There are challenges ahead, business needs to change tack

Cold Callers come at you from many angles: email, phone calls and texting, door to door, junk mail and in your social media. What can you do about it? It's never going to stop. It's not a sign of the times, it's always been. Telemarketers used to use the phone book to get your phone number, now they have digital avenues for contact too, but I sometimes wonder about the effectiveness of these old methods. Some of them seem so expensive to run for such a little return on investment.
Of course there are cheap methods and expensive methods in Cold Call and any strategy that involves human labour costs in Australia is not cheap, but for the hope of a sale some companies still gamble in door to door cold calls.

The statistics are telling us that online shopping is booming and Australians with Smart phones are researching the product and the company they're buying from online before purchasing and furthermore they are doing the buying on their devices. The marketplace has changed and business needs to change tack to move with their customer. Today, the retail outlet has become a place to inspect the real product, not necessarily the buying point of the product. The buyer comes home to find the fairest price and buys it online.

The digital age gives the customer all the power to make an informed decision and get the best price.

Should I even consider the Cold Call offer?
SEO of your site will get your site visible to more than just new customers. Are you prepared? As soon as you start to show in a Google search you'll be contacted by everybody, take it as a sign that you're becoming visible. It's not just scammers contacting you, it's genuine business too.
I'm receiving phone calls from the Police, the Fire Brigade and a stream of other businesses offering me advertising space in their print media, but I also get suspect SEO deals on a daily basis.

The availability of information on the internet makes weeding out the bad guys pretty easy to do.
If I buy, I buy online after I've thoroughly checked out the product and the supplier. You not only have access to their website, but you have access to their reputation through Google + and Directories which allow customers to leave reviews. To find a company's directories run a search on the company's name. Other than their website, you'll get their Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter links in the search return if they're advertising through social media, but even a non-digital business has a Yellow Pages and a True Local profile these days. Be smart, dig down beyond the first 5 reviews and you'll start to see who the business really is. The reviews may be organised chronologically and a brand new business may have either performed really well at the outset, or the proprietor may have sequestered friends and family to make up entries. Go beyond these.
Lets be fair, I'll forgive one or two bad reviews, but what I look out for is a number of bad reviews all suggesting the same problem. I also look out for a response from the proprietor to the bad review. Is he belligerent and demeaning to those who question his performance or does he explain factors that the customer was unaware of and say he will amend this poor state of affairs in future?

When I buy online I prefer to use Paypal because the purchase is insured against Fraud when both parties are Paypal members. The ease and safety of online shopping coupled with the availability of information about the product and the business means that I don't even have to leave my house.


To wrap up: Online Campaigns offer convenience for the customer and offer a better Return On Investment (ROI) for the advertiser than old fashioned Cold Call. Provide all the information the customer requires to research your product and your business online, give customer support through your social media and reviews, and provide a safe avenue for transaction. With these in place online sales become much more likely.