Recession-Proof Advertising

With all the talk of shrinking 401k's, disappointing company earnings reports, and bankrupt global empires, it's no surprise that advertising budgets are prime targets for the corporate guillotine at boardroom meetings the world over. Yet, instead of redefining the phrase "trimming the fat", allow me to propose a real world "recession ready" solution that will not only make you look brilliant at your next meeting, but will also allow you to advertise through a readily available outlet that is already in the budget. Any guesses? I'm talking about Mr. Bell's ingenious revolutionary invention, the telephone. With that being said, I can assure you that if your corporate telephone budget is on the chopping block too, my meager attempt at providing advertising alternatives will prove to be small fries when compared to the "bigger fish" you have to fry. Now, before you panic and start reliving nightmares of countless "cold calls" in your head, let me spare you the disquietude. Cold calling is not what I speak of.

While parousing the internet in search of a turnkey advertising medium, that would play nicely with my companies budget and proving to be boardroom friendly in these very uncertain times, Google directed me to http://www.holdforless.com. Now granted, music on hold services are not exactly a new concept but neither have they ever been simple to implement or very affordable for some companies. Holdforless.com dispels this perception by offering an music and message on hold solution that is easy to implement and affordable. Truth be told, I've been placed on hold a fair amount of times in my day and, to say the least, I've been either overwhelmed with music or underwhelmed with silence, neither of which took advantage of those free moments of potential advertising time to "sell me" on a product, or "close the deal." If my company were to implement on hold messaging, we'd want just that..."a message." Not just silence, or just music. Well, I found that the most impressive feature of the holdforless.com website was, for one price, it's shopping cart would allow me to purchase a message player, choose from hundreds of message scripts specific to dozens of industries, select from thousands of music tracks, and chose whether I wanted male, female, or combined voicing; thus virtually allowing me to customize my industry specific message online. I also reveled in the thought of having a turnkey solution…..no I.T. Department needed!

With a meeting imminent on Monday morning, I had exactly twenty three hours left to be brilliant, so I began to click and scroll and take notes. While researching I found that more than 70 percent of all callers are placed on hold, 60 percent of which hear only silence. I'm thinking, "that's wasted advertising space that we are currently paying for, but not taking advantage of." I delved deeper into the stats and found that 30 percent of first time callers that are placed on hold to silence, hang up and never call back. 30 percent! In this economy, that's a HUGE number.

Armed with these facts, I began to consider how quickly this simple package would pay for itself when compared to radio, newspaper, and other advertising outlets. I thought to myself "if I'm to propose any product to my company, I want to make sure that it passes the "growth test". In other words, can it accommodate the growing needs of the company as we grow larger. I found that holdforless.com does offer an option to upgrade to a completely customizable message servicing plan as the needs of your company changes. The creative marketing potential here is astounding, and many ideas of how to pitch our products through hold time began to frequent my thoughts.

Upon completing my research, I found one other music and message on hold provider worth noting is http://www.onholdcompany.com. They offer fully customized music and message on hold programs that are written and voiced specifically for your company with all the details you desire to be included within the message. At any rate, I don't think that one could go wrong choosing either of these companies affordable products or services in these economic times. While parousing the internet in search of a turnkey advertising medium, that would play nicely with my companies budget and proving to be boardroom friendly in these very uncertain times, Google directed me to http://www.holdforless.com. Now granted, on hold services are not exactly a new concept but neither have they ever been simple to implement or very affordable for some companies. Holdforless.com dispels this perception by offering an on hold messaging solution that is easy to implement and affordable. Truth be told, I've been placed on hold a fair amount of times in my day and, to say the least, I've been either overwhelmed with music or underwhelmed with silence, neither of which took advantage of those free moments of potential advertising time to "sell me" on a product, or "close the deal." If my company were to implement on hold messaging, we'd want just that..."a message." Not just silence, or just music. Well, I found that the most impressive feature of the holdforless.com website was, for one price, it's shopping cart would allow me to purchase a message player, choose from hundreds of message scripts specific to dozens of industries, select from thousands of music tracks, and chose whether I wanted male, female, or combined voicing; thus virtually allowing me to customize my industry specific message online. I also reveled in the thought of having a turnkey solution…..no I.T. Department needed!

With a meeting imminent on Monday morning, I had exactly twenty three hours left to be brilliant, so I began to click and scroll and take notes. While researching I found that more than 70 percent of all callers are placed on hold, 60 percent of which hear only silence. I'm thinking, "that's wasted advertising space that we are currently paying for, but not taking advantage of." I delved deeper into the stats and found that 30 percent of first time callers that are placed on hold to silence, hang up and never call back. 30 percent! In this economy, that's a HUGE number.

Armed with these facts, I began to consider how quickly this simple package would pay for itself when compared to radio, newspaper, and other advertising outlets. I thought to myself "if I'm to propose any product to my company, I want to make sure that it passes the "growth test". In other words, can it accommodate the growing needs of the company as we grow larger. I found that holdforless.com does offer an option to upgrade to a completely customizable message servicing plan as the needs of your company changes. The creative marketing potential here is astounding, and many ideas of how to pitch our products through hold time began to frequent my thoughts.

Upon completing my research, I found one other on hold message provider worth noting is http://www.onholdcompany.com. They offer fully customized on hold messages that are written and voiced specifically for your company with all the details you desire to be included within the message. At any rate, I don't think that one could go wrong choosing either of these companies affordable products or services in these economic times.

Tommy Granville, Jr.

"For more information about making the most from your advertising budget using message on hold and message on hold, on hold program please visit these sites and learn more.