phone call tracking « Mongoose Metrics

Posts Tagged: phone call tracking

How Call Tracking Works with PPC Advertising

The following is an excerpt from a blog post on the Wordstream Internet Marketing Blog:

Call tracking involves more than simply recording the number of calls received. It’s part of a sophisticated marketing methodology that gives marketers accurate, real-time campaign effectiveness figures.

Call tracking allocates a distinct phone number, local or toll-free, for each unique source you want to track. Reports can be as general as calls from all search engines or as specific as calls from one unique paid search term.

When a visitor arrives on your site, the software conducts a search to determine which phone number is associated with the visitor’s origin. That phone number is then dynamically added throughout the site and cookied within their browser, so even if they return at a later time, they will continue to see the same number until the cookie is deleted.

As soon as a visitor makes a call to this tracking number, the program logs call time, PPC campaign information, available ID information, geographic location and the last web page visited, among other things.

New opportunities to improve PPC performance

A complete lead picture shows how each campaign, ad group, ad and keyword is performing, helping advertisers more effectively identify best- and worst-performing elements to efficiently shift budgets and update or delete under-performers.

In addition, call tracking can help you better understand aspects of campaign performance that web analytics alone cannot:

* Preferred method of communication — Depending on the industry, audience and product or service, leads may be more inclined to call than fill out a form. This is true for local businesses, where, according to TMP Directional/15 Miles and comScore, audiences prefer to call a business (38%) or visit a physical location (36%) than complete a web form (9%). Understanding your audience’s preferred communication method is key to adjusting calls to action on PPC landing pages, and other marketing initiatives, to improve conversion rates.

* Landing pages — If your landing page is designed to generate web form submissions, but instead drives more calls, it may be an indication that the page content is confusing, the main call to action is not obvious or the web form is too involved. Making adjustments and tracking the number and type of conversions over time can help maximize performance.

* Call recording — Most call tracking solutions offer the option to record phone conversations. From a PPC campaign perspective, these recordings can be used to better understand the type of questions leads are consistently asking, so you can adjust the content on your landing pages accordingly.

Lead volume generated by your PPC campaign is often the most important metric for evaluating success. By simply tracking online conversions through web analytics, you may be missing a significant portion of lead data.

To most effectively improve campaign performance and maximize ROI, you need to track both online and offline conversions, which requires the integration of both web analytics and call tracking.

How do you track offline conversions?

Call Tracking — No Comments
6
Apr 11

4 Ways to Improve Phone Call Conversions

The goal of most B2B marketing campaigns is to generate new leads. To do this, businesses must offer information, resources, products or services valuable enough that a visitor is compelled to take action, either by completing a web form (contact form or ecommerce checkout), calling the business or visiting in person.

For customers that are more inclined to call, simply posting a phone number on a site is not always enough to maximize conversions. To entice visitors to call, consider these four tips:

1. Explain the Value of Calling

Concisely state, either above or below the phone number, what the visitor will get out of calling, and make sure this call to action is relevant to the content on the page. For example, if a page offers a product overview, but does not go into much detail, you may use the call to action, “Call Today To Learn More.”

2. Show the Number They Want to See

Toll free numbers are typically a welcome sight for customers who are either out of the state or country, while local area code numbers can serve as verification to local visitors that your business is, in fact, local.

Using a call tracking solution, run an A/B test to determine which your visitors prefer. Integrate each number on a different version of the same web page, and show one or the other an equal number of times over several weeks. If the results of your test are inconclusive, you may consider integrating both options.

3. Make It Stand Out

As a call to action, it’s important to make sure that the phone number stands out on the web page. To do so, consider the following design treatments:

• Bold it.

• Make the font size larger.

• Change the font color.

• Place a colored icon next to the number.

• Integrate it into a graphic button.

• Surround the number with white space.

4. Test Different Phone Number Placements

Experiment with the placement of the phone number on your web pages. A/B test different page locations, and track which generates more conversions. Following are some recommended placements:

• Top banner

• Right- or left-hand column

• Directly within page copy — If you include a call to action within page copy, don’t make visitors look for the number.

• Meta description — Often this is what appears below the main link on a search engine result page, and visitors may choose to call before even visiting your site.

Once you’ve determined the best place(s) for the phone number, make sure it remains consistent throughout the site, so when visitors need it, they know exactly where to look.

