6 Best Auto Dialer Software for Small Business in 2022 (Compared)

Are you looking for the best auto dialer software for your small business?

Auto dialer software can help to improve business communication by making your sales and customer support teams more productive.

In this article, we’ve hand-picked some of the best auto dialer software that you can use along with your WordPress site.

When Do You Need to Use Auto Dialer Software?

Auto dialer software can help your business save time by dialing numbers automatically and streamlining workflows. Once your call is answered, the software will automatically connect one of your available team members. 

Instead of wasting time with manual dialing, your team can focus on delivering a great customer experience and spend more time converting new leads into long-term customers. 

Many auto dialer solutions also include standard business phone, call center, and CRM features, so you can handle all of your business communication needs from one place.

Using auto dialer software can also help ensure your business is compliant with federal regulations when you’re doing cold-calling and cell phone calling campaigns. 

There are all kinds of reasons to use automatic dialing software in your business:

• Make your sales reps more effective by minimizing the time between calls
• Help your customer service team assist a larger number of users
• Reach out to potential nonprofit donors 
• Notify your contacts about an upcoming event
• Canvas for political campaigns

That being said, let’s take a look at some of the best auto dialer software that you can use with your small business website.

1. Nextiva

Nextiva is one of the best business phone services in the market, and this is why we use it in on WPBeginner and our our other companies.

It offers a unique click-to-call solution that lets your team instantly dial phone numbers and call new leads with the click of a button.

Nextiva seamlessly integrates with all the most popular small business CRMs in the market like HubSpot, Zendesk, Zoho, Salesforce, and more. 

With these integrations, you can make phone calls directly from your preferred CRM software. 

Basically, it turns your current CRM into an outbound call center solution. You can organize and segment your lists within your CRM, then make calls by clicking a button.

This helps to save your team time from dialing numbers manually and moving between different software. Plus, you can view all of your contact data that’s already present in your CRM to improve the quality of your calls.

Note: we use Nextiva on WPBeginner as our business phone service. In our experience, it’s the best business phone service from pricing and features. 

With Nextiva, you also get access to all of the standard business phone features like voice and video calling, video conferencing, SMS messaging, faxing, screen sharing, automatic call routing and callback, and more.

Aside from that, they have several other really powerful features for outbound sales including the ability for your live agent to visually track and manage the entire sales process pipeline, implement automated follow up notifications via email, detailed analytics through call monitoring, and many more.

So if you’re a small business, you can use these smart tools to improve your lead generation efforts, boost sales, and drive more revenue.

Even large business that are using a call center software use Nextiva for their omnichannel communication needs because it seamlessly integrates with their various systems while offering powerful features for call center agents to maximize productivity.

Expert Review: Nextiva is the best business phone solution for most businesses. You can use the click to call solution plus all of the business phone features to easily manage all of your business phone needs.

It’s affordable too and starts at $20.95 per user per month, and annual contracts aren’t required. 

You’ll need at least the Professional plan to access the CRM integration features. Discounts are also available by adding more users to your plan or buying pre-paid packages. 

2. RingCentral

RingCentral is one of the best business VoIP providers in the market used by over 400,000 businesses.

It has all the features you need to run a call center, manage your business phone system, and simplify your sales and customer support process.

RingCentral offers multiple auto dialing options including a progressive dialer, previewing dialing, and predictive dialing. Predictive dialing lets you dial multiple numbers at once and uses algorithms to route the call to the next available agent. 

It’s also one of the best auto dialing solutions for reducing your risk of regulatory violations.

If you’re going to be doing large-scale telemarketing campaigns, then this tool will help to ensure your business remains compliant with Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) guidelines. 

For example, it has built-in features to ensure you’re only calling within specific time windows, avoiding the do not call list (DNC), calling cell phones safely, and more. 

You can create custom automatic call scripts for different scenarios and can customize these scripts using the included drag and drop builder. This is also known as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and is very helpful during busy times.

RingCentral also offers specific solutions for businesses across various industries like tech, retail, healthcare, financial, education, real estate, and more. 

Beyond the automatic dialing software, you also get access to common business phone and contact center solutions like unlimited calling, caller ID, call forwarding, SMS, live chat, call tracking, call distribution, and others. 

