The Definitive Guide To Voice Broadcasting

THE
DEFINITIVE
GUIDE TO
VOICE
BROADCASTING

copyright simplycast 2013

The Definitive Guide to Voice Broadcasting

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This guide is for organizations of any size or individuals starting out with voice message automation. After reading this document, you
will be able to execute successful tactics when it comes to voice broadcasting.

The Definitive Guide to
Voice Broadcasting
By Michael Cusden
Michael Cusden, Inbound Marketing Manager at
SimplyCast, is responsible for creating ebooks,
whitepapers and online marketing guides. Michael is a
prolific blogger who also manages content for SimplyCast’s
website and user application. He is an expert in content
marketing, social media marketing and occasionally has
time to Tweet about it.
Follow @michaelcusden

Let Your Marketing Do the Talking
Every successful marketing plan needs a “Voice” attached to it.
We talk to people every day whether it be on the phone or in person. Even in an online world, actual
talking to someone still gets the job done time and time again. It is almost refreshing to hear a person’s voice on the other end of the phone.
Emails, text messages, faxes, tweets etc. can all blur into one giant mess of white noise but if your
phone rings, it will grab your attention.
This is where voice broadcasting fits into the marketing mix of your company.
Reach out and connect with your entire audience with a single phone call. With voice broadcasting,
you can deliver your promotional or informational alerts to your entire audience automatically and
with ease. With the power of voice, you can:

• Manage Client Relationships

• Announce Events And Promotions
• Send Urgent Or Critical Notifications

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Table of Contents
What is voice broadcasting? 04
• Voice Defined
• Why It Works
• The Legal Stuff

best practices 07
•
•
•
•

Do’s And Don’t’s
List Building
Campaign Creation
Reporting

Track Reports and Optimize 14

•
•
•
•

Must Have Data
Bad Numbers
Return On Investment (ROI)
Conversion Rate

Who Uses Voice Broadcasting 17
•
•
•
•

Political Campaigns
Advertising Campaigns
Doctors, Dentists and More
Financial & Loan Companies

conclusion 18
Appendix a 20
• Glossary


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What is Voice Broadcasting?
Voice broadcasting simply, enables your company to automatically deliver interactive phone calls to
customers, prospects, vendors or constituents.
The only limits on using voice to grow business, is your imagination, creative powers and of course
sticking to the rules. The most common uses for voice broadcasting are automating phone calls for
appointment reminders, delivery confirmations, press-1 campaigns, event promotion, accounts
receivable collection, phone surveys, and relaying vital information to your customers over the phone.

Why voice broadcasting works
• Stay in touch with customers and increase loyalty by delivering
information that they care about.
• Reach almost everyone. What if you need to reach those not using the
Internet or mobile or if a power outage strikes? A great deal of the
population still has a land line for their phone.
• Amazing scalability that allows a large number of calls to be made
simultaneously. No other medium gives you this kind of one-on-one
interaction at a massive scale.
• Automating phone broadcasts saves you valuable time. Let the software
do the work for you so you are not sitting there manually dialling
thousands of numbers yourself.
• Create and maintain a personal contact with every person you reach.
Using a recognizable voice to your clients would know can add a lot of
trust to the equation.
• Voice can be used for a wide variety of uses including surveys, after hours
messages, urgent news, thank you messages and for customers who
prefer to get there information by voice on their phone.


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legal stuff

Voice Broadcasting Laws
First of all, it is a good idea to be up to speed on the different laws for sending automated voice
messages as they can differ in various parts of the world.
The term “robocalling” has become associated with voice broadcasting and has given the medium a
bad reputation.
These incidents have come about thanks to those not following best practices and letting their
automated voice campaigns run wild. Don’t let the robocalling name deter you, it is just a catchy term
that seems to draw more negative flack than feature the true power of doing it the right way.

International Laws Concerning Robocalling
Robocall/autocall laws vary widely from country to country. I advise you to understand your region.

Canadian Dialing
Since we are based in Canada, let’s start there. The Canadian law on voice broadcasting is slightly less
restrictive than US law. To learn more about the Canadian DNC (do not call) and regulation please
visit http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/info_sht/t1032.htm. Like mentioned already, your business is
responsible for making sure your calling lists are current and that you do not call the home phone,
cellular or fax numbers that are on the National DNCL. You must maintain your own Do Not Call list. If
a consumer asks not to be contacted, you must add his/her name and number to your Do Not Call list
within 31 days.
In addition to this, you must comply with other well known telemarketing rules at all times. For
example, you can only make calls and send faxes at certain times of the day, and you must identify
yourself at the beginning of every call. You must also comply with the Automatic Dialing and
Announcing Device Rules, which are devices that dial telephone numbers automatically deliver a
pre-recorded message.
Sound intimidating? Don’t worry, most of it is just common sense stuff and the rest is pretty easy to
manage. Like I said, if you do your homework (reading this guide), you will be fine.


