Successful businesses are meticulous with their online marketing lead reporting. They know precisely what ads the lead clicked on, what web pages they visited, and what device was used.
But did you know 88% of consumers searching for a local business on their smartphone end up calling the business?
If you’re lumping these prospective customers in with your other marketing leads, you’ll never know how many leads called your business after interacting with a search ad, email message, or social media campaign.
This misreporting and misunderstanding of marketing results lead to the improper allocation of company resources and missed opportunities for your business.
Instead, implement a call tracking strategy to correctly attribute your phone leads and manage inbound prospects effectively.
What is Call Tracking?
Call tracking refers to the process of recording information about incoming calls to determine how customers found out about your business.
Call tracking allows businesses to utilize a series of specific phone numbers and record the call activity generated from those numbers.
Using a call tracking platform and strategy, businesses can:
- Identify where customers are calling from
- Determine how long customers speak with company representatives
- Understand which marketing campaign or channel generated the call
- Accurately report leads and attribute them to specific marketing efforts
For instance, a company can create a particular phone number for an email marketing campaign focused on a new product launch. If customers call that phone number, the marketing team knows the call was generated from that email marketing campaign.
How to Generate and Track Inbound Leads with Call Tracking
Since 92% of customer interactions occur over the phone, it’s essential to track these leads accurately.
A paid search ad, for example, will generate both online and phone leads for your business; however, without call tracking capability, these leads are inaccurately categorized as generic phone leads.
From a sales perspective, knowing how the lead discovered the business is vital to driving the conversation. For your marketing team, it’s imperative to know exactly what promotional strategy encouraged the lead to make the phone call.
To capitalize on call tracking capabilities for your inbound marketing and sales efforts, use our tips.
1. Use Specific Phone Numbers for Each Channel
Would you credit a lead that discovered your website from Facebook as an email marketing lead? Of course not. That’s illogical.
So why would you credit a phone call that came from a PPC ad as just a “phone lead?”
With call tracking, business owners can generate individual phone numbers for each marketing medium and channel they use to attract customers. As a result, companies can have specific numbers listed on their:
- Website
- Email Footer
- Individual Email Signatures
- Social Media Profiles
- Display Ads
- PPC Ads
By utilizing these unique numbers, you’ll also be able to see which marketing channels drive the total leads (phone and online) and focus your resources and time on those platforms.
2. Create Campaign-Specific Phone Numbers
For each online and offline campaign you launch, make sure you use a campaign-specific phone number.
Anytime a lead calls that toll-free vanity number, your team knows exactly how they found out about your business and can use that information when speaking with them over the phone.
3. A/B Tests
A/B testing also referred to as a split test, is a method of comparing two versions of a campaign, website, or app against each other.
For lead generation, marketers use A/B tests to experiment with different copy, keywords, ad placement, imagery, and more.
Call tracking, and A/B testing go hand-in-hand. For instance, let’s say you want to A/B test two landing page versions using different imagery. Give each page a call tracking phone number and see which version drives the most calls and overall leads.
Managing Inbound Prospects with Call Tracking Data
Once you’ve amassed leads, you need to nurture them toward the end goal: a purchase.
Fortunately, call tracking data can guide your sales team in doing so. Companies that engage in a call tracking strategy can see:
Call Volume
How many times did an individual lead call your company? How many calls were exchanged between the sales rep and each lead? How many calls does your company receive at any given hour or day of the week?
Source
By assigning each campaign, channel, advertisement, etc., an individual vanity number, you know how leads discover your business. This call tracking information can be used and referenced throughout the customer’s interactions with your business and sales team.
Call Duration
Get a better understanding of how your sales team is communicating with phone leads by looking at the average call duration metric. Are they spending enough time talking to leads, or are the phone calls too quick to accomplish anything?
Call Recording
Best of all, call tracking technology offers call recording features. With this feature, companies can record conversations (with permission) between each lead and your team.
This contextual data can be analyzed to discover a number of things about your sales team, the buyer’s journey, your brand, products, and more.
Plus, your sales reps can review previous calls with a lead before hopping on another phone call to gently nudge them further toward a purchase.
Generate and Nurture Leads with Call Tracking
If your business can’t already track calls using toll-free vanity numbers, your marketing efforts are taking a hit. Take advantage of 800.com’s call tracking features to fully understand and accurately report the results of your sales and lead generation efforts.
