Brands and marketers are missing out when it comes to call tracking marketing says Delacon CEO Michael Center (pictured below) in this guest post for B&T…
If you’ve ever looked to buy or rent a house, purchase a car, needed a tradie to fix the plumbing or searched for the best health, life or travel insurance, chances are the process started with searches on the myriad of directories and platforms that aggregate information in one place.
While consumers are accustomed to turning to the digital world first to address these questions, the reality is that business is often secured following a phone conversation. Inbound phone calls are often the most valuable conversion for sales but many Australian directories and platforms, and the advertisers that use them, are failing to optimise and monetise lead generation strategies.
Data and insights from call tracking allows marketers to generate better converting calls, decrease their cost per lead and also measure the success of marketing campaigns. But many Australian marketers are missing out on these opportunities.
The benefits of call tracking for directories, particularly in highly competitive sectors such as real estate and automotive are clear. It helps reduce churn of current customers and offers significant value for prospective clients wanting to use the platform.
Directories can demonstrate the value of phone leads by accurately measuring and reporting on leads/referrals of their customers. This provides insights into what happens before, during and after a call. In other words you can track the customer’s journey from the marketing initiative through to the phone call and beyond and it’s effective in both online and offline worlds.
Online: By using dynamic call tracking numbers on these websites you can track down to keyword and source how the caller came to the website. Static numbers can also be used on display and video. This data can then be used to optimise campaigns and assist with reducing cost per lead and giving clients a better return on investment.
Offline: Above the line campaigns can also be tracked by adding numbers to ads in magazines or other sources and reporting on call volume, to gauge how successful these campaigns are.
Directories can also monetise client leads by demonstrating where the leads and referrals come from, providing a valuable additional revenue source.
To maintain or gain the competitive advantage, businesses have to be willing to innovate. Directories and their clients that use dedicated phone numbers can track the customer journey allowing marketers to optimise lead generation and sales in addition to understanding how effective marketing spend is.
If you’re not tracking calls then you probably don’t have all the relevant information about the performance of your client’s marketing campaigns.