Finally, it’s important to note that web forms and call tracking numbers are not replacements for one another. You’ll want to make sure both are included so no matter a visitor’s preference, you don’t miss an opportunity to convert a lead.

How are you maximizing call conversions on your site? Please share in the comments section below.

Call Tracking — 1 Comment
29
Mar 11

Using Google Call Metrics to Evaluate Your Call Tracking Needs

As we wrote in a recent Marketing Pilgrim post, call tracking is one of three essential pieces to closed-loop marketing conversion tracking. In partnership with web analytics and a CRM system, call tracking can complete the lead-conversion puzzle by tracking offline conversions, and help marketers understand which campaigns are generating the greatest ROI.

For Google AdWords advertisers on the fence over whether or not to invest in a full call tracking solution, Google’s Call Metrics (a Google AdWords call tracking extension) offers a fairly easy, and free, way to assess your need.

Google Call Metrics

On March 22, Search Engine Land reported on a case study Google recently published touting the ability of Call Metrics to boost pay-per-click (PPC) conversions. According to the case study, a large financial-services company saw an increase of 29 percent in incoming calls and a 17-percent boost in conversions by integrating tracking phone numbers into its ads.

While this information is highly useful for campaign optimization, it is also indicative of a larger call tracking need.

Google Call Metrics only tracks calls from individuals that viewed an ad on search-results pages. It doesn’t track the number of calls the company received after a visitor clicked on the ad and arrived on the landing page, nor calls that resulted from Bing PPC traffic, or any other marketing campaign for that matter.

How to Get Started:

To get started evaluating your call tracking needs with Google Call Metrics, read the following Search Engine Land post that provides step-by-step instructions on how to set up Google Call Metrics, as well as other ad extensions. Google Call Metrics is free to try for the time being.

Please note: This feature may not be available on your account yet because it is in limited release, but you can petition Google to include the option on your account.

Once activated, look at the number of incoming calls, which may be as few as one or two a week depending on your ad spend, industry or product/service.

If your ads are generating calls, it’s probably safe to assume that your landing pages, are also driving phone conversions, and you may have a need for a call tracking solution.

What Next?

Once you’ve established that you have a need, here are five steps to help you start your search for a call tracking solution.

Remember, by capturing offline conversion data, you’re completing the lead-conversion picture. The more accurate this picture, the better armed you are to make effective campaign updates that can improve performance and boost ROI.

What are some other ways to determine whether a campaign could benefit from a call tracking?

Analytics / Call Tracking / PPC / Search Marketing — No Comments
16
Mar 11

Calculate Lead Value and Improve Marketing Campaign Performance

Lead value is the average amount a lead (e.g. web form completion, phone call, online purchase) is likely to generate in revenue.

While on a macro level this is useful, the real value comes when lead value is identified for a specific lead source or marketing initiative.

With this information, you can gain a much deeper understanding of what activities drive leads with the highest revenue potential. As a result, you can make more focused campaign decisions, such as allocating budgets towards activities that have the greatest impact on the bottom line.

Data Collection

To calculate lead value, you must have access to lead and conversion data. The more data you can collect the more useful it becomes, as you can better segment leads and get more granular with your analysis.

There are three tools you will need to calculate lead value:

1. Web analytics

Using web analytics software, such as Google Analytics, Adobe/Omniture or Webtrends, you can:

• Track online lead conversions (i.e. web form completions, ecommerce checkouts).

• Indentify where online leads originate (i.e. search engine, online ad, social media, referring website).

• Track offline lead conversions (phone calls).

• Gather useful lead traffic data (i.e. pages viewed, repeat visits and time on site.)

2. Call Tracking

Call tracking solutions, such as Mongoose Metrics and others, are necessary to track offline conversions. These solutions record the source of any lead that chooses to call rather than complete a web form or purchase online.

To gather this data, the platform dynamically changes the phone number that appears on your website, based on the traffic source. Tracking phone numbers can also be assigned and integrated directly into offline campaigns (e.g. TV ads, radio spots, billboards, print ads, fliers etc.) to capture source information for leads that may never visit the website.

3. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System

CRMs, such as Salesforce and SugarCRM, allow marketing and sales professionals to organize and track lead communications, customer conversions and generated revenue.

Several CRMs also enable you to integrate web analytics and call tracking data associated with individual leads.

Calculate Lead Value

Once you’ve collected a good sample of data, calculating lead value is a fairly straightforward process:

1. Create a report that includes all leads and associated revenue. Make sure the report includes leads that have not converted into customers.