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US Laws Concerning Robocalling
The US has very specific laws concerning voice broadcasting (robocalling), which can be found in part
here.
As of September 1, 2009, a new regulation of the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) went into effect,
banning most robocalls without written opt-in from the receiver. Among the exempt industries are
non-profit companies, political campaigns, surveys and charities. Any for-profit company using
robocalling as a marketing tactic is operating outside the law.
If you or your company is dialing US consumers and you are a for-profit company dialing a list for
which you do not have an EBR, you are engaging in illegal activity, and we strongly suggest you find a
different form of advertising.
It is advised that you contact an attorney who specializes in telemarketing issues before engaging in
any form of telemarketing. It is also advised that you to check with and comply with laws both in the
jurisdiction you are in and the ones you are dialing to, as well as complying with “do not call”.

International Dialing
For voice broadcasting (robocalling) in other countries, it is advisable to consult an attorney from that
country to familiarize yourself with that country’s specific laws. Some countries only allow robocalling
for political campaigns and non-profits, while others still permit automated sales, marketing and
promotional robocalls.

voice broadcasting is
more
effective
than

25x

direct mail

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Voice Broadcasting Best Practices
Do’s and Don’t’s

You gotta walk the walk to talk the talk, or something like that.
Yes, of course voice broadcasting automation has rules you need to follow when it comes to your
business and using a reputable voice broadcasting solution.
The good news is, they basically follow the same concepts as every other form of online marketing
and reaching out to contacts. You should only contact those who have agreed (opted-in) to receive
your message.
If you go and blast out your voice message on your latest prize giveaway to thousands of people who
did not ask for it, you can be guaranteed your business will be in trouble.
So, don’t buy, rent or purchase lists unless you know 100% where every name on that list came from.
If not, don’t do it, even if peer pressure says to.

What Not to Do
For the most part, best practices are not so much what to do well, but more about what to avoid
when creating a campaign. So here are some common pitfalls to look out for with voice broadcasting.

Holidays
Holidays and major events can really mess up response rates. Major holidays mean people are in
vacation mode and certainly not in business mode. Users on your list could be spending time with
family or just taking a break from outside communication. By calling them, all you will be doing is
angering them and losing what value there may have been.
But if you change your message to use the holiday as a marketing ploy (July 4th special) then it can
work to your benefit.

time of day
Dialing at the wrong time of day can really put your voice campaign behind the eight ball. Let your
product or service drive your logic. Some products are best advertised in the evening while some do
well in the morning. Experiment to see what works best for you. Also, remember to follow the rules
and only contact people when they are expecting it.


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More is Not Better
Using a message that is too long is a no no for voice broadcasting. Remember people have short
attention spans and if you talk for too long, they will hang up or forget what you were even trying to
convey. Practice your message on coworkers or friends first if you have to.

Be Professional
Make sure you answer any live calls with some kind of distinction of where you work. Simply saying
“Hello” is not sufficient. Have a one-liner or opener ready for when someone is transferred over. An
example would be “thanks for reserving a suite at our hotel, is there anything I can include for your
stay?”.

Be Patient
Calling the same phone list over and over within a short period of time will just anger your prospects
and your response rates will plummet. Take it slow and consider it worth the wait. Also finish what you
started. You will never get a true feel of your campaign if you do calling for one day and stop because
people are not responding. Day 2 could be much better.

Have Resources at the Ready
Sending out a campaign to thousands? Make sure you have enough employees to answer all the calls
you generate. Certain voice broadcasting providers can control the speed of the campaign based on
how many sales agents you have available and how many of them are already on the phone. Be
realistic with your approach, you don’t want to over or under staff.
Need more help than you have? Consider hiring a call center to answer you calls if you cannot
manage the sudden increase in volume. Some call centers can answer, qualify the callers and transfer
them to you. Hey, if you reach that situation, it means business is booming, so it is not the worst thing
in the world.

Do as you Say
If someone wants their number removed from your call list, be professional and take their number off
even if they are irate. If you don’t it can only come back to hurt you later. When you get
involved in voice broadcasting, a few angry customers is all part of the game. Don’t take it personal.

