Remember not too long ago when the phrase, “Content is king” had everyone with a website all a-buzz? Simply posting a new blog post populated with keyword phrases almost guaranteed Google would find your business and rank your website above competitors who were slow to keep their own content refreshed.
Today, content is still king, but it’s even more impactful when it comes in the form of a video. To be sure, video content isn’t just for YouTubers anymore. It’s for businesses who want to stand out in the crowd, including those in healthcare industry. If you’re not using video in your healthcare marketing strategy, you’re going to end up lost in the shuffle, behind the times.
Why is video so important to healthcare?
We wrote about how an overwhelming majority (upwards of 80%) of patients searching for healthcare providers begins with an online search. If your organization has a strong online presence, you can be the go-to resource for common questions about procedures, protocol, symptoms, and other applicable topics. You can build this strong presence and reputation through short healthcare videos that are not only informative but serve as a valuable marketing tool, as well.
Over 500 million people watch Facebook videos on a daily basis.
More than 90% of businesses gain new customers from branded video content.
The average American spends nearly 7 hours a week watching online videos.
Video is the top source of information for more than 65% of people.
Americans spend an average of about 5 hours and 30 minutes a week watching videos from their mobile phones.
Over 80% of all businesses are now using video as part of their marketing strategy.
And perhaps the most persuasive statistic of all: Businesses who use video for marketing grow almost 50% faster than those who don’t.
Healthcare marketing videos can help you target your ideal age demographic
You may have guessed correctly if you assumed (based on your teenager’s habits) younger age groups spend more time watching online videos than anyone else. On their phones alone, adults ages 18-34, spend nearly 2 hours a week watching short videos. These informative, educational, and entertaining videos last anywhere from just 15 seconds to 3 minutes each. That means people in this age group are watching an average of 80 videos a week!
The next age group—men and women ages 35-49—aren’t far behind with an average of 79 minutes a week. And, adults ages 50-64 watch about 48 minutes a week. Finally, ages 65 and over watch 24 minutes of video each week. So, if you’re not reaching your target market through this powerful platform, you’re missing out on the hottest way to grow your healthcare business.
The big question is: What type of content should you put in your healthcare marketing videos?
Use videos to educate, answer questions, and build relationships with current and future patients
Start with short, personal, welcome videos. Add in some patient testimonials and success stories, and answer common questions about your organization, insurance, best practices, or any other frequently discussed topic. Here are a few ideas:
Introduce your team with provider profiles
In most major healthcare verticals, a patient’s quest for a new physician begins with an online search. Team member profile videos are a great way to highlight expertise and years of experience. These types of videos can also help establish credibility and highlight state-of-the-art treatments and providers who are leaders in their field.
Introduce your facility and specialties in welcome videos
A welcome video adds a personal touch that can make your healthcare organization stand out among competitors in an online search. Try creating a short, conversational video that introduces your facility to prospective patients. You can give a virtual tour, note your specialties and services, or highlight one of your convenient locations—including the fact that you offer virtual visits or telehealth consultations.
Welcome videos let patients know what they can expect when they come to your office, from professional and environmental perspectives. If your building is state-of-the-art, comfortable, or conveniently located, your online audience can gather that from your series of welcome videos.
Offer patient success stories and testimonials
Patient success stories and testimonials are often outstanding forms of endorsement for your healthcare organization. Compelling stories of satisfaction for care received, recovery, and bedside manner can influence prospective patients in a positive way. They’ll see themselves in those success stories and favorable outcomes and associate that with your physicians and facilities.
With permission from patients and following all HIPAA guidelines, you can create videos that highlight patient success stories and help grow your business.
Provide expert answers to common healthcare questions
Create informational videos about specific conditions or procedures. When people are searching online for particular symptoms or treatments, they’ll be able to find answers to their questions in your short, authoritative videos. Link these videos from social media platforms to your website to drive traffic there, as well.
Where do you post your healthcare marketing videos?
As you’ve most likely gathered, healthcare marketing videos and social media go hand-in-hand. Does your organization have an Instagram profile or a Facebook page? These platforms are two good places to start, depending on your target audience, as noted above.
A few Facebook statistics to get you started:
Facebook has nearly 3 billion active monthly users worldwide, with the largest demographic between the ages of 25 and 35 years old.
Approximately 7 out of 10 adults in the United States use Facebook.
82% of college graduates have Facebook accounts.
75% of FB users have an income of more than 75 thousand dollars.
When it comes to advertising, 75% of Facebook users visit a local business age at least once a week. That business could be yours, and this audience could find you through one of your informative videos. In this day and age, you’d be remiss to not incorporate videos into your marketing strategy for 2022 and beyond.
https://www.leadsquared.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/healthcare-video-marketing.jpeg4501000Karla Socci Somershttps://www.leadsquared.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/340-x-156-300x138.pngKarla Socci Somers2022-01-28 05:16:472022-12-23 12:47:52Seize the Power of Video for Healthcare Marketing
Social media is central to the success of any student recruitment campaign. Did you know that 83% of students use social media channels to help them make their college choices?
Social media is also a crucial tool when it comes to managing student and alumni relations, promoting events, and, as we’ve discovered in recent years, keeping stakeholders informed in a crisis. With all this in mind, social media management can feel insurmountable.
Especially if you’ve chosen to go down the multi-channel route.
The key to social media success is in the planning. Let’s take a look at how to create an effective higher education social strategy: one that will boost your college’s reputation and contribute towards meeting its various targets.
Keep the wider mission in mind
Set out to align your social media strategy with your college’s overarching goals, values, and objectives. Matching your strategy with your college’s mission will help create a clear business case for allocating time and resources to social media.
Take New England College, for example. The mission statement on the college’s website reads: “New England College is a creative and supportive learning community that challenges individuals to transform themselves and their world.”
At the beginning of 2022, New England College interviewed one of its undergraduate students about their higher education journey and shared the video on Instagram.
In the video, Tyler explains how the college is supporting his career ambitions by providing him with work experience opportunities. “Just being able to tap into the vast network that [the professors] have developed is incredible because they want to set you up for success.”
Peer reviews are powerful, so getting existing students to share their experiences can work wonders for student recruitment.
Creating student personas means figuring out who your social media posts are for. You may already have created student personas through your student journey mapping process.
A student persona is a fictional “type” of person based on your college’s applicants, existing students, alumni and donors. The options are numerous and unique to each individual college. Student personas help you create relevant, useful and engaging content.
When creating a student persona, consider the following details:
Day-to-day activities
What motivates them
Their post-college ambitions
Where they consume information
Any pain points or concerns, e.g. access to childcare
You could follow in Parthenon Group’s footsteps and create personas primarily based on what students want to achieve upon graduation. Here’s an example:
Once you’ve gone through the persona creation process for one type of prospective student or stakeholder, repeat the process. The number of personas you create will ultimately depend on your college – some will have a couple whereas others may have five or more.
