This is the time of year when small businesses are thinking hard about driving traffic into their retail stores or their websites. With so much added competition for eyes and action, how can you gain the most benefit for every marketing dollar you spend? And while you're at it, how can you ensure that those marketing dollars actually turn into valuable new or recurring business?

Working a list for appointment setting purposes can seem like a never-ending task. However, it also is an important way to gain new customers and increase revenue.

If you feel that you have been making call after call without any luck, it is important to persevere.  As anyone in the sales industry will tell you, results will come-eventually.

Using the power of the telephone when it comes to marketing a business or selling a product can seem outdated in today’s digital marketplace. Why is it, then, that so many consumers consider getting someone to talk to them on the phone the pinnacle of customer service success?

The phone, including the ubiquitous mobile phone, is a powerful tool that many marketers ignore. However, the truth is that happy customers are customers who, despite all the clamoring for convenience, still want to know that if they want to talk to someone, they can dial a number and do just that.

If you have a special sale or promotional event coming up it can be difficult to get the word out to customers and prospects. This is especially true if you have a specific target audience you are looking to attract or have time or financial constraints that prohibit a large-scale media approach.

So what is a business to do in this situation? One option is ringless voicemail. Ringless voicemail allows you to specifically target your prospects by things like city, area or even zip code. It also means that you can reach 10 people or tens of thousands of people in one area. Most traditional marketing methods are unable to segment by such specific population, especially on short notice.

Perhaps the most frustrating part of sales is waiting for a prospect to call you back after you have left that prospect a voicemail. After all, you can’t very well build relationships with clients and prospects if you can’t get them on the phone.

If you are making calls and leaving messages to no avail, it’s important to reevaluate your strategy to ensure that you are doing everything you can to make the people you are calling want to call you back. Think that’s not possible? Employ some of the following tips and you may change your mind.

Ringless voicemail has a lot of benefits for marketers. Namely, it allows a business to contact customers and prospects without worrying about interrupting these customers. It also has been shown to have extremely high callback rates.

If you are interested in implementing this type of marketing campaign, you are not alone. More and more businesses are choosing this method. While many businesses understand how ringless voicemail messaging works, they are not so sure how to craft the perfect message.

So how can you ensure that you don’t squander the precious time a customer spends listening to your message? Read on to find out how to create ringless messages that are sure to capture a listener’s attention and, more importantly, convince that individual to call you back.