A strategically-timed phone call can significantly improve your retention and renewal rates, says Randy Greenberg, principal at Green & Associates.

Greenberg was generous to speak to Subscription Site Insider‘s audience for nearly an hour this past week about how to conduct telemarketing for online subscription sales. While your current customers are the easiest (and usually most profitable) pool of candidates to convert (either to a new subscription or a longer term), Greenberg also spoke about how to approach past customers.

“Allow your traditional renewal efforts to do their job,” Greenberg said. That means initiating reminder emails, letters, onsite reminders, etc. Those methods are often cheaper than telemarketing calls, so you should let them get as many renewals as they can before initiating a telemarketing campaign.

However, after those efforts have been exhausted, it’s a good idea to place a phone call to those expired customers who have not renewed. This phone call should have a customer service/consultative approach. Don’t try to “sell” them on renewing — have a conversation about why they haven’t. If it’s logistics (forgot their password, etc.), you can easily remedy that. If they have a problem with the product, then perhaps another subscription is better for them. At the very least, this sort of customer feedback is great for your editorial department.

Greenberg also discussed the various ROIs for current, past and prospective customers, based on the usual hourly rate for telemarketing calls. To get his helpful analysis, watch the on-demand recording of “Telemarketing for Online Subscription Sales” on Subscription Site Insider today.