If you hear about call tracking for the first time, you’re likely going to think it’s just a process to “track calls.” This much is true, but call tracking has a lot more uses which makes it quite the interesting concept for marketers and business owners to look into.
If you’ve ever considered leveling up your marketing experience, or if you want to streamline your operations, then call tracking is definitely something worth considering. This article will explain everything you need to know on call tracking from companies like Fone Dynamics on a fundamental level.
Are calls still important, though, in this digital age? Turns out, they really are – as 92-percent of all interactions with customers do still happen over the phone. Unfortunately, reaching customers isn’t the easiest thing in the world. Sales representatives take an upwards of 46-calls a day to reach various customers, with 40-percent of their time spent just looking for somebody to contact. At least 18 dials are needed to connect with prospects over the phone, and it takes around eight (!) cold call attempts to even reach prospects. However, the benefits you can reap from calls are nothing short of amazing though. In fact, 35 to 50-percent of sales do tend to vendors who respond the quickest, with 32-percent of buyers posting reviews of products they like on social media. The kind of exposure you can get from loyal customers can boost the potential of your marketing, but you need a system of efficient call assessments to do this – and this is where call tracking enters the field.
The Technology Behind Call Tracking: What Is It?
With the above taken into consideration, it’s important to understand that calls remain to be an integral part of the sales process. However, not being able to understand the inner workings of calls can greatly diminish their potential to aid in the development of your business and improve on your operations. In this quick primer on call tracking technology, here are a few things you should definitely understand when it comes to call tracking.
Call tracking, in essence, really “tracks” your calls – but its implications are much bigger than this simple thing it can do. When you use call tracking, you get to assign different numbers to each marketing channel you have, effectively segregating each marketing channel with its own phone number. Doing this not only allows you to know which channels are receiving calls, but you can set up more ways to track data because you’ve effectively separated your channels.
Call tracking is a good way for marketers to be able to measure just how much progress they’re making across their multiple marketing channels. This is an efficient tool to have up your sleeve, especially if you’re relying on many ways to up the ante on your marketing game. For instance, if you have a pay-per-click advertising campaign, a local newspaper advertisement, and a social media advertisement, you’re likely going to have a lot of sources for your calls, right?
Setting up a call tracking system in your company will be able to help you compare enquiries from all your channels without a hitch. Call tracking will allow you to see just which of your campaigns are capable of generating more conversions, and may even see the dates and times of the calls. If you make sales and these get recorded, you can also track the returns you’re making for each.
Why Is Call Tracking Important?
It’s important to understand that a lot of marketers and businesses evaluate their success through analytics. These metrics include goal conversions, page views, and organic visits. However, you may be underestimating your inquiries and leads if you leave your analytics to just measuring those numbers. While a lot of people do spend a lot of time on the internet, it’s important to remember that a lot of people do pick up their phones to make inquiries on a lot of services and products, and these usually bring the leads to your direction.
Up until call tracking, it’s been almost impossible to accurately assess your phone inquiries. With call tracking, not only can you track basic information about calls, but you can make better assessments of your company’s performance by tracking how much sales you’re generating, how your staff are performing, and how you should adjust in the future – all thanks to tracking your calls.
How Does It Work?
When you do call tracking, you effectively segregate your marketing channels according to phone numbers. This is a good way of letting you identify which channels are attracting customers because you can “link” a phone number being called to one of these channels. That’s generally it – what’s impressive is what you can do to the said numbers in order for it to “work” in your favor.
- Identify which numbers are generating the most sales: Perhaps the most basic benefit call tracking can give you is to identify which numbers are generating the most number of sales. Whenever a person calls a particular number, you can easily identify which channel this “number” is assigned to.
- Find out keywords that attract customers: When you use call tracking, you can actually do more than just assign numbers to channels. You can even use call tracking on your A/B testing, or on the same type of channel but with different keywords. You can boost your search engine optimization (SEO) too by identifying which keywords “attract” the most customers by attaching them to a particular channel you’re interested in.
- Link systems together with other analytics software: As mentioned earlier, call tracking actually allows you to be able to track more than just your typical analytics software. This doesn’t mean you should fear call tracking taking up extra space, though. Call tracking can provide you with more data that can actually be used by your other analytics software, and as such is capable of giving you a better bird’s eye view of your various channels to make more informed decisions.
- Analyze your data in real time without a hitch: If you’ve ever grown tired of waiting for reports before you can make a marketing move, call tracking software always sends you data in real time. You can see just how your channels are performing with a click of a button. Some software even work with gadgets and mobile devices, which means you can observe how your company is performing even on the go, and make important decisions wherever you are and whenever you need to. This also allows you to easily measure your returns with much accuracy, as it provides you with various outbound and inbound activity statistics related to almost all sorts of campaigns.
The Bottomline: Call Tracking Technology Works For Your Business
Call tracking is indeed a tool that can be used to “track” calls. However, if the above have been any indication, it can do so much with the kind of data it’s able to track – making you capable of tapping into data on demographics, popular marketing media, and even consumer preferences. Noting these benefits, as well as understanding what your business currently needs, allows you to be in a position of improvement. Use call tracking properly and you can have quite the powerful analysis tool that can definitely introduce innovation to your company.
John is a long-time professional with over two decades of experience in analytics and communications technology. He works as the Senior Data Analyst at Fone Dynamics, a leader in call tracking, voice, and SMS communication. When John steps out of the office, he loves to spend time with his family and bike riding.