With contact rates going down in many cases for a variety of reasons over the last five years (the advent of call blocking and labeling, increase in fraud across the voice channel, migration to messaging, and alternate communications channels), the arrival of a brand new technology poised to improve contact rates couldn’t have come at a better time.
Each major wireless network, their branding partners, and some innovative app and device manufacturers set to work building, testing, and deploying the technology to enable brands to add a caller name, logo, and custom call reason with the broadest reach, tightest security, and best value possible. Meanwhile, the brands themselves began evaluating how this technology could be added to existing call strategies to improve contact rate, conversion rate, net promoter scores, and a variety of other KPIs, with the biggest question being: at what cost and at what return?
The expected results of a branded calling strategy seemed obvious at first: “No one trusts calls from unknown numbers, so if I display my name every time, they’ll trust every call, and my answer rates will skyrocket!” But by working hand-in-hand with our customers for the last two years validating the most successful strategies to adding branding as one element of a multi-faceted outreach campaign, we’ve learned it’s not quite as cut and dry as that.
Here are some of the top considerations we recommend you evaluate as you determine if, when, where, and how branding makes sense for your outbound strategy:
Depending on what types of calls you’re regularly making, your contacts may or may not pick up if they’re expecting that call. People who aren’t expecting a call from you, like a telemarketing or cold call, could actually be de-incentivized from picking up that call if they now have total certainty with the caller name and logo that they don’t want to have that conversation at that moment. On the other hand, if someone is expecting your call, let’s say, an appointment reminder or the delivery status of a package, they’ll now have a quick reason to know that they should and want to pick up that call, making this a viable and recommended use-case for branding.
So, should you brand every single one of your phone numbers with every attempt? The short answer is no. There are many calls you shouldn’t be overpaying to add branding to where a name and logo won’t add value and value, instead, would be achieved simply by managing the number’s reputation. Overall, you should review all your calling campaigns and consider which calls would be a good fit for additional branding or not, and begin each analysis of ROI by first determining the lift to engagement you’d achieve by proactively addressing and correcting scam or spam labeling through a reputation management solution.
You may be trying to reach your contacts multiple times in the same day or week, but is it worth branding every single call attempt until if/when you’re finally able to connect? Our experience says that in most cases, no, it’s not. Based on an average dialing outreach strategy, after the 4th or 5th attempt, the likelihood of a pickup dramatically decreases, but the cost per call branded doesn’t decrease along with it. As a general rule of thumb, we recommend branding about 1/3 of your total attempted phone calls so you don’t over-exhaust branding as a strategy and end up paying premium prices for missed calls that don’t convert.
Coupling branded calling on top of a number reputation solution to protect your numbers from being mislabeled as spam or scam may sound like a good idea at first, but it is by far the most expensive way to avoid labels, especially if you go this route for all your phone numbers. Branding successfully delivered to every device, on every network, every time, isn’t a guarantee you’ll find across the branding ecosystem. As such, though you may intend to display branding with every call impression, not every call will land on an eligible device. In those cases, you can’t guarantee that your calls won’t be negatively tagged as spam anyway, so you’d be paying premium prices for what you think is a catch-all solution.
The best way to leverage branded calling is in addition to a number reputation management solution that truly keeps your phone numbers protected from labeling that can correct any negative labels. That way, you can rest easy knowing that the branding you’re investing in is being placed on the healthy and clean numbers you need it on, with no astronomically large invoice at the end of each month.
There are a lot of promises and assumptions that claim branded calling will automatically help your contact rates to skyrocket, but a case study we conducted in partnership with Avantive Solutions, who tested this theory, showed us otherwise. That doesn’t mean contact rates won’t improve on certain types of calls, but overall, you need to see beyond the contact rates to strategize on how a branded calling solution will be of benefit to your business and what the ROI is for your use case due to the high costs that come with branded calling.
Even though branded calling is the latest and greatest innovation in the calling space, that doesn’t mean it’s right for every call or business, and it doesn’t mean it’ll automatically solve your low answer rates. The best way to get the most out of a branded calling solution is to brand where it counts and lead with clean numbers protected by reputation management where branding doesn’t make the most sense.
With Numeracle’s Smart BrandingTM Solution, you can manage branded campaigns across one or multiple wireless carrier networks alongside non-branded campaigns in one platform for ultimate flexibility, visibility, and control. With the power to manage separate campaigns across one or multiple providers, branded or not branded, all in one place, you can be sure you’re getting the solution you need without overspending on it.
Our dashboards allow you to compare branding across different networks side by side versus having to go to separate providers for data. With integrated reporting for total ease of management, review how your customers respond to branding to make adjustments with ease and flexibility as you go. Smart Branding allows you complete control to turn branding on and off so you don’t set it and forget it with a very large surprise invoice awaiting.
Numeracle can help you develop the right balance of branded versus non-branded calls to maximize ROI and keep premium branding costs down while keeping you in the driver’s seat of your phone numbers and calling campaigns.
When the right branded calling strategy is coupled with our Number Reputation Management solution to protect your calls from harmful spam or scam labels, you’re buying into more than expensive branding — you’re building trust in your calls and protecting your calling identity the way it should be protected.
If you’re ready to see how you can maximize a branded calling strategy while keeping your phone number protected, reach out to us at www.numeracle.com/contact-us for a demo and consultation for the strategy that will best suit your needs.
