I read a post recently on Techcrunch that prompted the question in the above title. Most of the comments on the Techcrunch site were very anti-voicemail. It seems, particularly in tech circles, that email, IM and Twitter are the preferred method of contact.

So, what about small business. Is leaving sales or service related voicemails a waste of time or worse – something akin to spam?

I must admit that my own use of voicemail has dwindled significantly over the past few years. The use of text messaging, mobile phones with visual voicemail and email that comes to the phone has put me out of the habit of responding to and leaving voice messages.

However, there are certainly prospects and occasions when it is a necessary tool. Having said that I do believe you must be more strategic in your messaging. As silly as that might sound a messages that goes something like, “call me when you get a chance” or “just checking to see if you got my email” are really a form of spam.

For voicemail to be effective in terms of marketing you must use it to share some form of vital information or pass on specific details that may or may not involve a reply or further action from the recipient. Anything less and you may just be adding to information overload we all suffer from.

The use of services such as Jott or Spinvox that can turn voicemail into email messages is definitely on the rise and may be the best way to bridge your use of voice messages to a more suitable format.