Once you’ve gained an in-depth understanding of your target audience, it’s time to start thinking from their perspective. Spending a couple of hours in their shoes will get you thinking about the type of content and topics each persona is looking for.
In the Instagram post below, The Modern College of Design shows users how to book a campus tour. It provides prospects with the option to visit in person or attend a virtual event that fits around their schedule.
This type of content can be reassuring for students, especially those who live far away or have other commitments, such as workers or caregivers.
It’s important to consider the whole suite of social media platforms, even if it means going out of your comfort zone. Where do your student personas hang out? Staying informed of demographic and platform trends will enable you to track where communities are active.
Remember: your content needs to speak to different generations.
According to the National Centre for Education Statistics, 90% of students in public four-year schools are under 25. However, in private for-profit four-year schools, 66% of students are 25 or over. Even if you’re catering mainly to Gen Z, you also have to think about:
Individuals who don’t fit the parameters of a persona
Parents of prospective school-leaver students
Your college’s corporate partners and recruiters
Existing and potential faculty and staff
Alumni and donors
Don’t underestimate TikTok, social media’s destination for bite-sized videos.
It currently has one billion active users, and of the 4.8 billion internet users worldwide, 20.83% engage with TikTok. A growing number of colleges are using TikTok to connect with Gen Z audiences by creating content that’s fun, relatable and educational.
Indiana University is an example of a higher education college working wonders on TikTok.
Its Day in the Life campaign gives prospects a taste of what it’s like to study at the college and includes the perspectives of a wide variety of students and subjects. Here’s an example:
If you’re not au fait with TikTok, spend some time on the platform getting to know it. It’s different from the likes of Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Check out the trending filters, songs and effects. See how organizations use branded hashtag challenges to transform followers into brand ambassadors.
Don’t forget to create guidelines
It’s highly unlikely you’ll be the only one involved in managing and creating content for your college’s social media accounts.
Therefore, it’s important to create a policy containing guidelines. Doing this will help you and your team maintain a consistent tone of voice across the different channels. It’ll also establish some best practices.
Your guidelines should include:
A tone of voice and style guide
Crisis and emergency management information
Steps on how to deal with negative messages
Contact information for members of the team
Resources for social media learning and upskilling
Explore various content types
Some social posts take longer to craft than others. The post below from the Automotive and Diesel Institute, for example, would have been relatively quick and simple to make. It’s no less effective though, and encourages people to engage by visiting or asking a question.
Although it takes longer to create video content, it can be worth the effort. Student generated content like the examples in this article can help convert prospective students into enrolled ones. Who do you think would make great social media ambassadors at your college?
As well as benefiting your college, getting students to collaborate with you can help them too, especially if they’re looking to build their own social media presence or learn new skills ahead of graduating. An engaging and articulate video can work wonders for a student’s CV.
Invest in your social media team
Nikki Sunstrum, the Director of Social Media and Public Engagement at the University of Michigan, oversees a team of 12. In a podcast for Volt on the state of social media in higher education, she explains the day-to-day responsibilities of her team.
…I have one primary communicator and decision-maker within every individual school, college and organizational unit that I work with on a weekly and daily basis to ensure that we are adequately promoting content that represents the breadth of our academic research and impact…”
Nikki Sunstrum, University of Michigan
If you simply don’t have the resources to employ a full team of social media experts, you could try collaborating with other departments.
Software is also key, whether you’re heading up a large team or managing social media on your own. Use a trusted social media management platform to upload content for different channels in bulk, and schedule posts ahead of time to maintain consistency.
Don’t forget to leverage the capabilities of your higher education CRM too. Use it as part of your social media strategy to capture student enquiries and automatically distribute them to counselors, ensuring that every request enters a workflow that leads to an enrollment.
https://www.leadsquared.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/create-social-media-strategies.jpeg4501000Kate Tattersfieldhttps://www.leadsquared.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/340-x-156-300x138.pngKate Tattersfield2022-01-26 00:38:172022-12-28 00:19:09How to Create an Effective Higher Education Social Media Strategy
We’ve shortlisted the 17 best CRM tools based on their functions, business problems they solve, ratings on software review sites, reviews, and pricing.
Towards the end, we’ll also share some quick tips and red flags while buying a CRM.
So, let’s get started.
What is a CRM tool?
A CRM tool is a contact management software that enables brands to stay in touch with their customers, streamline customer engagement and support and improve profits.
CRM lets you store customer information, all the interactions they had with your brand, touchpoints, and more.
A strong selling point for CRM tools is that everyone in the company can see customer profiles, their past purchases, their current interests, their stage in the sales pipeline, and deal status.
Modern CRM tools extend that functionality by managing the entire customer lifecycle that includes marketing and sales efforts, managing digital commerce, and customer support.
In a nutshell:
CRMs can help large organizations run efficiently and can help small businesses grow.
So, which one is right for you?
17 Best CRM tools for your business
1. LeadSquared
LeadSquared combines sales execution and field force management in a single package. It helps businesses increase closure rates and easily manage pipelines. Key features include:
Pankaj Singh S, on Capterra says: “Very easy to use. Administration can be done without any coding hardcore skills. Landing page creation is easy and feature like some Landing page some module can be visible or hide on mobile is a great one without any coding. Support is great. The customer care team is very fast in responding to customer queries.”
Pricing
LeadSquared comes with a free trial and a Lite plan starts from $20/user/month.
Best suited for: B2C enterprises, SMBs, Marketplaces
2. Podio CRM
Podio from Citrix is an all-in-one solution that aims to be a cloud-based collaboration and project management tool. It is known for its:
Wide range of apps
Extensive customization options
Comprehensive collaboration and project management tools.
Pros
Project management is a key feature of Podio; it can be a great option for those larger companies that require a dedicated project management solution along with basic CRM functions.
Provides automated workflow solutions that further simplify manual workflows.
Allows creation of forms and host them as web pages
Cons
Since it is more of a project management tool, often users have a problem using it as a CRM out of the box.
It requires extensive configurations and often all the modules do not operate as coherently as it does in other CRM tools.
Ratings and Reviews
At Capterra, Podio gets a review of 4.3/5. However, G2 gives it a solid 5/5.
Sara M. at G2 says, “The inclusion of SO many features were daunting for a new hire to learn quickly.”
Manuel D. at Capterra says “It is amazing how it can integrate with so many things, send emails, SMS, signatures. The files can be organized with just a click. It is also suitable for any type of business.”
Pricing
Podio is free for five employees and the basic plan starts at only $7.20 per month.
Best suited for: SMBs
3. Freshsales
If you are looking for a CRM solution that also doubles as a customer support solution, then Freshdesk is the right CRM tool for you. Freshdesk enables businesses:
Create knowledge bases
Collect and respond to individual support tickets
Communicate effectively with customers
Pros
Freshdesk can help you resolve numerous customer queries with AI and bots
“FreshDesk makes issue resolution for larger organizations simple. I like that there are several paths that you can set up inside of your organization. We have ours set up to communicate with the right department for each situation.”
