Importance Of Call Tracking In Marketing Strategy

Call Tracking

In a world where businesses are operating online one way or another, marketing is happening at a fast pace. Most digital advertising and even search engine rankings are meant for mobile users. This makes the results more interesting.

Smartphone users tend to respond to ads that interest them in the most convenient and simple way: calling. Statistics show that the volume of calls to US business will probably reach the 162 billion mark by 2019.

Some of these calls may be from customers’ Spectrum Voice home phone or whatever provider they prefer. But the bulk of calls will probably be from the same mobile device on which your ad was viewed. The volume of conversions from these calls is exploding. So is the need for effective call tracking.

What is Call Tracking?

Call tracking is a process that has been around for some years, but too few businesses use it. It shouldn’t be confused with caller identification, which only shows you the unique numbers of people calling you. It actually shows unique numbers to people for contacting you. How does it do this? It makes use of local or toll-free numbers that are unique for each marketing campaign you’re running.

You still have the main number, and all these unique numbers will forward calls to it. This is important because you now have a way to associate specific incoming leads or callers with specific campaigns. The number shown in your Facebook ads will be different from the one in your SEM ads.

Your SEM ads number will be different from the one you display on billboards in a geographic locality. Each number forwards to your main number, but you now know how each caller discovered you in the first place. So whether its website call tracking or tracking email campaigns, you know where your leads came from.

What does my business get from call tracking?

Call tracking is an essential tool for the success of your different marketing campaigns. The data collected offers important insights into how effective your campaigns are. This can be used to maximize your ROI. Here are just a few advantages you get from call tracking:

The Results are Real Time

Tracking calls differentiate your distinct marketing campaigns from each other. This does not mean just different campaigns for different offers, but also distinct campaigns for the same offer. Normally, a product or content piece is promoted across different channels, mediums, and audiences.

This is where tracking can improve how you go about it. It allows you to see which channels, methods, and mediums are generating the most leads or calls. More importantly, you get this information in real time, not after the event. With accurate real-time information on your campaign results, you have the tools you need to readjust your campaigns. You also get to know which campaigns should have more resources and hence assign them effectively.

Detailed Information on Callers

This process doesn’t just involve connecting phone calls but also monitoring different campaign-related metrics. You get detailed information on calls connected, as well as hang-ups, dropped calls and voicemails.

This allows you to see which specific action on your part, like posting new content, triggered more calls and leads. The detailed information you can use to see this includes names, phone numbers, addresses, voicemail transcripts, and call durations. This places you in a better position to determine what actions are getting you the most response from your audience.

Actionable Analytics

When implemented properly, you gain access to important analytics that can assist your efforts. The result is the opening up of the following avenues:

• What campaigns are generating the most inquiries on calls
• Which campaign’s number receives the most traffic
• Time and resources saved from difficult remarketing campaigns without proper analytics
• Building a one-on-one, lasting relationship with callers, provided you have smartphone reps

How do I make use of Call Tracking in my business?

Depending on the nature of your business, you most probably target a broad range of audiences. Most businesses mix online ads, websites, emails, newspaper ads and billboards in their marketing campaigns.

It is very likely that your number is also displayed on these physical or virtual mediums. This means you’re getting calls from customers targeted through different avenues, but you can’t identify the source behind them.

This is where having different trackable numbers for separate campaigns is very useful. This is just the first touch point in adopting trackable methods for your campaigns. There are additional areas you can also put the idea to use, some of which are listed below:

Tracking Keywords

As discussed above, your phone number is very likely displayed everywhere. Some examples include your website, , , etc. You may be receiving a lot of calls from customers who discover you online, but remain unaware of the source. This means, before anything else, you need to know what search queries bring them to your page.

Similarly, you need to know which queries show them your phone number. Once you know what words were used while searching, you can identify a list of high-performing keywords.

The next step is competing on these high-performing keywords. As a side note, you also get to know what keywords are under-performing and stop spending valuable resources on them. This gives you a very good idea of how effective your organic SEO campaign is and what adjustments are needed. Just concentrate on the keywords that are driving the most calls, and by extension, driving the most sales.

