In 2018, executing a digital marketing strategy is mandatory for businesses. This can take many forms: SEO, social media, PPC, and content marketing are just pieces of the ever-growing pie of digital marketing. Now that businesses from enterprise-level down to SMBs have adopted and invested in digital marketing strategies, the next step is measuring traffic and the ROI attributed to specific campaigns. However, a large majority of digital marketing metrics and KPIs are based on online activity—total site visits, click through rates, time on site, cost per click, online conversions, the list goes on and on. Ring ring, are you missing anything?
The phone call is the most important channel of communication for many major industries— that’s how medical practices, insurance agencies, home services, law firms, and many others acquire most of of their new business. Regardless of industry, all businesses should have a marketing strategy that drives phone calls. Here’s why:
- Phone calls convert to revenue 10-15 times more frequently than web leads
- According to a Forrester study commissioned by Marchex, customers who initiate inbound calls convert faster, spend more, and have a higher retention rate.
- From 2014 to 2019, it is forecasted that there will be a 110 percent growth in calls to US businesses from digital ads targeting smartphones.
- The experience you provide your callers impacts your retention rate and marketing ROI. 84 percent of callers would cease doing business with a company after a negative caller experience and 55 percent who intended to make a purchase have backed out due to poor customer service.
Whether you’re measuring it or not, your digital marketing is likely already driving valuable phone calls, but could you be doing better? Here are 6 ways to use digital marketing to drive more phone calls to your business.
1. Make your phone number clickable and easy to find on your site.
How hard are you making your visitors search to find your phone number? Here are instructions from AllWebCo on some simple code to add to your site to make your phone number clickable.
2. Optimize your digital and social ad campaigns to drive calls, not just online conversions.
In 2016 alone, US search ads generated 40 billion calls, social ads produced 12 billion calls, and display ads caused 28 billion calls – the more digital ads on smartphones result in more phone calls.
3. Add a call CTA on campaign-specific landing pages.
Options are good. While some people may prefer filling out a contact form, others who are excited about you may prefer to call right then and there. Make it easy for everyone to reach you via their preferred channel.
4. Use Google Call Extensions.
Click to call extensions display a clickable call button on your mobile search ads. You also have the option of displaying your phone number only at times when your business accepts calls.
5. Retarget callers who don’t convert.
Certain call intelligence tools allow you to sync call data with your retargeting efforts so you can attempt to turn your callers into customers. The data that can be gathered from phone conversations can be used to create retargeting campaigns that specifically address concerns, questions, features, or services.
6. Drive phone calls from mobile emails.
In addition to an online CTA, add an option to call when designing your mobile emails. It drives more dynamic engagement and a lot of people prefer not to have to conduct business on a tiny touch screen.
Phone Call Marketing Metrics
Now that you’re driving more calls to your business, it’s time to include phone call marketing metrics in your day to day analytics routine. Call tracking tools and AdWords allow you to measure your inbound phone call activity with ease. Not only does call tracking software capture the basic metrics like call counts, it records calls and identifies patterns such as busy call times and seasonality. Some of the top call metrics you should measure are:
- Number of calls
- Call duration
- Day and time of calls
- Landing page performance
- Conversions
- Campaign ROI
- Cost per call
Measuring clicks is great, but measuring clicks AND phone calls is even better. Phone call conversions are most likely already happening as a result of your marketing efforts but it’s time that marketers take a data-driven approach with the phone in addition to online activity. Call data might help you identify some opportunities to improve your customer experience, targeting, and future campaigns. Prioritizing phone calls in your marketing strategy could provide you with a competitive advantage and an optimized marketing spend.