Pricing
Freshdesk has a free plan that allows unlimited agents. Their starting plan is $15/user/month.
Best suited for: Enterprises and SMBs, mainly for sales management, customer service and support.
4. HubSpot CRM
HubSpot is one of the most popular CRM solutions for managing your sales pipeline and take decisions based on real-time analytics. It allows users to:
HubSpot collects all the data of your marketing efforts
Brands can easily manage and segment contacts
The lead generation features are quite comprehensive.
Provides intuitive and easy-to-use page builder for email marketing and campaign landing pages
Cons
You need to pay for additional contacts depending on your subscription. This subscription system makes scaling the CRM for your business a little challenging
HubSpot also lacks starting templates.
Ratings and Reviews
G2 gives HubSpot a perfect 5/5 rating. Capterra gives it an overall rating of 4.5/5.
HubSpot comes with a free plan, but if you want to scale up, the next plan starts at $50 a month.
Best suited for: Has separate product categories for sales, marketing, and customer service. Businesses of all sizes can use HubSpot CRM.
5. Apptivo
Apptivo focuses on making your lead generation efforts more effective. It helps you create forms to capture more leads and automate customer tracking. Apptivo stands out of the pack by providing:
Easy to use and intuitive mobile apps
Provides extensive tutorials and guides
An end-to-end business management platform
Pros
Much easier to use compared to other CRM tools. It comes with built-in support for new users
It automatically keeps contacts updated and helps manage projects with long life cycles.
Comes with integration with Google’s software suite at a much lower price.
Cons
Apptivo is good for basic functionalities but cannot be extended much
Their UX is not very intuitive for new users
Gmail integration is not great
Ratings and Reviews
TrustRadius gives Apptivo a rating of 9.2/10. Capterra gives it 4.4/5.
“I am always able to get an agent through the embedded chat widget. It is like have a teacher or assistant sitting beside me all the time.”
Pricing
Apptivo has a free tier while the basic tier, called “Lite” starts at $8 per month.
Best suited for: Small Businesses and the Airlines/Aviation industry.
6. Salesforce Sales Cloud
When it comes to CRM solutions, Salesforce is one of the most popular solutions. One of the reasons why it is so useful is because of its wide range of integration with other software platforms. It allows companies to make critical business decisions based on real-time data.
The USPs of Salesforce includes:
Extensive support for businesses of any size.
It can integrate with almost all known third-party services used by businesses.
Customizable for almost all types of businesses
Pros
All users have complete access to the leads and contacts.
Extremely customizable and can be used in almost any situation.
Provides comprehensive analytics.
Nearly no performance hiccups.
Cons
The pricing of Salesforce Sales Cloud is also quite complex and depends on the features that the user will use.
Automation capabilities are underwhelming when compared to cheaper options.
It may not be suitable for small businesses
Ratings and Reviews
On Capterra, Salesforce Sales Cloud has a rating of 4.4/5 while Gartner provides it a score of 4.3/5.
Jamie G. on Capterra says “When used properly, a real gamechanger. … It’s really impacted the way that we work, the way we interact with customers and the way we approach deals. It’s the foundation of our everyday.”
However, he also adds, “It’s not especially intuitive and you need to spend a lot of time to get the most out of it. (“Salesforce Sales Cloud Reviews, Demo & Pricing – 2022”) It’s also not the fastest software in the world.”
Pricing
Salesforce Sales cloud offers a free trial and a starting price of $25/month/user.
Best suited for: Salesforce offers a range of suits for sales, marketing, service and have customized offerings for several industries.
7. Acquire
Recently, Acquire has been gaining a lot of traction and is one of the best solutions for small businesses. Acquire focuses more on customer communication and care, allowing customers to get the best experience from the brand. Acquire is known for:
AI-powered chatbots that can help customers with simple tasks
Instant file and screen sharing solutions
Video and voice calls with recording features
Co-browsing
Pros
Co-browsing allows support agents and customers to collaborate in the customer’s browser in real-time. It can take place via chat or phone calls.
Provides a high degree of personalization.
Cons
Pricing is on the higher side
Third-party integration via APIs is limited.
Ratings and Reviews
Acquire gets a rating of 4.2/5 at G2.
Julian David M., a small business owner says, “Acquire support and features are top-level and one of a kind. We spent months looking for the perfect solution for our needs and the Acquire product checked all of them.”
Pricing
Acquire does not declare their pricing publicly and you need to get in touch with them.
Best suited for: Mid-size businesses
8. Odoo
Odoo is the top-ranking open-source CRM solution. When it comes to CRM tools, most of them are proprietary. But Odoo changes that by being open source. This makes the CRM extremely modular and customizable. The key selling points of Odoo include:
An open-source solution that allows extensive customization
Easy to use Kanban view
Comes built-in with all the basic tools needed to track leads and opportunities
Works right out of the box with minimal setup time.
Pros
Allows extensive customization
Can easily integrate with a lot of third-party solutions
Easy to use, has well-designed helpdesk section
Reasonable pricing with a comprehensive set of features
Cons
Customer service is not up to the mark
Navigation of the CRM can be challenging at times
Development can be challenging as it uses multiple languages
Ratings and Review
G2 gives Odoo a rating of 4/5 and TrustRadius similarly rates it as 8/10.
Oscar Alcalá at TrustRadius says “You can do whatever you want with Odoo, from ordering lunch to selling online.”
Pricing
The Basic solution comes at $3060 per year (approx.. $250 per month) which includes the whole app suite. They also offer free trials or more granular pricing for the apps that you will only require.
Best suited for: SMEs and large corporations
9. Zendesk Sell
Zendesk is a popular name in the world of CRMs and their platform Zendesk Sell, as the name implies, is designed for selling. It provides a comprehensive feature set to manage your sales funnel and make your brand more visible.
It integrates well with other services and provides extensive customization
Comes with omnichannel support
Provides a unified workspace with contextual interface
Pros
Integrates well with Google’s services
Relatively inexpensive starting plan with a decent set of available features
Allows you to customize the sales process
Provides the tools needed to track and follow up on contacts
Cons
The reporting module is not as detailed as the competition
The dashboard is confusing and can be hard to find the necessary tools
“Been using it since it came out as a beta months ago, It integrates very easily with Zendesk support ticketing and has all features as any other CRM. You can easily integrate with Pandadoc and send agreements. You can send texts, emails and calls from the CRM very easily and track agents productivity.”
Pricing
Zendesk Sell starts at $19/user/month.
Best suited for: Enterprises and SMBs
10. Less Annoying CRM
CRMs can be complicated as they often cram a lot of tools into a single software suite. Less Annoying CRM or LACRM tries to simplify CRM adoption for small business owners by offering a simple solution at a low price. The key features include:
Easy to use even for inexperienced users
Perfect solution for businesses and organizations with limited needs
Provides all basic features, workflow management, marketing automation, customer support, and more.
