Toying with the idea of running your telemarketing campaigns in-house?
To demonstrate why so many people decide to outsource their campaigns to telemarketing agencies like us here at River, we’ve done a full breakdown of the average costs of running telemarketing campaigns compared to our service prices.
To make this a fair price breakdown and comparison, we’ll follow the campaign parameters of a typical pilot telemarketing campaign that we would run for a client.
Our typical pilot campaign is run with the following parameters:
Duration: 30 days
Schedule: 3 days per week (campaign run over 10 weeks)
Call Rate: Average of 100 calls per day (per agent)
No. of Agents: 2 full-time agents
Cost Breakdown: In-house Campaigns
Staffing Costs
When you run your telemarketing campaigns in-house, you have to cover the wages of your telemarketing agents.
Let’s break down how much that’ll cost.
In 2022, the average salary of a telemarketer is £19,650 per year – but with the cost of living increasing recently, this average is likely going to rise over the coming months.
If you go by the current average, the gross daily wages of one telemarketer will be £75.29.
But you’ve got to remember that you’ll also have to pay costs for:
Tax (13%)
Employers National Insurance (15.05%)
Pension (3%)
That’s already made their daily wages creep up to £100.81.
Then you’ve got training costs to cover. In 2020, the average training spend per employee was £1,530 each year. Spread over the 261 working days each year, that’s an extra £5.68 per day.
If you’re giving your agents commission, you’ll also have to factor that into their costs. Say you give your agents £10 per lead, and they achieve 1 lead per day. Across both agents, that’s an extra £600 throughout the campaign.
Adding the training and commission costs, you’re looking at £116.49 per day, per agent.
Over the 30 days of the campaign, you’ll be paying over £6,989 on staff wages alone!
TOTAL SO FAR: £6,989
Campaign Software
Software is a vital part of the telemarketing process, and subscriptions to these software packages can be quite costly.
So what software will you need?
You’ll need a CRM system to manage customers, leads and follow-up actions; you’ll need a softphone system so your agents can dial out from their PCs, and you’ll need Office 365 or a similar suite for programmes for data management, document development and email.
Cost-wise, for both agents, you’re looking at:
CRM: £90 per month
Softphone: £46 per month (unlimited minutes)
Office 365: £9 per month
That’s £145 each month in software costs.
With the campaign running over 10 weeks, you could be paying these costs two or three times throughout the campaign.
If we go with twice, you’ll be paying £290 on software throughout your campaign.
TOTAL SO FAR: £7,279
Office Hardware
Don’t forget about the office hardware you’ll need too.
If you haven’t got them already, PCs, monitors, headsets, webcams, desks, and office chairs for your two agents can set you back a few hundred pounds as well – maybe even up to a thousand.
Let’s say you’ve already got your PCs, monitors, desks, and office chairs.
For two good headsets and clear webcams, you’re looking at around £60 - £80.
TOTAL SO FAR: £7,359
Telemarketing Data
Accurate, GDPR-compliant data can cost a lot.
If you’re running a 30-day campaign with two agents making an average of 100 calls each per day, you’ll need around 6,000 – 7,000 records for the duration campaign.
Data costs can vary drastically.
Depending on what your business does and who you’re targeting, you could be paying around £100 per 1,000 records, or you could be paying £500 to £1,000 per 1,000 records.
Let’s go with the lower rate of £100 per 1,000 records.
That means you’ll be paying £600 - £700 for your campaign data!
TOTAL SO FAR: £8,059
In-house Campaigns: Total
So for an in-house campaign run for 30-days with two agents making around 100 calls per day, you’ll need to invest around £8,059.
If you have experience in running telemarketing campaigns and have a tried and tested approach, then you might be confident that you can get a return on your investment.
But, if you’re new to the telemarketing world, that’s a lot of money to invest in something that you don’t have a lot of experience in, which is why so many businesses choose to outsource.
So how much in comparison would it cost to outsource?
Cost Breakdown: Outsourced Campaigns
To compare the costs, we’re going to break down our daily rate pricing model, exactly what that includes, and the total you’d spend on a 30-day campaign.
At River, we work on a daily-rate, smart pricing model that includes everything needed for your campaign at one price.
Our typical rate for a 30-day telemarketing campaign is £250 per day, and that includes:
Dialling time
Email campaigns to warm data
Data for your campaign
All software subscriptions
Other overheads
So for a 30-day campaign at £250 per day, you’ll pay £7,500. That’s already over £550 cheaper than an in-house campaign.
But, aside from lower costs, what else makes outsourcing worthwhile?
What else makes outsourcing worthwhile?
Higher ROI and Better Results
While there’s no guarantee that an outsourced campaign will outperform an in-house campaign, one of the main reasons people outsource their telemarketing, is for better results.
A lot of business owners will be experts in their field and will of course know their product inside and out, but if they haven’t got any sales experience or confidence on the phone, doing their own telemarketing will be hard work and they’ll more than likely struggle.
By outsourcing, you’re leaving your lead generation in the hands of sales and telemarketing experts, which is why outsourced lead generation is 43% more effective than in-house lead generation.
When you outsource, your campaign is far more likely to yield qualified opportunities and a good ROI.
Experience in your Industry
If you choose an agency that has a lot of experience and a proven track record of results in your sector, you can be confident that you’ve left your campaign in the right hands.
This experience should cover not just working with companies like yours, it should be experience of targeting the exact audiences you’re looking to target and an understanding of their needs and how to communicate with them.
Here at River, we work in dozens of industries to generate leads and appointments, with a particular focus on the care, medical, technology, education, and business services sectors.
We’ve got a load of case studies that demonstrate our experience and results in dozens of industries, check them out here, or you can get in touch to request case studies from your industry.
Decades of Telemarketing Expertise
It’s not just industry experience that’s needed for a successful campaign, it’s a knowledge of the ins and outs of the telemarketing world, such as ways to effectively reach and build rapport with decision-makers, how to optimise the campaign process, and keep your campaign compliant with data protection laws.
With decades of collective experience in the telemarketing and sales sectors, outsourcing to agencies like River gives your campaign a much better chance at success.
Want to have a chat about outsourcing your telemarketing?
If you want to learn more about outsourcing your telemarketing, give us a call on 01329 275100 to speak to a member of our team about how we can help.
If you want to learn a bit more about us first, take a look at our services and our client projects to see exactly what we do and the results we’ve delivered to some of our clients.