For Information Gathering, Keep it Quick
If you are using voice broadcasting to collect user information, it is best to gather basic contact info at
the beginning of the call (name, phone number) in case the call is dropped. Then if need be, you can
contact them again with what you have.

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Following up with calls that didn’t get through
Everyone is busy and there is always the chance that they liked your offer and were not free to act on
it. Some of the people who pressed one and didn’t wait to talk to you could of been busy at that exact
moment. Check your call logs for the people who pressed one and hung up before you answered.
Then call them back to see if they were interested in moving forward.
This is a great way to find a few more potential deals.

List Building
Having an engaged list of opt-in subscribers is like
having a license to print money
Just like with email marketing, there are numerous ways to create a list for your voice broadcasting
campaigns.
These include creating a signup form for your website, adding contacts one-by-one, mass uploading
already gathered lists and of course the old school offline strategies that many forget about.
What we will focus on here is what the differences are for voice and what you need to focus on when
it comes to growing and managing your client lists.
Most voice broadcasting providers should be able to import existing lists no problem. As long as they
meet industry regulations.
Creating a list for voice broadcast purposes can be more closely compared to fax marketing or SMS as
you are collecting a phone number. At the very least, the fields you should add to your sign up forms
are Name, Email and Phone number. The rest you can ask for later on.
To make things even easier, we recommend you set up your list as follows before uploading. Make
sure the phone numbers in your list are in their own column. You can upload additional information
such as name, address, etc. with the phone numbers, but the phone numbers need to be separate
from the rest of the information. For example, your Excel file will upload properly if the phone number
is in Column A, name in Column B, and address in Column C. For best results, save your file as .txt or
CSV file.


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Do Not Call Lists
Reputable Voice Broadcast providers are not intended to be used for unwanted calls. Therefore, they
do not integrate with State and National “Do Not Call” lists. Manage your own Do Not Call list, where
all recipients can elect to be placed on by visiting a website and clicking Opt Out. Please read any
Terms of Use thoroughly before completing the sign up process with a software provider.

Uploading Lists
If you already have an opt-in list that you need to upload, most Voice Service Providers make the task
simple. As long as the document is in some form of spreadsheet, the information will be uploaded for
use and can be edited at any time.
Common formats for uploading include CSV, EXCEL and plain text. Managing large lists of data can be
time consuming and difficult for online marketers with limited resources, so that is why it is important
to find a contact management service that makes everything easy, while still providing the features
you need.

Signup Forms
So where does one get the lists? Well you need to grow them of course.
By adding a signup form to your website or blog, you can begin the process of gathering opt-in readers who are excited to receive voice message alerts from your company. With just a little copying and
pasting, you can add a signup form in minutes. Numerous services will allow you to customize your
form and then generate HTML code that you can add to your website or landing page. This allows
your visitors to enter their phone numbers and email addresses and instantly add themselves to your
mailing list. Your signup form will automatically connect to a contact management system where you
can monitor, edit and split the data however you choose. If you have used email marketing before,
you will be very familiar with this process.

Voice Message Creation Tips

Give your company message a voice
You have a great voice, an important message to share but thousands of contacts to reach before you
head home. What to do? Let voice broadcasting software help you out.
Before we get to the nuts and bolts of what makes a good voice broadcast campaign, here is a list of
the types of campaigns you can try with automated voice messaging.


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Business to Business (B2B) - Campaigns where one business is focused on calling other businesses.
Voice Mail campaigns after business hours are often effective for calling businesses.
Business to Consumer (B2C) - Campaigns where one business is focused on calling residences &
consumers. Great for thank you or follow up calls.
Surveys - Ask question(s) and allow responses by pressing keypad options. The solution’s system will
records responses for reporting purposes.
Live Message Delivery Only Campaigns - Play your message only if the auto dialer detects that the
phone has been answered by a live human voice. Live messages can offer the option to press a key to
be transferred to a live representative or and an option to be taken off the call list.
Live Message & Voice mail Campaigns - Similar to a Live Message Only Campaign, this option will
play two different messages, one for live answers and one for voice mails. Live messages will offer the
option to press a key to be transferred to a live representative and an option to be taken off the call
list. The voice mail messages simply leave an 800 number to call back.
Voice Mail Only Campaigns - Primarily used for Business to Business calls. This is a good way to
generate call backs. Most of the provider’s software will leave voice mail messages with an 800
number to call back. That callback will be routed to your agents.
Message Campaign - You choose a message or messages to be broadcast to recipients from your
phone list. There are two types of messages. One being a message with a transfer/voice mail option
and one message with no transfer or voice mail option.
An example of a message with no transfer option is usually an announcement or promotional
message and does not generate an immediate response. This type of message should be less than 60
seconds as most people will hang up if it is too long.
A message with a live transfer option will allow you to more easily gauge your results the same day
you broadcast.

