What is call tracking? Not a very common question, yet a goldmine when approached the right way.
Do you run ads? Even offline? Do you offer support via call? If you do, this piece is exactly for you. Even if you don’t, I believe you may want to start once you go through this piece.
If you don’t know what call tracking is, that’s fine. A lot of people don’t know that and are losing over 80% of their business!
It’d be fun to be in the winning 20%, wouldn’t it? Let’s get started then?
What is call tracking?
I believe the term is self-explanatory, isn’t it? The literal meaning obviously is “to track a call”. But, to what end? The simple answer is “to track and improve the conversion from your individual marketing campaigns”.
In other words, imagine you have a Google PPC ad, social media ads (Facebook/Instagram etc.) and a few offline hoardings as part of your marketing campaign.
How do you know which of these are working the best? Sure, you’re receiving calls for your business. But, how do you know which of these marketing channels are generating the leads you’re getting?
That’s where call tracking comes to the rescue. With the right call tracking solution, you don’t just “track” the calls, you can grab leads, convert them, and even improve your company/product as a whole.
Who can use call tracking?
You probably own a business, and you’re wondering if call tracking is something you can use?
Well, technically, almost every business can use call tracking. Even if you do not use online ads, call tracking can still help you in over a dozen different ways.
As long as you advertise your business, via any possible channel/strategy/platform/source, and you provide telephonic support, call tracking is for you.
What are the benefits of call tracking?
If you’re thinking call tracking only “tracks the lead-source”, you’re wrong. If your call tracking tool is advanced enough it can do a lot more.
E.g. an advanced call tracking software solution such as Phonexa can help you do the following:
- Grab the caller’s location. This helps you serve the callers much better, maybe with geo-specific products/services?
- Connect callers to a custom, automated voice message created especially for your business. This naturally creates a better and more professional connect, doesn’t it?
- Recognize voices and automatically connect them to the most appropriate agent/department. It’s not just “cool”, but also saves time and makes the calling process seamless for the callers. That, may result in faster and easier conversions.
- Personalize greets for each caller. The personalization may be based on many different filters/factors but it sure does help conversion.
- Record call for training/future reference purposes.
- Get visual, comparative data for different campaigns.
Some call tracking solutions even provide toll free and vanity (custom, much better looking) numbers.
Now, all of this data is logged and stored for you. How you use that is a matter of personal choice and strategy.
Do note that Phonexa isn’t the only call tracking company offering these features. There are quite a few other alternatives. Obviously, the number and types of features would vary depending on which company you go with.
How to make the most out of call tracking?
If you’re asking what call tracking is, you clearly need the basics, don’t you? Well, basics you will get.
So, how do you make a call tracking software work for you? The simplest answer is it’ll help you identify the most profitable campaigns. This also means you can re-route your resources from other dead or less-profitable campaigns.
Secondly, the “speed” and “appropriate agents” angle is there as well. E.g. you may have ads running for different sections/products. Imagine someone seeing your ad for product X, but landing with the support staff for product Y? Lost business, isn’t it?
Also, if you’re getting repeated callers, isn’t it better if they get to “resume” their journey where they left? Call tracking allows you identify repeat callers, understand where in your funnel they last dropped off, and pick right from there.
Third, this call data can be infused with your other marketing strategies. E.g. you can have better targets and creatives for your social media or PPC ads simply based on the queries callers from specific locations have.
Fourth, how about re-targeting? If someone picked the phone up, they’re clearly interested. Obviously, not all of your calls will convert. How about re-targeting those callers with better offers and discounts?
Fifth, some software even let you track “keywords”. You’d know not just the landing page or the ad-campaign that generated the lead, but also the keyword. Isn’t that a goldmine?
Last but not the least, at the end of the day you’d have a long list of numbers, with granular data about each individual’s concern with your product/company!
Hey, this is all just the tip of the iceberg. There truly is no limit to the benefits of call tracking.
Is call tracking beneficial in 2021?
With 2021 already here, I do believe this should be answered, don’t you? Do people even call businesses? If they do, are these calls worth all the data-gathering that call tracking brings to the table?
According to a research, nearly 40% of online searches lead to calls.
Well, COVID-19 (and its newfound cousins) are unfortunately still here, aren’t they? That means, more online shopping/searching. Now, if people can’t visit your offices/business, how do they interact with you? Calls, of course.
And hey, phones aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. People will always call businesses. How good/bad the support is decides which company they go with.
How to choose a call tracking solution?
If you’ve read this far, you may be considering going with a call tracking software, right? But, you’re obviously new to this. So, how do you choose something that’s the perfect balance between features and the pricing?
Here are a few factors which will help you make your pick:
- Source-specific/unique numbers: See if your software is able to display dynamic (different) number across your campaigns. This means, visitors will see different numbers based on the campaigns which drove them to the call. A basic but very effective filter right there.
- Custom dashboards/changes: See if your call tracking solution can make custom changes to anything you want with your calls. Your support staff, management, and overall marketing strategies may have very specific demands which not all companies can live up to.
- Always online: Do some research, go with companies which ensure 24X7 availability. If the call service is down, you may be losing money.
- Analytics and data: How much, and what data is saved? Are the reports easily understood? These are questions you should ask.
- Third-party integrations: As mentioned above, integrations with services like Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook, Salesforce etc. is important.
- Local numbers: This only applies to those who market internationally or in more than one regions. Try to go with a solution which can offer local toll free numbers instead of those with international codes. People don’t like calling international and you’d be losing at step-1 then.
Again, this list isn’t absolute. You can look for quite a few other things. These are just the basics which will help you get started if you’re totally new.
Or, you can just go with Phonexa. It’s a company which ticks most if not all the boxes when it comes to call tracking software.
Wrapping it up
This was probably one of the most basic, simple explanations of what call tracking exactly is. Obviously, there’s a lot more to it than what’s mentioned so far. However, I refrained from getting into the technicalities in favor of simplicity.
Now, how profitable it exactly is, or how can you leverage that would depend largely on you. Doesn’t matter which software/tool you use, the final result is always on you.
On a broad scale, call tracking will help you improve your sales, decrease/ help repurpose marketing cost and increase your brand value as a whole. If that’s something you’re aiming for, I’d say you start today.