Pros
Simplified CRM adoption with no set-up fee
Integrates well with most popular web services and apps
Can be customized as needed by the brand
Requires no contract
Cons
Can feel limited for a growing business
Integration does not offer in-depth tracking of leads
Ratings and Reviews
LACRM gets a solid 5/5 at G2.
Laine D. says, “LACRM is so easy to learn I was able to understand it myself within just a few days of the trial period. From there, I still had time to add on my team and have them test and learn the system before we even had to make our first payment. I loved this aspect because it allowed us all to be comfortable with the system and begin integrating it into our daily operations right away. When LACRM says that there are really no tricks or hoops to jump through, they mean it, the system is easy to understand, and the team is super helpful if/when you need them!”
Pricing
LACRM has one pricing tier of $10/user/month.
Best suited for: Small businesses, marketing and advertising industries
11. Capsule CRM
Capsule CRM allows you to build better relationships with customers by collecting more data on them. It a solution that any business can adopt easily.
It simplifies data collection and follows up on information such as pet’s names
Pipeline visualization can help monitor and implement pipelines easily
Cons
The import data functionality isn’t great.
Search and reporting functions are not up to the mark
The UX isn’t intuitive for new users
Ratings and Reviews
Capsule CRM gets a 4.5/5 rating on Capterra.
Ilia T. writes on Capterra, “What initially attracted us to this CRM was its cost effectiveness. I was impressed by how easy it was to deploy and run. The mobile app was pretty solid, easy to use and probably better or on par with some of the other (more expensive) CRM apps I’ve used.”
Pricing
Capsule CRM has a free trial and starts at $18/user/month.
Best suited for: SMBs
12. Keap
Formerly Infusionsoft, Keap allows you to automate numerous marketing tasks, including tracking people. It is marketed mostly as automation software. It can:
Automate lead capture and subsequent follow-up activities
Can predict revenues based on past and present performance
Pros
Extensive automation capabilities
Allows segmentation and personalization of email campaigns
Allows behavior tracking and tagging
Combines affiliate marketing, sales and marketing automation, and email marketing at a relatively lower cost
Cons
The landing page builder is lacking functionality
The reporting module is unintuitive
Ratings and Reviews
At G2, Keap gets a score of 4.2/5.
Michelle B says that “Keap helps keep our contact list organized and updated. Their marketing campaign capabilities are some of the best I’ve seen, along with the tagging system. Putting our marketing on autopilot saves us time and headaches.”
Pricing
Keap offers free trials, and the Lite plan starts at $40 per month for the first three months.
Best suited for: Freelancers, small businesses
13. Sugar Sell
Sugar Sell is a popular CRM solution. If you prefer detailed data visuals, then Sugar CRM is for you. Brands can use this solution to manage accounts, automate parts of the sales process, and analyze the pipeline.
Automates data collection – gathers actionable insights from social media and business interaction data
A reliable option for startups and small businesses
Cons
The UI can be clumsy at times
Filtering data can be cumbersome
Ratings and Reviews
Sugar Sell gets a rating of 3.8/5 on Capterra. On TrustRadius, it gets a score of 7.4/10.
Katie F. on Capterra wrote that “Overall, I really enjoyed Sugar and think it would be a great fit (especially for the lower price point!) for marketing and advertising agencies that are looking to build out custom flows. Their customer care team was incredibly helpful and knowledgeable, and I really enjoyed working with them.”
Pricing
Sugar Sell starts at $80/user/month.
Best suited for: Mid-size companies
14. Scoro
Scoro is an end-to-end work management software that allows brands to manage their entire workflow from the first interaction to the final invoice. It combines project management tools with CRM tools to provide this experience. Scoro allows you to:
Standardize sales processes and predict future sales
Set up multiple custom dashboards with sales KPIs and targets
Pros
Provides an all-in-one solution that integrates CRM with project management
Comprehensive invoicing and reminders system
Can be easily implemented
Cons
The tool is difficult to understand for beginners
Emails sent from Scoro generally land in the client’s junk folder
Contact synchronization with Gmail isn’t available.
Has limited integration support with third-party solutions.
Ratings and Reviews
Scoro gets a score of 4.6/5 on Capterra while on G2, it gets a 4.5/5.
Nasko L. on Capterra says, “Scoro brought major relief to our team as a single place for information and sharing progress on projects and individual tasks. Its limitations to work as a sales CRM forced us to be creative in how we record data and push that data down the pipeline.”
Pricing
Pricing starts at $26/user/month.
Best suited for: Small businesses
15. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a popular solution that provides omnichannel communication capabilities, track leads and opportunities in real-time, and measure the effectiveness of the marketing campaigns. With Zoho CRM, brands can:
Leverage AI-powered sales assistant to help identify high-quality leads
Connect with customers and leads across multiple channels
Pros
Comprehensive omnichannel communication options.
Provides extensive integration capabilities with other Zoho products as well as third-party services
Automatically notifies team members of updates on leads and customers.
Offers a solid set of features for the price.
Excellent customer support
Cons
The user interface can feel outdated and challenging
Customization options in email marketing are limited
Ratings and reviews
Zoho CRM gets a score of 8.2/10 on TrustRadius and a 4/5 on G2.
Patrick Stephens writes on TrustRadius “You are not going to find a “fuller” program. They have been a leader in the industry for a long time for a reason, and that is because they listen to their clients and attempt to improve themselves based on feedback.”
Pricing
Zoho offers a free trial as well as freemium plans. Premium plans start at $14/user/month.
Best suited for: Zoho offers a range of products for different business functions. The most common users of Zoho CRM are from SMBs.
16. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is another popular CRM solution that is specifically designed with small teams in mind. It allows you to easily track customers using minimalistic visuals.
Pipedrive is extremely easy to use and needs little prior training.
Activity reminders notify team members of deals.
Can sync all activities with Google Calendar
Pros
Extremely easy to use with a drag-and-drop interface
Automation systems can take care of repetitive tasks and sending emails
A comprehensive note-taking and management system simplifies voice calls
Ensures that leads do not go stale with notifications and reminders
Cons
Customer support is limited
Integration with social media accounts is lacking
Ratings and Reviews
Pipedrive is rated 8.7/10 on TrustRadius and a perfect 5/5 on G2.
Jack Mattheus says, “Pipedrive is an excellent collaborative tool since it is very complete and provides many functionalities that are currently being used in several of our department within the company.”
Nimble focuses on getting more insights into your leads and customers with minimal effort. It automatically gathers leads and segments them. It also helps with your marketing and outreach efforts. With Nimble, you can:
Gather customer data from their social media profiles
Makes it easy to manage tasks with Smart Agenda and Activities
Integrates with Google Workspace and Office 365.
Pros
A practical choice for organizations using Office 365 and Google Workspace
Extensive automated contact enrichment and segmentation
Integrates with social media accounts
Provides comprehensive email marketing features
Cons
The interface can be confusing to new users
Price is geared towards larger businesses
Ratings and Reviews
On Capterra, Nimble gets a 4.4/5 while on TrustRadius, it gets an 8.7/10.