There’s also a 99.999% uptime guarantee, so your team will never drop an important call. 

Expert review: We believe that RingCentral is one of the best phone solutions for business owners with scaling businesses. 

It starts at $19.99 per month per user when billed annually. There’s also a 15-day free trial you can use to test out the software and see if it’s a good fit.

3. PhoneBurner

PhoneBurner is an auto dialing software used by companies like Remax and powers over 11 million monthly conversations. It’s a cloud-based software that uses VoIP to make calls, so it can be accessed anywhere and is an excellent solution for remote teams.

Even though the software caters to remote teams, the call quality is the same as a landline. 

The auto dialing functionality can help your sales team make up to 80 calls every hour. This is a great way to make your sales team more effective and close more deals. 

It includes advanced lead management features, so you can sort leads by location, tags, last time called, and more. 

Another time-saving feature is the unlimited prerecorded voicemails. As soon as they reach someone’s voicemail, they can leave a prerecorded message with a single click. Plus, follow up text messages and emails can be sent in real-time within the software during busy signal.

PhoneBurner also includes an integrated sales CRM, so you can manage your contact list and leads without the need for an external CRM.

If you’re already using a CRM, then you can easily integrate with software like Zoom, HubSpot, Salesforce, Constant Contact, FreshDesk, and more. 

There’s also an open API, so you can develop an integration with nearly every CRM even if the integration isn’t currently available.

Expert Review: PhoneBurner is a great solution for companies who don’t have a CRM and want an integrated easy to use CRM.

The phone solution isn’t as robust as Nextiva, but for those who need an advanced auto dialer it could be a great choice.

The pricing is very straightforward and costs $149 per user per month when paid yearly. There are also discounts available when you purchase a yearly plan.

4. Voicent

Voicent is one of the top auto dialer providers that offers flexible plans for businesses of all sizes.

Many providers simply charge a single flat rate, regardless of how much you use the service. Instead, Voicent offers flexible pricing based on your call volume. This is great for businesses who only need to use an auto dialer during the holiday season or other peak times of the year. 

One of the main features of this software is prerecorded auto dialing. This makes it easy to send out recorded messages to a list of contacts. Your message can be in your voice, or you can use the computer-generated voice included with the software. 

Beyond the auto dialing features, you’ll find everything you need to manage outbound and inbound calls, SMS messages, emails, and more. 

There’s also a built-in CRM to help you automatically track your leads and customers and streamline your customer follow up process.

Expert Review: Voicent is one of the best providers for sending prerecorded messages to your list of contacts.

The pricing is affordable and starts at $19 per user per month when paid yearly and $29 per user per month when paid monthly. This makes it one of the cheapest options for businesses on a budget. 

Addons like caller ID, workflow automation, and inbound call center features cost extra. However, there is a 30-day free trial you can use to test out the software and see if it’s right for your business. 

5. CallHub

CallHub is an all in one auto dialer solution for small businesses. It’s commonly used by nonprofits and political campaigns like the American Red Cross, Sierra Club, the Bernie Sanders campaign, and more. 

This tool has built-in templates for different use cases, so you can improve your voter outreach process, recruit volunteers, make fundraising and donations easier, and more. 

The automatic dialing software includes a variety of dialing modes like predictive dialing, robo dialing, preview dialing, and a power dialer. The robo dialer features are commonly used for telemarketing and political campaigns.

Simply upload your list of contacts and begin dialing. There’s a caller ID feature included that will automatically display a local number based on your contact’s area code. 

Expert Review: CallHub is one of the best solutions for nonprofits and political campaigns who want to save time with the built-in workflows. 

It’s not as flexible as Nextiva, but for certain use cases it would be a good solution for your business.

Plus, there’s a Lite version available that lets you test the software for free, and you can add on the auto dialer feature for $99 per month.

Paid plans start at $199 per month and includes auto dialing, predictive dialing, power dialing, and support for unlimited contacts and agents. 

6. Five9

Five9 is one of the most well known auto dialer solutions that’s been around for over 20 years. It’s used by big brands like DoorDash, Lululemon, Fitbit, and more.

