personalize your messages while still automating the process.

Easy Call Branching

At some point, your recipients will need to return your calls. When they do, you want a platform that provides them with a professional-sounding menu and provides you with the ability to easily set up that menu.  Good platforms have simple-to-use tools that will allow anyone on your team to quickly make professional call branching based on caller key presses. 

Additional Features

Some voice broadcasting platforms offer other features as well. This may include text messaging functionality, cloud phone systems, appointment reminders, alert systems, and more. Many providers even provide your developers with an API to integrate their functionality into your own custom software. 

How VoiceShot Can Help

Voicemail drop marketing can be an affordable and effective way to increase sales at your organization and save your sales and marketing team valuable time. In addition to providing a better way to reach customers, it opens up the world of analytics and A/B testing to your phone marketing efforts. VoiceShot offers a range of cloud phone solutions, including voice drop services. To learn more about how VoiceShot can benefit your business, schedule a demo today.