How to Create the Message
Your goal is to get your point across as quickly as possible but also in a professional manner. As it is
an automated message puts you already at a disadvantage when a person hears it, so it has to be
engaging from the beginning.


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Keep the message as short as possible while maintaining good content value. A shorter message will
save you money if you are billed based on time. This means if your message is just 30 seconds long
you will only incur 30 seconds worth of billing instead of more. Also please note that most people will
only listen for a few seconds so longer messages are likely to be less effective.
This tip goes for all forms of marketing but maybe even more so for the phone. Be clear, be concise,
and keep things simple. Remember, the people you are calling are also going through their regular
daily routine. If you want them to respond positively, you need to keep it simple. No mumbled messages or talking fast.

Best Format to Use
Format your message in this order - Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
For example.
• Attention: “Attention valued customer of SimplyCast.”
• Interest: “Do you need and extra 1,000 email credits this month?”
• Desire: “Engaging with your clients at least once a month will generate more sales.”
• Action: “Press one now and we will add 1,000 credits to your account. Press one now to speak to a
live agent”
Say “press __ to speak to a live agent” a few times per message. Remember, people are in the middle
of their day and might only be listening 50% of the time or stumbling for a pen and paper.
Provide them an Automatic Do Not Call option such as “press nine to be removed from our call list”.
This will save you and your customer’s from having headaches. This is also a very important best practice that should be followed.

Your Voice Type and Style Matters
Pick the voice very carefully. The tone of the person recording the message is also an important factor. You may want to try different variations to see what works best for your market. Make it fit your
target audience and the company profile or brand.
Energetic sales pitches might or might not work for you. Sometimes trying a calm voice is the better
option for a baseline. Then you can experiment to optimize your campaigns.


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You don’t have to be a professional voice-over type either. Those messages can sometimes create a
slick message for fairly low cost but the “canned” style can sound too “fake”.
It should not need to be said that when things are starting to decrease in effectiveness, you should
change it up. This also is true with voice messages.
Change your message, voice, promotion, or call to action when ever your response dips below average with no real explanation. A message simply gets old and boring to those receiving it. Fresh content never hurts when it comes to online marketing.

Other Tips to Optimize Message
• Record in a quiet place.
• You don’t want your customers listening to traffic honking or coworkers talking.
• Find a space with a comfortable ambiance. Ideally don’t use an empty room or there might be an
echo. The room should have some life at least to dull out the lights humming from above.
• Talk normally, don’t try to enunciate your words. This can come across as robotic and trying too
hard. Instead speak normally like you have actually called someone. Try not to speak as if you
addressing a crowd.
• Don’t cover too many points in one call, otherwise people will disconnect and forget.
Focus on the first five seconds. You need to get the attention in the first five seconds, otherwise you
risk losing interest. If possible say something about who is calling & what is the purpose. They want to
know right away who it is and what is in it for them.

Testing
Testing is always a huge part of your marketing strategy. When it is email, you don’t want spelling
mistakes. When it is voice, you don’t want to mispronounce a word. Write your script and read it over
and over out loud until it sounds perfect.
Read it to those around you and even go so far as calling yourself and leaving a message. Hear exactly what your clients will hear.
Voice broadcasting providers should provide a test function to send the message to a phone number
of your choice, just to make sure nothing gets distorted a long the way.


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Track Reports and Optimize

Tracking & improving on your failures Is
The Key To success
You have created your voice broadcast message, successfully sent it to thousands and now you want
to know how you did. Knowing what works and more importantly does not work is the key to success.
A typical attitude among those who are new to voice broadcasting as a marketing option think that a
great majority of their responses will turn out to be good leads.
This in most cases, is far from true. In fact, only a small amount of responses turn out to be good
leads. This does not mean that voice broadcasting can’t be employed profitably however. In many instances, a thoughtful approach and acting on planned business metrics will enable anyone to achieve
a good ROI when using voice.
If a company is using voice broadcasting to deliver a message to live-answered phones only, and
accepting press one live transfers to sales staff, a successful campaign might obtain anywhere from
10%-25% success rate.
This is why it is so important that a business consider their business metrics carefully as they begin
creating and distributing voice broadcast campaigns. You need to have a plan of who you are targeting, so the metrics have value.
If the profit for a single sale is not substantially more than what you can earn from just a small percentage of your calls, the business metrics may make it impossible to employ voice broadcasting
profitably.
Results will also vary widely among industries and are influenced by both the message as well as the
target audience.
For example, if your company is looking to sell website services to small business, would it be a good
idea to send a voice campaign to businesses who don’t need websites, or might be large enough
where that part of their business is already taken care of.
This will just increases the cost of the campaign, while lowering the chance of gaining new business.