On Capterra, Alper K. writes “I have been using Nimble for customer relationship management software. Apart from the price, I can say that it is best among other in the industry.”
Pricing
Nimble starts at $19/user/month when billed annually. It also offers a free trial.
Best suited for: SMBs
That’s our list of the 17 CRM tools we recommend.
But before you finalize a deal, consider the following points to find the best CRM tool for your business.
How to find the best CRM tool for your business
We’ve helped thousands of companies successfully implement CRM in their business.
In conversations with customers, we’ve had the privilege to learn about the buying process, competition, horror stories and more.
In short – our customers have helped us identify potential red flags that we can share with CRM buyers to prevent them from making the same mistakes.
These red flags include:
The lack of customer support
An unscalable CRM
Manual updates and lack of access
Lengthy implementation time
Lack of integrations
Apart from these, check the following for the CRM vendor you’re evaluating:
Who have they worked with?
Do they have well-reputed names under their belt with credible evidence?
Do they have good reviews?
Below are some of the websites that offer credible CRM reviews:
G2 Crowd
Capterra
GetApp
Crozdesk
So now you know what red flags to look out for. Let’s talk about the points to shortlist the best ones.
1. Instant support
While companies claim zero downtime, outages are still possible.
So, check if the CRM vendor has a mechanism to support customers in such instances.
Also, check if they respond promptly, in general.
The best way to check this is to contact them. If they’re quick to communicate, offer support at every step of the way, you’re in good hands.
2. Scalability
Chances are, when you implement your CRM, you receive less than 100 leads per week, and you have 10 employees. But within a year or even a couple of months, your lead levels increase to 500 per day, and you have 50 employees.
So, check if the CRM is scalable and flexible to your needs.
3. Implementation
Implementation should be easy, fast, and free (for lighter/DIY implementations) or priced based on the level of customizations.
Cloud-based deployments are usually faster, and you should be able to deploy a solution in two to four weeks.
“We had a very smooth implementation experience. Earlier, we thought that it would take us at least two weeks to get it started, but LeadSquared said they can start work from the very next day. We could have failed miserably if we hadn’t taken this decision.”
Siddhartha Nihalani, VP – Product, Practo
4. Automated updates
Two types of updates should happen in your CRM tool automatically. They are:
Product updates
Customer data and activity updates
Product updates usually happen when your CRM provider adds or updates a feature on the software. In this case, you must receive communication from your vendor regarding the update and resources to help you use those features.
Another aspect we spoke about is the customer data update. Here, the system should automatically update records for:
Whenever there’s a change in your lead/customer account, such as turnover, number of employees, and more.
Whenever your sales users add an activity. For example, when a user adds sales activity as “deal closed,” the stage of the lead should automatically change to “customer”.
Doing it manually will only cost time and resources. Plus, you won’t be able to ensure data integrity.
5. Training
Let’s face it. The users may not be from a technical background. No matter how intuitive the CRM be, users need at least some training to be able to utilize the software to the fullest.
So, check if your vendor provides live training and has training modules in place that your team can refer to anytime. Also, check if the vendor is comfortable providing training per your user’s preference.
When we surveyed 3,061 CRM customers, we found more than 50% prefer live training over self-paced training.
6. Information repository
It should not happen that salespeople have to save email templates, proposals, or sales pitch decks, on their desktop or drive.
Why?
Because it’s time-consuming.
To enable your sales teams, have a content library or information repository in the CRM. It will give them quick access to what they need without having to switch platforms.
7. Reports and dashboards
The greatest point of productivity when using a CRM is that you don’t have to use several spreadsheets, manually update information, or search for customer data.
Make sure your CRM lives up to its name.
While reports help you analyze data from the past, dashboards give you real-time metrics on campaigns, leads, and sales.
To give you an example, LeadSquared provides both – a real-time dashboard (customizable for users) and 100+ automated reports to increase productivity across the organization. Managers rarely ask their teams to prepare reports – they fetch the information they need from the CRM directly.
8. Integration
The final and the most important aspect is – does your CRM integrate easily with popular tools and your core software?
Make sure it does. Otherwise, you’ll end up employing more resources for managing data across systems.
Worse, you won’t be able to ensure data integrity.
So, check for integration capabilities in your CRM.
9. Compliance
Since CRM tools store sensitive customer information, the software must comply with the regulatory requirements of the region the brand is located in. For example, if you are in the EU, you need to use a software solution that complies with the GDPR requirements.
Similarly, if you’re from domains like healthcare, HIPAA compliance in the tools you use is a must.
A quick recommendation
We’ve discussed the 17 best CRM tools and their core features, pros, and cons.
We also shared tips for finding the best CRM software for your business.
Now, allow me to recommend our favorite (and reasonably priced) CRM tool.
LeadSquared.
LeadSquared is built for high-velocity sales, using a vertical-centric, use-case first approach instead of keeping features at the center of the software.
The goal is simple:
To build truly connected, empowered, and self-reliant sales organizations.
With the new intake season, Higher Ed marketing & enrollment teams already have their hands full with 100s of tasks. They should not have to perform redundant tasks such as qualifying leads manually.
Key Discussion Points:
Identify and invest in the most profitable publisher channels.
Gain complete transparency on leads from publishers/partners.
Use the power of automation and reporting to ensure that every marketing dollar is well-spent.
Marketing hacks to help you ace your admissions in 2022.
Dushyant is the Associate Director of Education Initiatives at LeadSquared, focusing on the education industry. He has over 11 years of experience in SaaS and is adept at managing & running complex process operations. He is experienced in developing service & delivery standards for business excellence.
Shibani Roy Senior Manager, Brand Communications, LeadSquared
Shibani has been driving the webinar program at LeadSquared for more than six years, bringing in experts from around the world to share their expertise on different topics. She is also a writer and an email marketing expert, having sent over 5 million emails to date. She currently leads the brand marketing initiatives at LeadSquared.
Are we talking about bureaucratic red tape? Sorry, no. We’re talking about a necessary reality for US healthcare operations. Yes, even marketing operations.
If you’re in the business of healthcare practice, you’ve bumped into HIPAA by now. If you find it confusing, that’s completely normal. HIPAA is notorious for being vague. As a result, full HIPAA compliance is bound to feel elusive at least some of the time.
And so, we’ve compiled a straightforward guide to HIPAA and its many requirements. Here, we’ll cover what the law entails, what it means to be HIPAA compliant, and what the potential consequences will be if your practice comes up short.
HIPAA: the absolute basics
“HIPAA” stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
On the books since 1996, the law—and its accompanying amendments—helped develop a system of national standards for fortifying personal patient health information (usually referred to as “protected health information” or “PHI”) against unauthorized disclosure.
HIPAA’s ultimate aim is to improve “the efficiency and effectiveness” of the US healthcare system.
HIPAA enforcement is in the hands of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Organizations subject to HIPAA rules include:
Health insurance companies
Businesses that require access to medical records in order to complete operations (think: billing agencies);
Healthcare practices
These organizations, known as “covered entities,” are all obligated to meet federal regulations for HIPAA compliance.