The auto dialer software supports predictive dialing, progressive dialing, power dialing, and a preview dialer. The preview dialer feature shows your agents important information about the customer before they hop on the call.

The predictive dialer can help to increase your agent productivity and talk time by 300%. Instead of waiting for unanswered calls, the predictive algorithm will only connect your agents once a live person is on the phone. 

It can also be customized based on your contact’s time zone and list penetration, which will help to keep your business compliant with regulations. 

You can choose the type of auto dialer that works best for your business and set it up in a couple of clicks. 

The software also includes standard auto dialer features like agent scripting, answering machine detection, automated voicemail, local caller ID, live call recording, and more. 

Expert Review: Five9 is an advanced solution that can power a call center for thousands of agents. 

It caters to large scale businesses, so it might not be the best fit for your WordPress businesses.

The pricing for Five9 is not available online. To get pricing information unique to your business needs, you’ll need to contact their team. 

Which is the Best Auto Dialer Software for Your Team?

All of the above software are great auto dialing solutions you can use to improve the productivity of your customer service, sales, and marketing teams. 

We believe that Nextiva is the best business phone software for small businesses. Although it doesn’t offer strict auto dialing features, the one click calling and easy CRM integration can help improve your sales process and deepen customer relationships.

Plus, it has all the features you need to manage your onichannel communication like live chat, SMS, business phone, free toll-free numbers, and much more.

If you want an alternative to Nextiva, then RingCentral is another excellent choice. Not only is it one of the top business VoIP providers, but it offers industry-leading predictive dialing and all the tools your business needs to remain compliant.

If you’re primarily a remote team, then PhoneBurner can be a great way to streamline the workflow of your sales and customer support staff.

Finally, those who run nonprofits or political campaigns will find a lot of useful features and built-in workflows with CallHub. 

We hope this article helped you find the best auto dialer software for your small business. You may also want to see our guide on how to get an email domain and our expert picks of the best email marketing services for small business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 6 Best Auto Dialer Software for Small Business in 2022 (Compared) first appeared on WPBeginner.

April 08, 2022 at 03:00PM

How to Bulk Schedule Posts in WordPress (Step by Step)

Do you want to bulk schedule posts in WordPress?

WordPress comes with everything you need to schedule posts, but what if you wanted to quickly schedule multiple drafts at once? Bulk scheduling comes in handy when you have lots of different articles waiting to be published.

In this article, we will show you how to bulk schedule posts in WordPress, using a free plugin.

When Do You Need to Bulk Schedule WordPress Posts?

If you are the single author creating and managing content on your blog, then you can easily schedule your blog posts using the default post scheduling feature in WordPress.

To schedule a post, simply select the Post tab in the right sidebar. Then, click on the Publish field. This opens a calendar where you can schedule this post.

You can even see all of your scheduled posts in the WordPress dashboard.

To do this, go to Posts » All Posts. You can then click on the Scheduled tab. This shows a list of all your upcoming posts, with their scheduled publication dates.

Note: Are your scheduled posts sometimes failing to publish? See our guide on how to fix the ‘Missed Schedule’ post error in WordPress.

However, if you need to schedule multiple posts, then it can get a bit time-consuming.

With the built-in WordPress scheduling feature you need to open each post individually and then pick your publication date and time.

By adding a bulk schedule feature to WordPress, you can quickly and easily schedule lots of posts at once. This leaves you with more time to spend on increasing traffic and growing your WordPress blog.

You might also want a bulk scheduling feature if you have a multi-author blog. When you’re working with lots of different writers, a clear schedule can keep everyone on track.

With that said, let’s take a look at how to easily bulk schedule posts in WordPress.

Bulk Scheduling WordPress Posts (Step by Step Guide)

The easiest way to bulk schedule posts in WordPress is by using the Editorial Calendar plugin. It’s a free WordPress plugin that lets you create a schedule using simple drag and drop. 

This plugin adds a calendar view where you can see all of your scheduled posts, and build your content calendar.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the Editorial Calendar plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to Posts » Calendar. You should now see the calendar view.

Towards the upper right of the screen, click on the ‘Show Unscheduled Drafts’ link. This opens a sidebar displaying all of your unscheduled drafts. When the sidebar is showing, the link changes to say ‘Hide Unscheduled Drafts’.