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Another thing to consider is the type of voice mode for the broadcast campaign. The example above
was about a live delivered message. What about answer machine / voice mail campaigns?
For most industries, the response rate for the live delivery is under 1.0%. Meaning that for every 100
calls delivered to a live answered line, there is less than 1 transfer.
For a campaign that leaves messages on answer machine / voice mail, the numbers will be significantly lower, because the prospect will need to have enough interest to write the callback number down,
and then call it back, taking much more effort than simply “pressing 1″ during a live message. These
numbers are impossible for us to track, since the calls back to the broadcaster don’t utilize the chosen
broadcasting system.
For a business owner considering voice broadcasting as a lead generation system, the message is important, the calling list is important, and the basic business metrics are probably the most important
factor to consider when planning a campaign.
Just because you are blasting away with voice messages, does not mean you are exempt from proving
results. Sending thousands of recorded messages is costly even at a few pennies each and someone
in your company will want answers on how you did. Measuring results of each campaign is vital to the
constant improvement and increased effectiveness of your voice broadcasting efforts.
If you are totally new to tracking and analyzing results and want to learn about voice broadcasting
metrics, you are in the right place.
Ask yourself this before you start:
1. What are you hoping to learn?
2. Do you have preexisting standards to compare to?
3. How often do you plan on analyzing your data?
4. How will you break down your data into achievable goals?

Must Have Data
Every company has different marketing goals which can make it hard to determine what are the data
priorities are in a general sense. So, instead of ranking in order of what you need to focus on, it makes
more sense to generally look at what data is important to every company regardless of size.


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Bad Numbers
This is a basic data point that is universally applicable to all of your marketing strategies. From bad
email addresses to bad fax numbers, bad phone numbers are detrimental to your marketing
campaign. Why in the world would you waste time and resources sending to numbers that don’t exist
or are wrong?
Most voice systems can spit out a list of numbers that work and those that don’t. This practice may
be tricky if you’re broadcasting your promotion to several hundred numbers. However, tracking and
deleting these bad numbers will free up space for numbers that actually work.
Also, if you come across bad phone numbers, it is wise to check with the company to ensure you have
the right number. This, of course, doesn’t apply to companies that have opted out of your service.
As with all forms of marketing, bad numbers is another reason to try and avoid buying or rented
harvested lists. You never really know what you are getting until you hit send.

Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI is the ratio of how much money (budget allotment) you’ve put into your voice broadcasting
campaign (including staff time and resources) to the number of sales generated.
To fully ascertain your return on investment (ROI) for your latest campaign, look at the conversion rate
to sales.

• How many people acted directly on from your message?

• What is the ratio of sales to the entire marketing list (or a segmented group)?

Sure, some of your subscribers may check out your website or social media sites, but what happened
after that? Clearly, the bottom line about this sort of marketing plan is to turn contact into direct sales.

Conversion Rate
Similarly to other marketing campaigns, determining your conversion rate is critical to the overall
effectiveness of your voice broadcasting campaign.
The data to look at to determine your conversion rate includes:

• How many sales were generated from your blast?

• How many customers asked to be transferred to a customer service representative?
By keeping track of your voice broadcasting reports you can learn valuable information on what is
working and what is not working. This is the only way you can optimize and generate the best ROI
possible.

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Who Uses Voice
So what type of organizations use voice broadcasting to contact, alert and engage users? Four that
show the full range of voice’s power would be those running political campaigns, advertising campaigns, appointment centric businesses and financial institutions.
Organizations can also use automated voice message technology to improve communications with
their employees and any outside vendors they deal with.
Here’s a look at some ways that voice broadcasting can be helpful to various industries:

Political Campaigns

Most political campaigns will look to hire volunteers to operate phone banks simply to reduce
spending. Their job is to stir up interest in the community about a political candidate. The callers also
educate people in the community about what the candidate stands for and then asks those people for
their votes on election day.
While this is the typical set up, it costs money to rent a space big enough to host a phone bank. With
money being tight for campaigns like this, the same money can be used to create a voice broadcast
campaign. With this, a message that is crafted exactly how it is to be presented is sent out to the
community. Calls to action like “Get out and vote!” or “Please vote for this candidate”, can still be
expressed but now it is more controlled and consistent across the board. An automated voice
broadcast can reach so many more people than a human phone bank volunteer could and it saves the
campaign money that could be used elsewhere.
Examples: Reminding voters where they are to vote, who the candidate is and what they stand for.