The crucial details
If we dig deeper, we find HIPAA can be broken down into five “rules”:
1. Privacy
The Privacy Rule looks to establish a balance between the necessary flow of PHI among covered entities and an individual’s general right to privacy. The rule standardizes the usage and disclosure of PHI and requires specific safeguards for patient data, all subject to HHS oversight.
The rule also empowers individuals to “understand and control” the methods used when viewing or sharing their PHI. (It even demands patient authorization for certain types of disclosure.)
2. Security
In essence, the Security Rule extends the terms and protections of the Privacy Rule to include all PHI made available in electronic format (ePHI). This rule details precautionary physical, technical, and administrative measures to ensure against ePHI breach. It’s also the point at which standards and practices for data encryption, confidentiality, and risk analysis come firmly into play.
3. Breach notification
The Breach Notification Rule, as the name implies, requires covered entities to report any PHI/ePHI breach to both patients and the HHS. These notifications should be made as swiftly as possible and cover the “who/what/how” of each disclosure incident, as well as any steps being taken to address fallout damage.
4. Enforcement
This rule finalizes the penalties and processes for an investigation surrounding violations of HIPAA provisions for Administrative Simplification (which optimize the flow of PHI).
5. Omnibus
The Omnibus Rule is a catch-all amendment that marries HIPAA to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), enacting measures for further protection of PHI. Registered in 2013, the Omnibus Rule placed additional restrictions on the use of PHI and ePHI for marketing strategy.
What HIPAA compliance means for providers and practices
Healthcare providers fall directly under the auspices of HIPAA compliance. This means your practice is legally bound to comply with all five HIPAA rules, as well as each rule’s subsequent components.
It also means your practice is required to implement ongoing processes for HIPAA risk assessment through regularsecurity audits and by identifying any gaps in security coverage (while highlighting plans to fill them in as needed).
Similarly, your practice is obliged to ensure all personnel takes appropriate steps to maintain “the integrity and confidentiality” of patient/prospect PHI across all technical, physical, and administrative systems for storage, transmission, etc. As such, HIPAA dictates that each entity designate a “compliance officer” to help train organizational staff and oversee company-wide procedures for toeing HIPAA lines.
“Okay…but why?” you ask.
Well, outside the fact each patient in the US is legally entitled to a certain level of privacy, there’s an awful lot at stake for your business.
Failure to meet HIPAA demands—even in cases where there’s no verifiable breach—can have debilitating consequences, including federal investigation, class action lawsuits, hefty personal fines, and even jail time. HIPAA Journal suggests violations can cost your company around $200 per victim, with state-level fines running up to $25,000 per incident category and fines for intent to sell/utilize information for personal gain amounting to up to $250,000.
And that’s just inside your own organization.
Your clinic is also on the hook for HIPAA-compliant operations concerning every single tool you employ—from point-of-sale software to patient/customer relationship management platforms (CRMs) and email servers–—as well as every third-party entity that provides you with added assistance.
To avoid devastating penalties, it’s imperative you establish a business associate agreement (BAA) with each third-party vendor that handles your PHI/ePHI. These agreements should come with two fundamental guarantees:
Protection (i.e, data encryption) against unlawful disclosure of your PHI, and
A plan for regularly scheduled system audits (to help reinforce security measures).
What HIPAA compliance means for marketers
When HIPAA’s fifth and final Omnibus Rule made its way into the federal registry, marketers encountered newer, stronger limitations regarding PHI and other personal identifiers for patients and prospects.
Most notably, healthcare marketers were suddenly required to:
“…obtain a valid authorization from individuals before using or disclosing protected health information to market a product or service…”
To which most marketers might be inclined to say: “Now what?”
This stipulation obviously puts a strain on most typical marketing programs, particularly those focused on inbound strategy.
So, game over? Pack up your marketing plans and go home?
Not quite.
Instead, the Omnibus Rule only demands a few tweaks to normal inbound efforts. Many lead-nurturing strategies keep well within the bounds of HIPAA compliance; you just have to proceed with caution.
Consider these examples:
You CAN…
Reach out to previous patients with information that’s applicable to their ongoing care or to an ongoing value your practice offers as part of your overall services.
But you CANNOT…
Serve up personal data regarding patient demographics, health histories, or any other health-related identifiers to a third party for the purpose of selling a product/service, raising money for an organization, or conducting research without prior written authorization from the patient in question.These authorizations must also be upfront about any compensation you’ve received for sharing patient information.
Put in more practical terms:
Sending a patient an encrypted email with follow-up treatment ideas for a recent diagnosis or alerting them to newly available practice services? Congrats: You’re good to go.
Sending a patient an email pitch about a new pharmaceutical drug not offered as part of their ongoing care? Nope. That’s illegal.
Thankfully, HIPAA rules allow most typical inbound activities to continue unabated. But be careful—especially when it comes to personal health information of the electronic or analog kind.
HIPAA allows most typical inbound activities to continue unabated––but be careful.
“Careful” should translate to codified systems for safeguarding all patient data and for regular reviews of all PHI activity. Plus, as mentioned above, you should have a BAA in place for any third-party service you deploy, particularly any email providers or web hosting services you use to collect, transfer, or store patient information at various points in the sales funnel.
If any of the above seems too complicated or you’re at a loss for how to get started on compliance, HIPAA-compliant CRM might just be your new best friend.
With a customer relationship management platform designed for HIPAA compliance, much of your due diligence work is done for you. An end-to-end solution such as LeadSquared, can assist in creating a secure, single-source overview for patient profiles, health histories, appointment schedules, and more.
It can also help facilitate:
Lead capture and management, allowing you to safely house, search, and share information on potential patients with members of your team.
Marketing automation, enabling compliant outreach through automated communications with existing/prospective clients.
Engagement scoring, providing the tools to trace engagement behavior and help nurture ongoing customer relationships.
And with compliant solutions like LeadSquared, a HIPAA BAA always comes standard. (No need to worry about ticking an endless amount of legal boxes before launching your next campaign.)
The takeaway…
HIPAA, like all legal provisions, can be a complex animal.
To achieve HIPAA compliance in marketing, you’ll have to watch your step when it comes to the content of your message and the trafficking of patient data.
If you’re just learning the HIPAA ropes, a HIPAA-compliant CRM is an exceptionally good place to begin your practice- and department-wide compliance plan.
They observed nearly 24% of inbound inquiries got no response at all.
That means, almost 1 in 4 calls remain unattended.
if you don’t respond to 3 out of 4 companies that contact you, you’re losing revenue.
However, to maintain a healthy professional relationship, you must let your clients and business partners know that you aren’t available at the moment and will get back to them as soon as possible.
This is where voicemail greetings help.
We’ve compiled 25 voicemail greeting scripts to help you set up your own.
We’ve also included audio recordings after each voicemail script – allowing you to listen to how it should sound when you send that voicemail.
