One of my favorite digital marketing practices is enhancing a traditional marketing campaign with digital services. A great example of such a cross-over from digital to traditional advertising is call tracking.

Typically, marketers use call tracking to ascertain which digital marketing channels result in the most calls. You can differentiate calls generated from Google Ads, Facebook, Display Advertisements, etc., by setting up unique numbers for various sources/mediums (see Google UTM tracking); this way, you can decide where your budgets are best spent.

Most call tracking platforms have a bevy of reporting features; the best ones let you review and listen to calls generated by the tracking numbers. Using the  recording feature can be a great way to create actionable items for the rest of your company.

Call-Tracking in a Digital Marketing Context

Here are some observations I noted after reviewing a few hours of client call recordings this morning:

1. Have an actual human ready to pick up sales calls as they come in.
   1. If you must use a hold feature, phone tree, or other automated system, limit the time users are stuck waiting. For sales, I would say no more than 1 minute – people want to give you money and they don’t have time to waste.
   2. I’ve seen clients who have thousands of dollars in ad spends lose leads when users hang up after a minute or more of waiting on hold. Note that in these recordings, you can not only hear the hold music, but the sighs of frustration while the the caller waits.
2. Listen to how callers reference your ad copy.
   1. After listening to a few recordings, I realized the client’s coupon/special was misleading. If the ad had been more clearly written, the user wouldn’t have clicked the ad and then changed their mind about purchasing when they realized the price wasn’t what they expected. Not only were the leads lost, but wasted sales time, too.
   2. This click cost should have been avoided and the ad space should have been used to elicit a conversion from someone who was interested in the actual price. This is a simple fix. You can change digital ad prices very quickly without losing any  advertising costs.
3. Listen to how clear the phone systems are at your office, or whether your sales reps’ cell phones are tinny or hard to understand.
   1. I once used a crummy phone for months before a client confided in me that it was hard to hear me. Replacing the phone fixed the problem and I have had a much better response to my calls.
4. Instruct employees to ask the caller where they heard of your business – then check that against your phone tracking source.
   1. I was surprised by how many of the users coming in from tracked ads heard of the brand from a friend or email campaign, but converted from an advertisement.
   2. Conversely, you can pump this data back into branded campaigns to make sure you aren’t being beaten by your competition for a brand name search.

Call tracking can help you identify problems you didn’t  know you had. It recounts every missed opportunity for a closed sale and points you in the direction of a better sales call system. If you are interested in help closing gaps in your sales funnel, contact our SEO consultants for a free audit.

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