Next, grab the draft that you want to add to your schedule. You can now drop this post onto any day in your calendar.

By default, the Editorial Calendar will schedule this post for 9am.

If you want to publish at a different time, then simply hover over the post. Then, click on the Quick Edit link.

This launches the Editorial Calendar popup.

In the dropdown, you can change when the post will go live.

You can now repeat these steps, to bulk schedule all of your drafts.

How to Change Your Schedule Using Drag and Drop

In a perfect world, you would create your schedule once and then stick to it.

In reality, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes you may need to make changes to your schedule or remove a post from the schedule completely.

If you want to change the date when a post is set to go live, then you can simply grab the post in your calendar and drag it onto the new date.

To remove a scheduled post, click on the ‘Show Unscheduled Drafts’ link in the upper right corner. You can now drag and drop your post onto the ‘Unscheduled Drafts’ sidebar. 

This is the best way to remove a post from your schedule.

When hovering over a post in the calendar view, you may have noticed a Delete link. This doesn’t just remove the post from your calendar – it sends the post itself to your Trash folder.

If you want to remove a post from your schedule without completely deleting it, then always use the ‘Unscheduled Drafts’ sidebar. 

How to Create and Bulk Schedule New Drafts With Editorial Calendar

If you like to brainstorm content ideas, then Editorial Calendar can help you out.

Another way to bulk schedule drafts in WordPress using the Editorial Calendar plugin is to create new drafts in the calendar view. You can then move these empty drafts around the calendar.

This trick can also come in handy if you work with multiple authors. Simply use the calendar view to create drafts for all of your planned posts, and then assign these drafts to your authors.  

In this way, you can make sure everyone knows exactly what they’re working on, and when those posts are due.

To create a new post, simply hover over the day when you plan to publish this content. Then, click on the New Post link when it appears. 

This opens a popup. To start, type a name for your post into the Title field.

You can also choose the time when WordPress will publish this content.

You can always change the date and time later, so don’t worry about getting this right the first time around.

The Status dropdown is set to Draft by default. This means that the Editorial Calendar will create a draft without setting it to go live automatically at your chosen date and time.

If you want WordPress to publish this post automatically, then open the Status dropdown and choose Scheduled. 

This popup even has a Content area where you can write your post. 

The Content area doesn’t include the formatting settings you get with the full WordPress post editor, but it’s good for adding a quick summary of what the post should cover.

If you need to use the full WordPress editor, then Editorial Calendar has a handy shortcut. Simply hover over the post in the calendar view. Then, click on the Edit link.

This will open the post in the standard WordPress editor. Another option is to head over to Posts » All Posts. You can now find your new draft, and open it for editing.

We hope this article helped you to learn how to schedule WordPress posts in bulk. You may also want to see our guide on how to get a free email domain, or our expert pick of the best HR payroll software for small business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Bulk Schedule Posts in WordPress (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.

April 07, 2022 at 05:00PM

How to Accept Apple Pay in WordPress (The EASY Way)

Would you like to accept Apple Pay on your WordPress site?

Over the last several years Apple Pay has significantly grown in popularity, and now there are several easy ways to offer Apple Pay as a payment option on your website.

In this article, we’ll show you how to accept Apple Pay in WordPress.

Why Accept Apple Pay in WordPress?

If you’re selling products or services on your WordPress website, then it’s important to let your visitors to pay with their preferred method.

Often that means using a credit card, but newer methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay are becoming more popular. Apple Pay now has over 40% of the mobile payment market in the US, and it makes online payments simple.

However, online Apple Pay payments can only be made from the Safari browser running on a Mac or iOS device.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to accept Apple Pay in your online store.

Note: We’ll cover how to add an Apple Pay option in WordPress without adding a full eCommerce cart, but we will leave other helpful resources at the end of this article for those looking for full eCommerce solutions.

How to Accept Apple Pay in WordPress

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the

WP Simple Pay plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

WP Simple Pay is one of the top WordPress invoicing and payments plugins among small business owners because it’s both simple and powerful. The best part is that WP Simple Pay does not charge you any additional transaction fees, and you can set it up without the complexity of a cart system.

