Voicemail campaigns vs CRM email and text blasts

Use both, for different jobs. A blast from the CRM, by email or text, is the quick way to send a short notice to a big list: a sale date, a link, new hours. A voicemail campaign is the way to make a whole list hear from a person they know, by name, about their own vehicle, and it brings back callbacks your team can book. Its callbacks and replies then go into the same CRM as leads, so nothing about the CRM's process changes.

How they compare

What blasts miss

• Most dealer emails look alike. A customer's inbox holds offers from every store and brand they have ever bought from. A voicemail in their service advisor's voice doesn't look like any of them.

• A text blast reads like a text blast. Even with a first name merged in, it has no voice. A text that follows a voicemail, from the number that left it, reads as part of a conversation.

• Neither starts a phone call. A booking or a deal usually starts with a conversation, and a callback is one the customer started.

What voicemail campaigns returned at real stores

• One dealership's three campaigns: 736 voicemails delivered, 77 people called back, 33 people replied by text, and 127 leads went to the store's CRM.

• A Ford store in Western Canada, three-day private sale: 1,157 voicemails delivered, 190 people called back, and 282 new leads went to the store's CRM.

Those are two stores' results, not a promise.

The rules for each

• Emails and texts are commercial electronic messages under CASL: consent (express, or implied from a purchase or an inquiry for a limited time), your business's name and contact details, and a free way to unsubscribe.

• A recorded voicemail that sells follows the CRTC's rules: express consent to recorded messages from your business, for that number, sent inside calling hours.

The consent you collect for CRM blasts may not cover recorded messages. See How to get consent for voicemail and text campaigns in Canada.

Running them together

1. The email blast announces the event, with pictures and the details.

2. The voicemail campaign follows to the customers who agreed to recorded messages, in a voice they know.

3. The follow-up text goes a few minutes after each delivered voicemail, from the same number. At The Call Guy, one is included in each delivered voicemail's credit.

4. Every callback and reply goes back into the CRM as an ADF lead, beside the blast's clicks. See How voicemail callbacks reach a dealership's CRM and BDC.

Common questions

Why send a voicemail if the CRM already sends emails and texts?

Because they reach people differently. An email or a text blast looks like every other dealer's; a voicemail in a voice the customer knows, saying their name and vehicle, gets heard as a message from a person. It also starts a phone call, which a blast rarely does.

Do voicemail campaign leads go into the dealership's CRM?

Yes. The Call Guy sends each callback and first text reply to the store's CRM as an ADF lead, with the campaign and the script the customer heard, so they sit beside the CRM's own leads.

Does consent for email cover voicemail campaigns?

Not necessarily. Email and texts fall under CASL, while a recorded message that sells needs express consent to recorded messages under the CRTC's rules. Ask for both in one sentence.

Does the voicemail's follow-up text replace a text blast?

For the people who get the voicemail, it does the same job with more context: it comes from the number that just left them a message. A text blast still suits a list that never gets the voicemail.

Related

• Voicemail drop or text message: which should a business send?

• How voicemail callbacks reach a dealership's CRM and BDC

• Voicemail campaigns vs direct mail for dealership events

• Voicemail campaigns for car dealerships