A voicemail is a digitally recorded message left by a caller when the recipient isn’t available to attend the call. The intended recipient can retrieve the message through phone, email, or other communication devices.
What is a voicemail greeting?
A voicemail greeting is a recording to inform clients and business partners that you are not available to receive their call.
While not mandatory, it is a good practice to include your name and job title in the voicemail greeting. It ensures the caller that they’ve dialed the right recipient.
In your voicemail greeting, let your clients and prospects know why you are unavailable.
Let’s check out some amazing voicemail scripts.
25 Super-effective Voicemail Scripts
Company-wide or department-wide voicemails
If you have shared your company number on your website or social media, you should also set up voicemail on these numbers.
Any contact number which will get inbound phone calls needs a voicemail setup, especially if you are a small business using a VoIP system.
Especially for customer support numbers, voicemail is indispensable and should be taken seriously. For other departments, such as sales and HR, you have some wiggle-room.
1. Voicemail greetings for when the line is busy
The following voicemail script is a simple greeting for your primary business line. If you are unsure of what to say, this can be a good starting point. It is a short recording that ensures that you will reach back.
“Hi! Thank you for calling [company name]. We are currently unavailable. Leave us a message and we will get back to you asap. Have a great day.”
2. Voicemail script asking the purpose of the call
This voicemail comes with a call to action, asking your callers to leave their contact information.
With this script, clients and prospects are more likely to tell the reason for their call. You can then determine when you will call them back.
“Hi! Thank you for calling [Company Name]. We will be happy to help, but right now, we are on the line with another client. Please leave your name, contact number, and the reason for your call today. We will call you back as soon as possible. Thanks!”
3. Voicemail script asking for a time to callback
This one is a more consumer-facing voicemail greeting where you ask for a convenient time. This template is great for smaller companies who can afford to call back their customers at a time they provide.
“Hello! You have reached [Company Name]. We are busy right now, but we will call you back. Let us know your name, contact number, reason for your call today, and when would be a good time to call you back. Hope to talk to you again soon!”
4. To-the-point voicemail greeting script
The following voicemail is a concise greeting that gets straight to the point. While it may not sound warm and welcoming, it gets the message across.
“Hello! Thank you for calling [company name]. We cannot take your call right now. Please leave your name and contact information and we will have a team member call you back in 24 hours.”
5. B2B voicemail script
If your company deals with products or services that require extensive conversations, as with most B2B companies, you need to be flexible with your script.
The following script gives your callers the option to be called back as quickly as possible, or they can choose the timing of their own.
“Hi! Thanks for reaching out to [Company name]. Unfortunately, we cannot take your call right now. We will call you back as soon as we can. Simply leave us with your name, contact number, and the reason for your call. If you want, you can also share a preferred time when you would like to receive the call.”
6. Voicemail script for a range of service/product
For companies that offer specific products or services, you can directly ask your customers in the voicemail why they called.
For instance, if you run an automotive parts store, you will receive phone calls specifically asking for service or parts availability.
In such cases, you can let your customers leave their inquiries in voicemail. It will allow you to call back with all the information your caller would need.
“Hi! Thanks for reaching out to [company name]. Unfortunately, we are busy right now. Please leave us with your name, contact information, and your inquiries you may have regarding our [service/product]. We will follow up and answer your questions as soon as we can. Have a great day!”
7. Department-wise voicemail script
This script is a great way to assign a call to the right representative before making the call. It makes sure that nobody needs to spend any extra time on the phone. You can use this voicemail script for customer support or the sales department.
“Thanks for calling [department] at [company name]. All our representatives are currently busy and are unable to take your call. Please leave your name, contact information, and your reason for calling today, so that the right representative can call you back as soon as possible.”
8. Voicemail greeting with a promotional message
You can promote a new product, service, or an offer in your voice mail.
But make sure that it fits the context.
For instance, if someone calls up the sales department, then this type of script makes sense.
However, this does not go well with the customer support department, where a customer is possibly frustrated or annoyed when they are making the phone call.
“Hi! Thanks for calling [company]! Are you calling about our new [product, service or offer]? We, at [company], are excited about it too. We can’t take your call right now but do leave us your name and number. We will call you as soon as we are free!”
9. Voicemail greeting script guiding the caller in the right direction
This voicemail script can help redirect a lot of customers in the right direction.
You may receive several calls – generally asking for information. It’s completely fine to redirect such calls to a chat or a webpage and save your time.
However, for those who want to talk directly, keep an option to call them back.
“Hi! You have reached [company]. If you are looking for information on [product or service], have a look at our Facebook page. For [guides or tutorials], feel free to check out our channel on YouTube. If you have any other queries, leave us your name and contact number and we will call you as soon as possible.”
10. Voicemail script redirecting caller to other available/active channels
This voicemail script lets your callers know that even though they cannot reach your company by phone, they have other channels available. If it is not an emergency, many people may prefer chats and emails.
“Hi! You have reached [company]. We cannot take your call right now. If you are looking for information on [product or service], you can go to the support section of our website [URL of official website] and live chat with our representatives. You can also leave an email at [email address]. If you want us to call you back, leave your contact details after the beep.”
Voicemail greetings for after normal working hours calls
Companies get calls even after they have closed for the day. In those cases, you should let your callers know the working hours in the voicemail recording.
11. After hours voicemail greeting template
This script is a short and simple voicemail for your business.
Let’s say you run a small business or a store. You have also shared your contact number on your social media profiles.
If you get a lot of calls after your usual working hours, you can use the following voicemail greeting to let your customers know that you aren’t available.
“Hello. Thank you for calling [Company]. We are closed right now, so feel free to leave us your contact information and the reason for your call and we will call you when we open.”
12. I’ll get in touch with you tomorrow voicemail template
This is a simple script for small and medium-sized businesses. You can simply let your callers know that they have tried to reach them after working hours and assure them that you will give them a call on the next business day.
“Thank you for calling [company]. Unfortunately, you reached us during the after-hours. Leave us your name and contact information and we will get in touch with you tomorrow!”
13. Voicemail script informing the working hours
If you have fixed working hours, let your customers know that. You can activate this voicemail when the work hours of your company end.
With the following script, you can also encourage callers to leave their contact information and the reason for calling.
“Hello! Thanks for reaching out to [company name]. We are available to take phone calls from [day of week] to [day of week], [time of day] to [time of day]. Please leave us your name, contact number, and the reason for your call and we will get back to you as soon as possible.”
Voicemail greetings for the holidays
Customers may call you up on holiday. Some businesses stay open during the holidays, and hence, customers may expect that you are also open.
Here, you need to manage customer expectations and understand that depending on your business, you may have to deal with emergencies. Having an emergency contact number helps a lot. Here are some sample voicemails for the holidays.
14. Out-of-office voicemail script for holidays
If your business provides any essential services, have a backup contact number handy. Share that in your voicemail when you are out of the office.