Advertising Campaigns
This example is especially powerful for new or small businesses that have not established a brand or
following. You can’t generate revenue if potential customers don’t know you exist. Businesses get
noticed by creating interest in their products and services by creating advertising campaigns.
Typically, this would involve creating a print or an advertising campaign. Again, there is nothing
wrong with this, but the competition is doing the same thing and it will cost a lot of money. A phone
blast on the other hand, will help you stand out and accomplish the same goal as traditional
advertising.
Examples: Running contests, promotions or detailing what service you offer and how it will be of
benefit.

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Doctors, Dentists & More
Any business that relies heavily on appointments being kept can benefit from automated voice broadcasts. Instead of having someone to make daily calls to remind or confirm appointments, the same
calls can be automated with a message with the option to press a key for any corrections or changes.
This would save time and money and keep customers up to date on when they are to come in.
This is not just for appointments, libraries make use of voice alerts to let customers know when books
will become overdue.
Examples: Sending alerts to patients a day before their appointment. Sending voice messages to clients when they should start looking to book a dentist appointment.

Financial and Loan Companies
Even banks and other financial organizations need new leads in order to generate business. In the
past, they might have hired a team of telemarketers to generate those leads. The problem is that not
only do the lead generators need to be paid, costing the business money, but the quality of the leads
sometimes can be questionable. By using a voice broadcast system that prompts people to press a
number on their keypads, a bank or loan company can be pretty sure that they have hot leads. These
leads are going to be from people who want more information about the product or service.
Examples: Credit card offers with the option to press a number to talk to someone to get preapproved for a new card.

Conclusion
Voice broadcasting simply put, is an effective and smart way to connect with your customers.
With voice broadcasting, you can deliver your promotional or informational alerts to your entire
audience automatically and with ease. This helps you manage client relationships, announce events
and promotions and send urgent or critical notifications.
After reading this guide you will have a better understanding of the power of voice broadcasting,
what the best practices are, what laws you need to abide by and what types of industries find great
success with voice.
Voice, like any type of marketing can be very beneficial to the bottom line when used correctly and
especially when integrated with other forms of marketing.


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about simplycast

SimplyCast.com is a leading provider of interactive marketing software and services for
organizations worldwide. The company’s multi-channel marketing platform is a feature-rich solution
used by thousands of customers in over 175 countries, including many of the most recognized brand
names around the globe in retail, non-profit and hospitality industries. With thousands of
organizations using SimplyCast solutions to automate email, survey, event, voice, SMS, Twitter, fax,
Facebook, press release, landing pages and autoresponder marketing needs, they now have the
power to effectively reach customers on their preferred mode of communication.
Want to further your voice broadcasting knowledge? See glossary below.

get in touch
www.simplycast.com
twitter.com/simplycast
facebook.com/simplycast
pinterest.com/simplycast
1.877.312.4979


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Appendix a

voice broadcasting glossary
Not sure about something you read? Here is an easy-to-use resource that explains the most common
terms used when it comes to voice broadcasting.
Answering Machine: A mechanical device used to record phone messages.
Answering Service: A third-party entity employed to receive messages on behalf of another individual, determine their importance, and then disseminate them to that individual for appropriate response
according to particular protocols.
Auto Attendant: A recorded human voice that serves as the interface between the routing component in a voicemail system and any person accessing the system.
Automated Calling: Automated dialing; a process of connecting to one or more phone numbers on
a landline, mobile, pager or Internet-based network through a single action or series of actions, using
various forms of computerized, electronic, and/ or Internet-enabled technology; through traditional methods of “autocalling,” companies frequently transfer each connected call to teams of waiting
phone agents who then convey a designated message or pre-determined script.
Automated Dialing: Automated calling; a process of connecting to one or more phone numbers on
a landline, mobile, pager or Internet-based network through a single action or series of actions, using
various forms of computerized, electronic, and/ or Internet-enabled technology; through traditional methods of “autodialing,” companies frequently transfer each connected call to teams of waiting
phone agents who then convey a designated message or pre-determined script; rarely used to differentiate the actual dialing process from the calls themselves.
Automated Dialer: A technological device used to connect to one or more phone numbers on a
landline, mobile, pager or Internet-based network through a single action or serious of actions; most
“autodialers” transfer each call recipient to a waiting call center agent who then conveys a designated
message or pre-determined script; “autodialer” can sometimes describe newer forms of technology
allowing organizations to record voice messages, then send and track their distribution to multiple
recipients at a time.
Automated Messaging: The process of using a technological device to distribute or broadcast voice
or electronic recordings, usually in mass, to landline, mobile or Internet-based phone numbers.

