Marketing in the past relied heavily on the “spray and pray” mentality—if you could get your message in front of enough people, at least a few would be compelled to take action. With limiting reporting available to directly tie tactics to results, many campaigns were simply shots in the dark.
Today’s marketer has the technology available to report on prospect interactions and conversions from specific marketing activities, and use that data to evolve campaigns based on results.
Most marketers now use web analytics to understand how leads interact with their brand online, but what happens when a prospect picks up the phone?
With more users browsing the web via mobile devices, companies are likely to receive more offline customer calls and conversions. And let’s not forget that some people simply prefer to call, especially when dealing with local businesses. With a call tracking solution, you can find out what marketing activities prompt these offline conversions.
Two Ways to Implement Call Tracking
There are two simple ways to incorporate call tracking into your marketing analytics: one-to-one and Javascript integrations. Following are details about both methods, including how they work and best practices.
One-to-One Integration
The Basics: The idea behind one-to-one integration is to assign unique call tracking numbers to specific marketing tactics, campaigns or activities. For example, if you are running a series of print advertisements across several publications, assign a unique call tracking number to each publication, and then integrate the number into the corresponding ads. As a call comes in, you’ll know which publication prompted the call.
How It Works: It’s automated. As calls are logged, your call tracking solution will record the conversion, associate it with the proper marketing activity, and keep this data on file for your team to review and analyze.
When To Use It: One-to-one integration is ideal for marketing activities that take place off your website, often more traditional tactics. Think of campaigns that engage leads when they are offline, such as:
- Billboard and Print Advertisements
- Television and Radio Advertisements or Placements
- Mobile Messaging Campaigns
- Promotional Fliers
- Guerrilla Marketing Tactics
Javascript Integration
The Basics: A Javascript snippet, provided by your call tracking platform, is code integrated throughout your website, similar to analytics tracking code, that provides detailed reporting of visitor activity that leads to a phone call.
How It Works: This Javascript snippet captures site visitor information and displays a unique phone number to each visitor on your website. The number follows the user from page to page via a cookie that is automatically installed on his or her browser. Even if a visitor leaves the website, as long as the cookie hasn’t been cleared, he or she will see their same phone number upon return.
When a user picks up the phone to call, the call tracking solution associates the call with the corresponding visitor information gathered online. This information—including source, landing page and last page visited—is recorded and stored for your team to review and analyze.
When To Use It: Javascript integration is ideal for campaigns that drive audiences to your website, and those that require higher level of tracking detail. Because the code captures each lead’s historical data, and doesn’t have to be tied to specific campaigns, reports can give insight into the overall effectiveness of your marketing activities as a whole. Use Javascript integration to measure the results of the following marketing tactics, and more:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Pay Per Click (PPC)
- Online Advertisements
- Link-Building Campaigns
Using data and reports from call tracking, you can determine which marketing campaigns, activities and messages resonate with your audience and generate more leads. When tied to a CRM, you can also determine the sales value and ROI of your efforts. With this information, you can make smarter decisions on how to invest your time and budgets.
What questions do you have about call tracking?