“Merry Christmas [or another holiday greeting]. Our working hours during the holidays are from [time of day] to [time of day]. If this is an emergency, contact us on [contact number/email]. If not, do leave us your contact information and your reason for calling after the beep. We will get back in touch with you when we are back. Happy holidays!”
15. Change in working hours due to holidays voicemail template
It’s wise to record a voicemail for emergency or backup contact numbers. It is unlikely that customers will have to listen to that recording, but you should provide them the option to leave a message.
“Thank you for calling [Company]. Our working hours have changed because of the holidays. Please leave a message and a reason for your call and we will call you back as soon as possible.”
16. Holiday voicemail script indicating that you’re not available
When you do not offer any form of emergency services, you can say that you are closed for the holidays, and you will call back when the office reopens. It is always good to leave your calls with an alternative contact, like an email. This way, they can send a message if they wish to.
“Hi, you have reached [company]! Unfortunately, our office is closed till [date] for the holidays. You can email us at [email id] or leave us your name and contact number after the beep and our team will call you back on the next working day. Enjoy your holiday and thank you for calling [company]!”
Voicemail greetings for your work phone
If you have a work contact number that only you get to use, you should identify yourself in the voicemail greeting. This information allows callers to establish a relationship right from the beginning. Furthermore, it also helps callers ensure that they have called the right person.
Here are some simple voicemail greetings you can record and use when you cannot take the call.
17. I cannot take your call right now voicemail script
The following script lets the callers know that you are busy and gives them the option to leave a message if needed. You can further build upon this script based on what you do at work.
“Hi! You have reached [name] at [company]. Unfortunately, I cannot take your call right now. Please leave your name, contact, and the reason for calling after the beep.”
18. Voicemail script giving an overview of your company
This script is an example of showing what your company does and what role you play at the company. Make sure that you use a tone that matches the target persona of your company.
“Hi! You have reached [name] at [company]. I’m unavailable right now, as I am probably helping [client’s industry] get [results, such as double their conversion rate, help them find the right vehicle, and so on]. Please leave your contact information so that we can discuss how we can help you too. “
19. Voicemail script asking to email instead
If you are somewhere where you cannot take a call, or if the cellular network is unavailable, or if you are just taking a break from your phone, then you can ask your callers to leave you an email instead.
“Hello! You have reached [name] at [company]. I cannot take your call right now. If you need a quick reply, then mail me at [email address]. Alternatively, leave your name and number, and I will call you back by tomorrow.”
You may be on vacation, or you can call in sick. For those days, here are some scripts to help you craft that perfect voicemail greeting.
20. Voicemail script with alternative contact options
If you do not want to disclose why you are not unavailable, the following script is a great option. It provides the callers with alternative contact options and lets them leave a message if they want to talk to you exclusively.
“Hi, you have reached [name and title at the company]. In case of any emergencies, please contact [alternate point of contact], or leave an email at [email address]. For other queries, leave a message and I will get back to you in [number] working days.”
21. Paternal leave voicemail script
Here is a voicemail script for paternal leaves. If you are going to be out of the office for a prolonged period, it is better to provide a piece of alternate contact information to your callers.
“Hi, this is [name] from [department, company]. I am currently out on parental leave and will be unavailable till [date]. Please get in touch with [alternate person’s name] at [contact number] or [email address]. Thank you and will see you on [month].”
22. On a vacation voicemail script
If you are out on vacation, you can simply let your caller know that. Give them an alternative point of contact when you are away.
“Hi, you have reached [name] at [company]. I am currently on a vacation till [date]. If you have any inquiries, please get in touch with [alternate person’s name] at [contact number] or [email address].”
23. Voicemail script when you’re no longer working in the company
If you are leaving the company, you can use this voicemail till someone takes over the number.
“Hi, [name] is no longer working with [company]. Please forward all your future requests to [new person’s name and number]. Thank you!”
24. Holiday voicemail script
No one should have to take work calls during the holidays. Here is a cheerful script that also asks the callers to send an email if they need to.
“Merry Christmas [or alternative holiday greeting]! You have reached [name] at [company]. I am out of the office because of the holidays, and I will be back on [date]. If it’s urgent, please drop an email at [email address]. Thank you!”
25. Formal voicemail script for holidays
Here is a more formal voicemail script. Since different people celebrate different holidays, you can skip the wish and mention that you are unavailable.
“Hi! You’ve reached [name] at [company]. I am unavailable from [date] to [date] because of [holiday]. Leave a message and I will get back in touch as soon as possible.”
I hope you found these voicemail greetings helpful. And you must have also noted how they sound when someone receives them.
Feel free to use these scripts to create your own voicemail template.
Before we wrap up, note the following points to make your voicemails more effective.
Key considerations for a voicemail greeting
Use a human voiceover or record it yourself: While text-to-speech is fine, a human-touch is always better. Recording the voicemail in your own voice helps the caller recognize you when you call back. Often, you will need to rehearse a few times, maybe even spend a couple of days before you can get the right tone.
Use microphone: Use a microphone to record the voicemail. A microphone and a noise-free environment can give you professional sound recordings. You can even have a sound engineer check the audio. Understand that the audio in phone calls can get heavily distorted depending on network conditions. A good quality recording preserves the information better.
Find the right tone: Understand the mood the caller will be in. For example, if you are recording for a customer support phone, the caller is more likely to be annoyed or frustrated. So, adjust your tone accordingly.
Get it verified: Be relaxed and try to stay in a pleasant mood while recording your voicemail. Share it with others, such as friends and family members, who can hear it and let you know if the tone is right. Listen to the recording later yourself before you finalize it.
Speak coherently: Rehearse the script a couple of times. Speak slowly and coherently. If you have an email address or website in the script, spell it out.
Be concise. Don’t drag your voicemail beyond 20 seconds.
Do respond to the voicemails.
I know, responding to hundreds of callers can be overwhelming.
But the alternative is to ignore them.
And that’s not good for business. Especially in sales, you never know, thenext voicemail could be a business opportunity.
How does LeadSquared help capture voicemails as leads?
LeadSquared is a powerful tool that captures leads from several different sales and marketing channels like voicemails, mailing lists, ads, websites, chatbots, and more.
Whenever someone calls you up on your registered mobile number, a lead is created in the CRM system. Along with the voicemail message, the system captures other details like location, pages visited on the website, ads interacted with, and more. This way, you have more information about the caller than the call itself.
You can then distribute the lead to your sales reps or pursue them yourself.
This way, you can reduce the manual work of entering records. Plus, LeadSquared also integrates with many cloud-calling solutions like RingCentral, CallTrackingMetrics, and more. So, to respond to them, you don’t have to dial their number manually.
You can place a call from your CRM platform itself.
Easy, right?
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https://www.leadsquared.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/voicemail-greeting-scripts.jpg5001000Nidhi Agarwalhttps://www.leadsquared.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/340-x-156-300x138.pngNidhi Agarwal2022-01-17 12:31:042023-03-16 18:51:1025 Super-effective Voicemail Greeting Scripts for Your Business