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Automated Phone System: Technology used to connect to one or more phone numbers on a landline, mobile, pager or Internet-based network.
Blast Call: A mechanized method of sending an outbound phone message; it usually involves a single
electronic or voiced message delivered to multiple phone numbers.
Brand Management: Administering a company’s or product’s identity or image for the purpose of
sustaining or increasing its’ short and long-term profitability.
Business Phone System: An integrated network of phone lines put in place for the purpose of providing outbound and inter-connected inbound service to a single company or corporate entity that is
usually associated with a single billing account; rarely applied to describe voice messaging technology
in a corporate or consumer-driven environment.
Call Broadcasting: The coordinated, automated delivery of recorded spoken content to home, business or mobile phones, usually rapidly and in mass, for the purpose of conveying important information; commonly applied to differentiate permission-based methods from “cold” calling or “robocalling” techniques.
Caller ID: Caller Identification or CID; a technology that displays a caller’s phone number and in some
cases name to the recipient prior to the call being answered.
Calling Campaign: A marketing, sales or political advocacy technique whereby an organization distributes live or recorded voice or electronic messages for the purposes of motivating a targeted audience or demographic to take a particular action.
Call Forwarding: Technology on a phone network enabling an incoming call to one number to be automatically re-directed to another mobile, business or phone number.
Calling Post (voice) origination point: the source from which voice messages or calling service
broadcasts are distributed.
Cause-based Lobbying: A coordinated effort, led by an established organization or committed group
of individuals, to positively impact government officials for the purpose of promoting legislation or
other similar support for a particular viewpoint or need.


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Cause-based Fundraising: A coordinated effort, led by an established organization or committed
group of individuals, to secure financial support for a particular viewpoint or need.
Celebrity Endorsement: A marketing technique whereby the voice or likeness of a well-known person is used with that individual’s consent to enhance by association the perceived value of a particular
cause, product, service or business; types of endorsement include print or television ads, radio spots,
or direct voice messaging campaigns distributed to individuals’ home, business or mobile phones.
Church Communication or Church Marketing: Coordinated efforts by religious organizations to
reach out to current or potential members and thereby maintain or create interest and participation in
that group’s forms of worship and other religious activities (e.g., broadcasting voice messages announcing a cancellation of services due to inclement weather); church marketing can sometimes have
mean applying advertising, promotional, public relations or other techniques commonly seen in the
consumer-driven environment for the purposes of evangelizing or recruitment.
“Cold” Calling: The practice of contacting individuals without their express permission for the purposes of selling a product or service, or requesting financial support.
Constituent: In politics, an individual who can vote for a candidate for elected office.
Convergence: In technology, the combination of voice, data and video in a single network for transmission and interaction.
Customer Satisfaction: The level of contentment a group of consumers displays for a particular company, product or service.
Customer Satisfaction (Phone) Survey: An approach using questionnaires (distributed through
automated dialing or voice messaging techniques) that helps to determine the level of contentment a
set group of consumers holds for a company, product or service.
Do Not Call Registry: See National Do Not Call Registry.
Emergency Notification, Emergency Communication: In the field of phone messaging, use of voice
messaging, a calling service, or phone broadcasting techniques to automatically deliver crucial information in a quick, efficient and controlled manner.


