Google “On Hold Marketing” or “On Hold Messaging” and you’ll find no shortage of providers.

However, you might notice that each of these websites includes much of the same information on why you need On Hold Marketing.

Dig a little deeper into these sites and you’ll likely see many other similarities as well. Advances in audio recording and production technology allow anyone with a laptop and the right software to create a mix of music and messaging, crowding the field with lots of amateur and professional audio engineers. But there are very few marketers in that group.

Understanding why you need Caller Experience Marketing is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to do anything more than simply let your callers know you didn’t hang up on them, how you implement a Caller Experience Marketing program makes all the difference.

As with digital, broadcast and all other marketing channels, your Caller Experience Marketing should consistently and accurately reflect your organization’s brand identity.

So, when designing an On Hold Marketing program, consider the following.

1) Your audience. Who’s calling? Why? What is their caller experience like? Even a limited understanding of that data will help you flesh out choices for tone, voice talent, music and production length.

2) Your goals. Are you trying to reduce call abandonment? Do you need to build awareness of ancillary products or services? Want to create a totally unique customer experience or promote events and other time-sensitive information? Your answers to those questions will help you map out content focus, frequency of changes and whether content will vary among your different locations.

3) Your marketing calendar and program ownership. What role can Caller Experience Marketing play alongside other channels in your campaigns? Who at your organization has responsibility for content? Who’s responsible for ensuring that content is telecasting correctly (and on schedule)? A clear roadmap for those aspects of your program will reduce the likelihood of any hurdles.

You’ll miss out on an opportunity to make valuable impressions by giving less consideration to Caller Experience Marketing program design than you would the planning of your digital or broadcast marketing. In fact, I’ve started spirited conversations by asserting that impressions made with Caller Experience Marketing are more important than those made with traditional outbound marketing.