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The
use of telephones for marketing and sales. Telemarketing can be either outbound (the seller calls the prospective customer) or inbound (the prospect calls
the seller, such as calling a freephone number in response to an advert).
A distinction is sometimes made between telemarketing and telesales. In that case, telemarketing refers to solely the use of the telephone for marketing purposes (market research, lead generation, brand building, information dispersal, etc.), but not for closing sales. When this distinction is made, the term "telesales" is used to describe the use of the telephone to close sales.
Outbound telemarketing is the process of telephoning potential customers from a targeted list of names (database).
Inbound telemarketing is where respondents reply to a telephone number, usually as a response to a mailer or an advertisement.
See: Brand, Database, Market Research, Telesales.