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Event Marketing: The professional brand or image management of particular events or event-related organizations and businesses, including: tradeshows, conventions, rock concerts, stage production
companies, etc. (e.g, broadcasting voice messages promoting a company’s upcoming exhibition at a
tradeshow to its customer list).
Hosted Dialer: Automated calling technology that is supported by a company, Internet server, or
computer using particular hardware or software
Integrated Marketing: A technique by which organizations work to ensure that all external and
internal communications on behalf of a company, its product or services, convey a single, core message and brand identity; can employ tools such as e-marketing campaigns, voice messaging or phone
broadcasting, advertising, public relations, promotions, social advocacy, or charitable activities.
ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network; a telephone network system that uses complex circuit-switched components to deliver data or voice transmissions digitally over traditional land-based
phone lines.
ISP: Internet Service Provider; a company that provides individuals or other businesses with access to
the Internet for a fee.
Marketing Communications: Efforts on behalf of an organization, company, its products or services
to reach out to its target audience for the purposes of managing that entity’s brand name, image or
identity; marketing communications may employ tools such as voice messaging or phone broadcasting, direct mail, print advertising, promotions, community advocacy, etc.
Metrics: In marketing, quantifiable evidence of a campaign’s relative success (e.g., number of individuals pressing “8” to buy tickets to a special event after receiving a voice message on their home,
mobile or business phone).
National Do-Not-Call Registry (U.S.): A national list of phone numbers provided voluntarily by U.S.
citizens who wish to limit the number of telemarketing calls they receive; any telemarketer who falls
under the law’s legislation must stop all calls to individuals on the list within a set number of days of
their registration (permission-based voice messaging offers telemarketers an alternative method of
continuing their activities while remaining legally compliant).
Notification Software: Another term for leased or purchased computer technology used to transmit
voice messages electronically for the purposes of reaching a set group of constituents or individuals.


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Opt-In/ Opt-Out Technology: Permission-based technology; Web and/or phone-based system allowing consumers to elect to receive or stop receiving information from another party.
Permission-based Marketing: A term used by voice marketers to indicate that they will ask permission before sending a communication to prospective customers; it requires recipients “opt-in”, rather
than only allowing people to “opt-out” after a message is sent (marketers believe the technique maximizes resources because messages are sent only to those who wish to receive them and not to people
who would likely become irritated by unsolicited communications).
Phone Broadcasting: See voice broadcasting; the coordinated, automated delivery of recorded
spoken content to home, business or mobile phones, usually rapidly and in mass, for the purpose of
conveying important information; commonly applied to differentiate permission-based methods from
“cold” calling or “robocalling” techniques.
Phone Messaging: Sending electronically recorded or voiced communication to individuals via land,
cellular or Internet-based phones.
Phone Recording: A voiced or electronic message made for the purpose of future single or multiple
distributions.
Phone Recording System: Voice messaging or phone broadcasting software or hardware; specialized
computer technology purchased by an organization for the purposes of engaging in voice messaging
or phone broadcasting.
Pre-recorded Message: A voice or electronic recording that is saved and then distributed at a later
time
Real Time Calling: In the case of voice messaging services, broadcasting high volumes of calls very
rapidly through the use of sophisticated technology, with the desired effect of all messages being
received within a short window of time immediately following their dissemination; as quickly as possible; as it occurs.
Robocalling: Slang commonly used to describe electronically voiced messages distributed in mass
by an autodialer solely for the purposes of soliciting “cold” contacts (individuals who have not given
permission to receive the call); a practice that gave rise to the National Do-Not-Call list.
Tailored Messaging: Voiced recordings that are designed to appeal specifically to select groups of
individuals which are then distributed using a voice messaging or phone broadcasting system.

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Telemarketing: A method whereby a sales person or persons use phone calls to generate purchase
of or interest in a product, service or company.
Telephony: The application of specialized equipment or technology for the purposes of transmitting
voice messages across distances.
Unified Messaging: Voice messaging, phone broadcasting; another term for automatically sending
one or multiple phone messages using computerized and/or Internet-enabled technology.
Voice Broadcasting: The coordinated, automated delivery of recorded spoken content to home,
business or mobile phones, usually rapidly and in mass, for the purpose of conveying important information; commonly applied to differentiate permission-based methods from “cold” calling or “robocalling” techniques.
Voice Messaging System: Automated technologies used to record and send audio messages to mobile, business or home phone contacts rapidly, usually in large volumes.
Voice Marketing: The proactive use of spoken audio messages to motivate a set group of consumers or constituents to perform a particular action, or to develop or enhance a product or company’s
brand image or position in the market.
(Voice) Tracking: Automated reports generated following a distribution of phone broadcasts or
phone messages that are sent to the person who initiated the calls; the reports may include specific
information such as number of recipients who listened to the calls and for how long, as well as which
calls reached a voicemail system or answering machine.
Wait Time: In a call center scenario, a measurement of the length of time a person sits idle before
connecting with an agent.


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The Definitive Guide To Voice Broadcasting