The Indian innovation of missed call has become an integral
part of our life now. And as most of our innovations, we jugadu’s have found a
way to use this innovation to mint money. Though not many marketers have bid
their adieus to unsolicited calls and SMSs that drive the consumers crazy, the
missed call marketing will soon show the door to these practices.
How it works:
Missed call marketing is an opt-in form of marketing which
is free for the consumer. The Long number (something like 1800 *** ****) is communicated
to the consumer through the various advertisements. The consumer can give a
missed call on this number in order to acquire additional information about the
product/service. This information can be provided through a voice call or SMS
sent by the company to consumer at company’s expense.
Why it works:
Being an Indian, imagine yourself visiting a restaurant.
Which of the following scenarios will make you feel more comfortable?
Scenario 1: You
go up to the counter and ask the manager about the dishes. The manager may or
may not charge you for the information
Scenario 2: You
sit comfortably at a table; hail a waiter who tells you about the dishes.
Inherently people will choose the second scenario as more
comfortable, though there is really no difference. Same works for missed call
marketing, where the missed call works as a hail to the brand.
Though many companies are using toll free lines where a
consumer can call and get information, give feedback or report grievances, not
many consumer’s do so enthusiastically. Some of the reasons why this happens
are:
- Scepticism that they might lose balance: Not everyone understands “toll free = free call”. Not many marketers effectively communicate the free nature of a toll free call
- If a toll free number has an Electronic Response System attached, the customer may get bored and opt out in midst of the call
- It’s simply too much effort: Not every customer is an enthu-cutlet to know more information about the product, and may look at it as a time pass
Why missed calls work:
- It’s much less effort: even for the laziest bums around, giving missed call is as simple and effortless as breathing
- Missed call is free, and everyone knows that: being the innovators themselves, customers from Bharat (Rural Indian markets) gets that missed call is free, and are fearless to wield this weapon
- Many marketers use voice operators to run their missed call lines
How you can do it:
Some of the firms working in the sphere of missed call
marketing are:
Zipdial (Bangalore based)
Voicetree Technologies (Delhi based)
These firms offer a range of services and
analytics for missed call marketing. Do check them out.
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