Inbound Marketing was the phrase coined to describe the practice of marketing content or marketing processes to target prospects and the resulting increase in awareness, response, and sales. I mentioned the practice in last week’s column discussing how free browsing was killing offline marketing. Today, let’s talk about how the practice of Inbound Marketing did the same thing to cold calling.

Though cold calling is in trouble, most people still love to cold call. They do this because we all love a good-natured handshake and a quick hello. The warmth of the greeting is what many people overlook when they look at traditional cold calling as a marketing tactic. The act of cold calling is all about building a relationship with the individual and setting the goal of acquiring the contact.

Instead of a handshake, the traditional cold caller uses a virtual handshake as a digital handshake. Many cold calls today are initiated on social media platforms. Millennials have learned early on how to cold call on Facebook and other social media, and their confidence in cold calling is now flowing into cold calling across the generations.

On social media, the way a cold caller initiates a contact is the same as if he were making a physical cold call. He talks to the person with ease. He appears friendlier than the cold caller that we all know from the telephone.

Cold calling methods like cold calling from a hotel room or even a tablet or cell phone have been around for a while, but they have been approached as if they’re new. The cold call approach has only been available on social media for a few years. Now that cold calling is so virtual, it is easy to think of it as not very interesting.

Recently, a group of cold callers from a marketing agency were interviewed about their cold calling experience. Two of the cold callers suggested that the process of cold calling may be more fun now. A short interview like that may make people feel as if social media has replaced cold calling. To me, it’s very different.

Having cold calling on a cold tablet or cell phone when talking to a person you don’t know has a huge disadvantage. You will have to screen the person with the device to be sure they are legitimate. Because of this, you lose the ability to speak to someone who can’t speak back. You won’t have the impact of a handshake with a person that you’ve had a chance to establish a relationship with on a traditional cold call.

We have been saying the same thing for years about free and free trial offers. My advice to cold callers is that they need to stop thinking of cold calling as a program because it no longer is.

Free and free trial offers are an absolute a must because they are helping free and free trial offer companies capture those trial market share participants. People want to use free trials to drive a viral growth in their traffic, and free trials are the key to doing that.

However, free and free trial offers may take a toll on traditional cold call tactics because people feel as if there’s no reason to cold call. Consumers just want to use free trial offers and they are using them like crazy. I am sorry, but as much as most consumers try to help drive up the organic web traffic to a company’s website through free trials, they will not step foot in a retail store to spend a dollar on a sale item.

The concern that free and free trial offers will hurt traditional cold call tactics is not really a concern in reality. By using free trial offers like they do on social media platforms, customer service teams are simply getting work done. The increase in call volumes and calls handled are a byproduct of having to manage a lot of free and free trial offers while they happen.

As we all know, a free and free trial is not a free and free offer. They are both actually paid offers. However, the opportunity cost of leaving a person hanging by failing to respond to their call is minimal when compared to a potentially lost sale opportunity.

Cold callers need to understand that free and free trials are a win for everyone involved.

Stan Karnig was previously president of the Community Newspaper Group and served as president of Wisconsin’s Food News. Karnig is currently a key component in the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Board of Directors. He can be reached at stan.karnig@mediabistro.com.