What is the value of a call tracking and recording service for marketers?
Tracking inbound leads is a core function of an effective marketing department. Web based call tracking software like CallRail allows us marketers to track inbound phone calls as Goals Completions in Google Analytics.
At Pittsburgh Internet Consulting, we work with a variety of companies across a variety of industries and all of them, do some business over the phone. With the tools we have today, why not know where those inbound calls are coming from?
We leverage a platform called CallRail for our call tracking solutions.
Offline vs Online Phone Call Tracking
Many marketers think of call tracking as an online tool, however, tracking calls for offline campaigns can be very powerful as well.
Offline Call Tracking for Traditional Marketing Attribution
Offline tracking is accomplished by generating a specific tracking number for a specific campaign- Perhaps your big annual trade show. You can use a call tracking number for your tradeshow directory, the materials you distribute at the tradeshow etc. and then just leverage call analytics software to see what numbers are performing the best. If you run ads in a trade publication, use a specific number for that particular publication.
If you are running different creative in the same publication, maybe you would want to use two separate numbers to A/B test your ad creative.
Online Call Tracking for Organic, Paid, and Social Campaigns
Online call tracking relies on a pool of numbers and leverages “dynamic number insertion”. A phone number from the pool is leased to a website user when they visit your website. This allows us to attribute our marketing channels to that specific caller. Let’s look at how this may play out in your marketing strategy.
Joe is online and did a search for Gold Gadget. In Google Joe will likely click on either a Paid listing from Google Ads or one of many organic listings in the SERP. Once he clicks a link that happens to lead him over to your website, he will be “leased” a specific phone number for one hour. Once Joe picks up the phone to make a call, his session data will get sent to the Call Center dashboard as well as to Google Analytics.
Why is Call Tracking Useful for my Marketing Campaign?
Calls to your company are another lead source. Calls are a lead source where you have an immediate opportunity to interact directly with your lead.
Ideally, you know about how much a lead costs your company and what the value is per lead. If not, you can read about MQL Lead Cost and Value. Clear call attribution alls you to report on these inbound calls and helps you see the bigger picture of your marketing efforts and any ad spend..
Let’s take a real-world example.
I am looking at two segments here. Sessions with inbound calls who made a shopping cart purchase and organic sessions who did not make an inbound call.
- Organic Sessions Who Did Not Make a Phone Call - It's clear a vast majority of the sessions to the site do not call in, which is fine because its an ecommerce site and easy for users to self qualify.
- Sessions Who Made an Inbound Phone Call - Interestingly we see that the sessions who do call in have a better conversion rate (Almost 1% better) and a higher per order value (Over $100/order).
Depending on your experiments, you may use this data to start shifting tactics in your marketing efforts or making general adjustments to try and increase call volume to see if those numbers will scale.
How Much Does Call Tracking Cost?
The price of call tracking varies from provider to provider. We are a Gold Partner with CallRail call tracking and our clients average around $100/month for tracking. A large part of the cost centers around your website traffic, how many tracking numbers you will need and call duration.
We offer a free analysis for companies who are looking to implement call tracking for their marketing efforts. If you are unsure about costs and want to learn more, just contact us at 412-942-0222.
CallRail Goes Beyond Call Tracking
We decided to partner with CallRail specifically because of the marketing advantages they offer.
Popular CallRail integrations include:
- HubSpot
- Google Analytics
- Google Ads w/ Mobile Click to Call
- Salesforce
- Slack
There are more integrations plus they have their own API.
Beyond that, CallRail also offers additional functionality:
Call Recording
A feature that allows you to automatically record phone calls received by your tracking numbers. After a call ends, the recording will be available to replay in your call log and email notifications.
Text Messaging
A single message sent to or a from a phone number. CallRail’s interface allows you to send and receive text messages from any of your registered tracking numbers on both the website and CallRail mobile app.
Lead Center
CallRail's standalone application where you can access your calls in real-time, as well as your text messages, call monitoring, and Softphone. Access in-depth information about your customers as you receive calls.
Call Flows
The process a caller goes through from the moment they first dial your number to the moment they hang up. CallRail’s powerful Call Flow Builder allows you to allows you to create unique, fully customizable call routing for each of your tracking numbers.
Form tracking
The Form Tracking feature allows you to immediately follow-up with prospects that contact you through a form on your website. Each time a customer fills out a form on your website, CallRail captures the contents of that form and instantly alerts you by phone call, text message, or email.
Voicemail
A digital inbox for recorded messages left by your callers. You can create a custom voicemail in CallRail’s Call Flow Builder that will override the voicemail on a destination number when a call is received by a tracking number. Voicemails can also be transcribed in CallRail for $0.40/each.
These are just a glimpse of some of the features offered in the CallRail package. Me being a marketing professional, I also really like the reporting capabilities. Both the Google Analytics Integration as well as the built-in reporting features. View a complete list of reports available in CallRail.
CallRail is another great tool that marketing professionals can rely on to help provide better tracking and insights into our marketing efforts. If you would like to learn more about this tool, or other tools we utilize for tracking and ROI, don’t hesitate to reach out to me or schedule a meeting.
Wrapping it up
As marketers, we love to see the results of our efforts. Having a strong customized call tracking program to help you see a clearer picture is an affordable and effective way to get a bigger and clearer picture of your ongoing marketing work.