While there is a free version of the plugin, you need the Pro plugin to accept Apple Pay, create on-site payment forms, and more.

Upon activation, the WP Simple Pay setup wizard will start automatically. You simply need to click the ‘Let’s Get Started’ button to continue.

First, you’ll be asked to enter your license key. You can find this information from your account on the WP Simple Pay website.

After that, you need to click the ‘Activate and Continue’ button to move to the next step.

Now you’ll need to connect WP Simple Pay to Stripe. Stripe is a popular payment gateway, and it’s the easiest way to add Apple Pay to your WordPress site. It also supports all top credit and debit cards, Google Pay, and more.

Simply click the ‘Connect with Stripe’ button, and from there you can log in to your Stripe account or create a new one. Anyone with a legitimate business can create a Stripe account and accept payments online.

Note: Stripe requires your site to be using SSL/HTTPS encryption. If you don’t already have an SSL certificate for your website, then please see our step by step guide on how to add SSL in WordPress.

Once you’ve connected to Stripe, you’ll be asked to configure your WP Simple Pay emails.

The options for payment and invoice emails to your customers have already been enabled for you. So is the option for sending payment notification emails.

You just need to enter the email address where the notifications should be sent.

Once you’ve done that, you need to click the ‘Save and Continue’ button. This completes your setup of WP Simple Pay.

Creating a Payment Form in WordPress

Next, you need to create a payment form.

You can get started by clicking the ‘Create a Payment Form’ button on the last page of the setup wizard. This will automatically take you to the WP Simple Pay » Add New page.

You should start by giving the payment form a name and description. After that, you will need to select the ‘Stripe Checkout’ option under Form Type.

Next, you need to click on the Payment tab. Here you can set the payment mode to either live or testing. Testing mode will let you make payments that are not actually charged to Apple Pay so you can make sure your form is working properly and emails are being sent.

Don’t forget to change this to ‘Live’ when you’ve finished testing and are ready to start receiving payments from your customers.

You can also add the products or services that you offer, along with their prices and whether they are a one-time payment or a subscription.

Simply click the ‘Add Price’ button until you have added as many prices as you need. Then for each one, you will need to add a label and price. You can also select other options, such as if the price is a subscription, or the user can determine the price, as in a donation.

You can show or hide a price by clicking the small arrow on the right.

Next, we’ll move on to the ‘Form Fields’ tab. The essential fields have already been added to the form, and you can add more if necessary.

Using the ‘Form Fields’ drop down, you can choose additional fields and add them by clicking the ‘Add Field’ button. Options include name, phone number, address, and much more.

The default text on the button is ‘Pay with Card’. If you like, you can change the text to something more generic, such as simply ‘Pay Now’. Then your customers won’t assume that credit cards are the only payment option.

Finally, the ‘Stripe Checkout’ tab allows you to select additional payment methods and tweak the checkout form that is displayed after the user clicks the ‘Pay’ button.

For this tutorial, we’ll leave those settings as they are.

When you are happy with your payment form, click on the ‘Publish’ button to store your settings and push the form live.

Now we can add the form to a post or page on your website.

Adding the Payment Form to Your Website

WP Simple Pay makes it super easy to add forms anywhere on your website.

Simply create a new post or page, or edit an existing one. Then, click on the plus (+) sign at the top and add a WP Simple Pay block in the WordPress block editor.

After that, select your order form from the dropdown menu in the WPForms block.

Once you’re finished, you can update or publish the post or page, and then click on the preview button to see your form in action.

When your users click the Pay button, the Stripe checkout form will be displayed.

If they are using the Safari browser on a Mac or an iOS device like iPhone, then the Apple Pay option will be displayed at the top of the form. Otherwise, the Apple Pay option will be hidden, and your customers can pay using a credit card.

If you’re looking for other ways to add Apple Pay in WordPress, then you can use full eCommerce solutions like Easy Digital Downloads or WooCommerce. Both of them have support for Apple Pay and Google Pay options.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to accept Apple Pay in WordPress. You may also want to learn how to create a contact form in WordPress, or check out our list of the best live chat software for small business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Accept Apple Pay in WordPress (The EASY Way) first appeared on WPBeginner.

April 06, 2022 at 03:00PM