Tracking Emails

Email campaigns are usually a process of trial and error. Email campaigns involve a lot of adjustment before they start driving sales sustainably. From a tracking standpoint, you need to ask yourself a few questions about the email campaign you are running. Namely:

• Are there any trackable numbers in the emails?
• Are the emails redirecting readers to a page with your trackable number and a call to action?
• Are the callers mentioning they called after reading an email?

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Once you have the answers to these questions, you need to process them. To do so you may need to make use of technology. This involves systems that provide caller information as well as record conversations for analysis. After processing, you can conclude how effective your emails are at making the reader dial your number. You may need extensive work before you arrive at the conclusions. This may include:

• A/B tests: comparing the results of one email template against another
• Monitoring leads in your CRM tools
• Identifying emails that trigger a lot of calls
• Real-time scanning of emails to remain credible and safe

Depending on your nature of data and business, there may be even more testing involved. But the end result is worth it. If you can find the right email trigger, you can create a successful strategy and drive incoming calls.

Using Google Analytics in tracking

There is no point in an ad campaign unless you have the right tools to analyze it. Google Analytics is a well-known analysis tool that can really help you track your campaign. You can utilize its potential by having multiple trackable numbers in your ad campaign.

Google Analytics will help you identify which numbers are performing better. Additionally, you also get some more analytics. Some of them are call sources, conversions, organic visitors etc. which can help you adjust your strategies.

Google Analytics helps a lot here with information on which ads are directing viewers to call your numbers. Once you know which ads are the most effective, you can adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

Enhancing Customer Call Experience

When you have an audience interested in you, you need to have people who are capable of converting leads. Your goal is to get repeat callers/customers so you need to offer a good on-call experience. One good way to do this is to merge quality enhancement with call tracking. This can be done in a number of ways, including the following:

• Routing calls precisely to the right person for the right caller. Integrated systems make it easier for your team to communicate internally and route calls properly.
• Improving communication skills of sales reps. Your reps need to know how to properly handle calls. This means knowing when calls will come in when to call back, customer details and relevant information. You can choose to set your best reps on the numbers that see the most traffic.
• Recording calls is an important use of tracking software. It helps you identify the strengths and weaknesses of specific reps. This gives you information on what needs improvement as well as samples to use as references for training new reps.
• Call tracking lets you manage your calls effectively. Ideally, every call received should be responded to. This may require an appropriate distribution of calls among your team, or even auto-response software. This helps you deliver a much higher level of customer service
• Another benefit of tracking calls is that you can label the calls you get. This lets your rep know if the caller is a hot prospect, a mild lead or just a spammer.

The Bottom Line Benefits

Every business owner and manager keeps an eye on overall marketing campaigns, both online and offline. Call tracking is not an alternative, but an additional method through which you can do this. It gives you access to valuable data and insights that can be crucial to driving the success of your campaigns. The bottom line benefits to a business are:

• Determining which campaigns are generating the most interest or buzz
• Identifying which of your trackable numbers from a specific campaign is getting the most response
• Finding which keywords are underperforming and which aren’t, which helps SEO and SEM campaigns
• Better communication with prospective customers and leads
• Improving and enhancing customer service performance
• Merge internet analytics and direct calling into a measurable dataset

In Conclusion

Tracking calls with analytics is becoming a developing field in its own right. Trackable numbers gives you a much better idea of how your target audience is responding to your marketing efforts. For a business in the 21st Century, it is crucial to integrate tracking software with conventional marketing tools.

This helps you identify your target audience’s behavior, website visitors converting into callers and marketing campaign performances. The long-short of it is that you need to track all received calls as well as making your trackable numbers accessible to prospects.

This allows your target audience to reach you conveniently and in real time. It also allows you to offer a higher degree of customer service. Following these steps, you can ideally increase your conversions and ultimately your ROI. So invest now in call tracking technology. Your profit figures will thank you.

Author Bio

I am a Digital Marketing expert with over 16 years of on-field experience in getting new brand websites to rank above their competitor business e-portals. Currently, I’m employed in the capacity of a Growth Hacker at Spectrum, and my academic interests lie in researching the benefits of Call Tracking technology within commercial settings. Additionally, I am a firm advocate of the Obama-era Net Neutrality regulations; which I believe need to be reinstated for the sake of an egalitarian web experience.

Sep 27, 2018Raveen Paswan