There are several ways of measuring business success. Most businesses and marketers prefer measuring success through organic views, page views and goal conversations, which are quite useful. Even though such analytics come in handy when monitoring business success, they do not accurately portray the number of leads and inquiries that a business gets, especially when calls are involved.
Inasmuch as we spend most of our time googling and browsing through different web pages, not all transactions and business undertakings can be conducted online. One of the greatest yet underestimated sources of lead generation for a business is phone calls. It has been quite challenging to track the location of callers in the last few decades, which has significantly reflected in assessing the marketing performance.
With the latest call tracking software, businesses can monitor their marketing efforts in terms of lead generation and establish viable and non-viable ones. Call tracking plays several roles in business, including shaping SEO. We will, therefore, intensively discuss it and look at some of its benefits.
How to track inbound calls
One of the most important things when opening a business is obtaining a telephone number. I am pretty sure that you have your business’ telephone number in different platforms such as your business’ website, magazines and adverts. This is a good move but it also has some shortcomings.
Having your telephone number in different platforms makes it challenging to know which medium is generating leads and inquiries to the business. You cannot also keep your call conversations. Picture a scenario where you notice lighting problems in the office. Well, we all know that lighting issues need to be addressed quickly, and therefore to avoid further damage, you decide to call a professional to fix the problem.
The first thing we usually do when we encounter such problems is to perform a random google search. After searching ‘Lighting Solutions’, you spot a company advert with a phone number next to it. After some time, a gentleman comes and fixes your lighting issues, and your life goes backs to normal. Well, there lies a problem. You noticed a random advert on the internet and called the company without clicking on the ad. The company cannot tell how you found out about the business, which might even prompt it to pull down the adverts thinking that they are not functional, which is a gross error.
However, through call tracking, the lighting company can easily establish how you found about them. Call tracking allows businesses to track different phone numbers and determine their genesis among the various campaign strategies. To track a call, you must have a call tracking software which records all the calls a business receives and in return sheds light on the performance of the campaign platforms.
How does call tracking work?
To help you understand how call tracking works, we will use the example in the second part. Let us assume that the lighting company you called has three different marketing strategies. One, the company has its adverts in the local papers. Second, it has adverts in various transport systems, and lastly, the company has embarked on an online campaign strategy.
Through a call tracking software, the lighting company can easily obtain, and compare inquires from all the three platforms. Call tracking enables the company to assess the performance data of each campaign. The company will know which campaign strategy is generating conversions and which one is not. Such data also includes the exact time and date of the respective calls. Lastly, the lighting company can also track the return on investment of each marketing strategy.
The firm will, therefore, choose to stop advertising in public transport systems when it discovers it has low returns and focus the money on online marketing and vice versa. Remember, the end game is to generate as many enquiries as possible.
Benefits of call tracking
Call tracking comes with several advantages. Let us break them down,
1) Assessing marketing strategies
Call tracking allows businesses to monitor and assess their marketing channels to establish viable and non-viable ones. From the data, companies can oversee both online and offline strategies and know where to improve. It allows businesses to know which of their landing pages is bringing in more inquiries, thanks to its touch in organic search engine traffic.
It also serves online campaigns such as pay per click campaign, enabling companies to settle on the best keyword. Lastly, call tracking serves digital advertising campaigns. Businesses can use different telephone numbers in their ads to establish the one that performs best.
2) Improves customer service
Call trafficking allows you to listen to calls and assess your customer service provision. A company gets to know what to do to improve the quality of customer service based on customer handling and feedback.
3) It saves on costs
Most companies spend vast amounts of money on advertising channels that yield no returns. Call trafficking helps businesses to assess their campaign channels based on viability. A firm might be investing a lot of money in offline adverts when in a real sense, all the traffic and enquiries are generated by online adverts. Most businesses fail to monitor their marketing channels, which is the reason behind call tracking.
4) Helps businesses maximize returns
Business is all about investing and each investment must yield returns. Call tracking equips businesses with useful data concerning lead generation. Businesses, therefore, get to know which campaign channels to invest in and which ones to stop channelling money into. This move minimizes expenses and maximizes results.
Conclusion
Most businesses depend on Google analytics to generate their goal conversion rate. Google analytics have their fair share of advantages, but they are usually inaccurate, especially when clients keep on calling to enquire about the business. Call tracking, therefore, allows companies to take charge of their marketing strategies and decide on which one to keep and which one not to. It is, therefore, a necessary tool that every company should invest in to maximize returns and minimize expenses.
Keep up with the latest Google analytics updates. Here are Bluelight Marketing agency, we make sure to post the most recent updates so you can make the best business decision. Book a free consultation today and learn how we can help you,
Nick Berns is at the helm of the Bluelight agency. With 6 years of experience in digital marketing, he is passionate about growing businesses through organic and paid marketing solutions.
