Marketing strategies continuously evolve. What worked last year, may not attract as many new customers this year. Just think of how quickly audiences shifted from using MySpace to Facebook or from AOL to any assortment of free email service providers. For your business to stay ahead of the competition, it must stay current with the latest consumer trends, marketing techniques, and advertising tracking technologies.

Marketing Funnels

Any marketing relies primarily on using different tactics to “attract, convert, close, and delight.” That sums up the process of attracting strangers, nurturing them into customers, then converting them into loyal followers and promoters of your brand.

What Is Call Tracking?

Call tracking helps businesses to track and analyze their customers and how they’re interacting with their company. Aside from basic important information, such as the location, time of day, and duration of each phone call, call tracking offers data about the sources of incoming calls. By using different phone numbers based on each type of marketing you do, you can quickly identify what tactics are making your phone ring. That data can be analyzed, allowing you to accurately know how well your campaigns are performing.

By inserting tracking numbers into your online and traditional media campaigns, you’re able to see which efforts are the most successful at driving phone calls — and ultimately increasing sales to your business.

 

Call Tracking and Inbound Marketing

Call tracking is one of the most powerful tools available to aid in measuring your marketing efforts. It gives clear-cut, actionable data about any advertising campaign, enabling you to better optimize your marketing strategies.

Alongside Google’s Web analytics you likely use with your campaigns, with call tracking you can see which marketing efforts are driving phone calls — a key metric that’s often overlooked, despite its importance.

People who call your business are arguably your hottest sales leads. Knowing exactly how they find you gives you the ability to better pivot your tactics to attract and convert more customers to boost your marketing ROI.

Without call tracking, it may seem like your inbound marketing tactics aren’t working. For example, you may see that only a few people have filled out an online form that they arrived at from an online article or social media post. But what if those same online efforts caused dozens of people to call you instead? That data would otherwise be lost, and it would seem that your efforts aren’t paying off; in short, you’d have faulty information to work with when optimizing your marketing strategy.

With call tracking, that data is no longer lost. You’re able to correlate phone calls with each marketing campaign to give you a better understanding of what’s working and what isn’t. It’s the missing piece you need to complete your marketing puzzle.

In addition, call tracking makes the analysis process much easier. Marketing encompasses numerous tactics, messages, and moving parts, and it can be difficult to track everything at once. With call tracking, you’re able to track each tactic or unique message campaign individually to gain an accurate perspective of your performance.

Specific Marketing Tactics

Call tracking is useful in just about any facet of marketing. Here are just a few examples of how call tracking can enhance your campaigns:

  • Content marketing campaigns. If you have a campaign using a whitepaper, blog post or an e-book, you’ll want to get an accurate and comprehensive picture of corresponding conversions—and the only way to do that is to also use call tracking. Put a tracking number in all touchpoints of your inbound campaign, including the deliverable itself, to evaluate its performance.
  • Automated email marketing. Place call tracking numbers in your email marketing messages to determine how effective your emails are in driving calls. You can get as granular as you want; for example, you can place one call tracking number in emails to past customers, then switch to a new phone number in emails you may purchase for prospect marketing. Doing so helps you to better understand what messages motivate them to take action – such as referring friends, making additional purchases or initiating their first order.
  • Social media marketing. Add call tracking numbers to your social media campaigns to track their performance. Knowing which social media sites and tactics drive phone calls will help you significantly improve your social media presence. Call tracking is especially helpful for businesses with “Call Now” buttons on their website pages.

An Example of How Call Tracking Might Work

Let’s run through an example of how call tracking would tie in with an inbound marketing campaign. Imagine your company is a home improvement service that’s trying to attract and convert more leads into customers. Since winter is quickly approaching, you decide to create an e-book titled “A Guide to Winterproofing Your Home.” It contains valuable, worthwhile information for your target consumers—most likely new homeowners who aren’t sure how to go about readying their yards or homes.

To promote your e-book, you create a landing page with an online form to capture email addresses. When visitors fill out the form, they’ll be able to view and download the e-book. That landing page can feature a tracking phone number, which can (and should) be included in the e-book itself.

You decide to promote your e-book on your favorite social networks, including Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. You can get very specific with call tracking by creating different tracking numbers for each social media platform, allowing you to see which social networks are the most effective at driving calls from this marketing tactic.

Since you require leads to give out their email addresses before downloading the e-book, you’ll have their information on file for future automated email marketing campaigns. You can insert a tracking number in the emails included in your marketing automation funnel, allowing you to effectively track leads and analyze the results of the email automation.

Doing marketing is great, but integrating call tracking with it makes tracking your efforts all the more meaningful. Inserting the power of unique tracking numbers into your marketing efforts will give you the data you need to accurately know the performance of your marketing efforts and create a winning bottom-line ensuring you don’t continue to spend money on doing things that don’t deliver the results you need to grow.

The Final One-Two Punch to Get Knock Out Results

While Call Tracking will let you know critical data, combining it with Call Recording will ensure you can hear first-hand how calls are being handled. You may find that you’re driving a good amount of response, but your sales are not increasing. By using Call Recording, you can listen to how caller inquiries are handled and provide ongoing training and coaching to employees to improve lead conversion. Some say marketing is a combination of art and science. . . making the phone ring and using call tracking to gain insights is the science, but getting prospects to convert is that art – and Call Recording helps you know if conversations are painting the right picture for prospects.