2. Add all leads together = Total Leads.

3. Add all sales together = Total Revenue.

4. Divide total leads by total revenue = Lead Value.

Total Leads / Total Revenue = Lead Value

What to Do With The Data

This formula can be applied to your total lead volume, or used on a more specific category of leads (e.g. online marketing, online advertising, PPC campaigns, PPC keyword bids). The more detailed you can be with your data collection, the better equipped you’ll be to:

• Allocate marketing budgets to campaigns that produce the most valuable leads.

• Cut budgets on campaigns that don’t drive quality leads.

• A/B test campaign updates to see if lead value improves.

• Evaluate the ability of a lead nurturing campaign to improve lead value.

• Improve sales performance by adjusting follow-up communications, messaging, and even an individual sales professional’s technique.

How are you using lead value to improve your marketing campaign performance? Share your insight in the comments below.

Call Tracking / PPC — No Comments
8
Feb 11

Five Steps to Start Your Search for a Call Tracking Solution

For marketers thinking about investing in a call tracking solution, identifying and evaluating potential providers can be a daunting task. There are dozens of options to choose from, all of which offer unique features and functionality, varying levels of service and support, and a variety of plans and pricing.

To better prepare you to narrow down provider options and discuss your needs with solution representatives, following are five steps to consider before starting the search for a call tracking solution:

1. Analyze if call tracking is right for you

Closely consider how much phone lead volume you get on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Call tracking solutions are ideal for organizations that receive hundreds of calls every week from a variety of sources, have multiple marketing campaigns running simultaneously, and currently have little insight into drivers.

2. Audit existing and future campaign call-tracking needs

Work with marketing and sales to understand exactly what type of campaigns are active. Depending on the organization, you may simultaneously be managing a search engine marketing campaign, PPC ads, online advertising, print ads, radio spots, TV commercials, email newsletters and/or partnership programs.

Once all campaigns have been audited, identify which lend themselves to phone conversions. For example, which include a phone number as a call to action, or which historically have generated phone calls. Start a list and detail how phone conversions fit into each.

Also, talk to C-level executives, sales managers and marketing colleagues to learn about planned campaign initiatives. You’ll want to make sure a call tracking-solution lends itself to satisfying future needs as well.

3. Review reporting needs and internal capabilities.

Once all campaign-tracking needs have been identified, discuss internally what type of reporting data will help to improve campaign performance. Call tracking program elements can include:

Log time: Time of the day a call took place.
Keyword: Search query that drove the caller to your website.
Session: Full details of a user’s digital footprint
Traffic Source: What website traffic source generated a phone lead.
Caller ID: Who is calling and from what number.
Call Length: How long the call took place.
Call Recording: Audio recording of call conversation.
IP Address
Geo-Location: Country, state and city of the caller.
PPC Campaign and Ad Group: Integration into Google AdWords campaign to better understand PPC conversions.
Creative/Ad Type: Details on what marketing or advertising initiative generated the phone lead.
Last Web Page Visit: What web page the lead was on just before calling.

Also, review your internal capabilities. You’ll need at least one internal champion in the sales or marketing department to take the time to learn the solution and understand how to interpret the data. This individual will be charged with managing and processing data, and then interpreting the findings.

4. Put together a budget

Now that you’ve got a pretty good idea about the scope of the call tracking solution you’ll need, it’s time to put together a budget range. As a guide, the cost associated with a call tracking solution should be a small fraction of total marketing spend or revenue.

Most solutions will charge by the usage minute and/or by phone line. When you reach out to a provider, if possible, have ready an estimated number of phone lines needed (i.e. one for each website traffic source, one for each PPC ad, one for all online banner ads, etc.) and the average length of a new-lead phone conversation. This will help you get a more accurate quote.

5. Identify vendors

CallTrackingBlog.com has a fairly comprehensive call-tracking provider overview of eight possible solutions (disclaimer: Mongoose Metrics is listed). It compares solutions across eight categories, such as Web Analytics Integration, CRM Integration, Speech Analysis and API, and provides a link to reviews and news about each.

You may also want to reference your analytic program’s help section. In some cases it may list the call tracking solutions with which it integrates. For example, Google Analytics offers a list of its call tracking solution partners (again, Mongoose is listed here).

Next Steps

Now you’re ready to reach out to a few solution providers. Have all the information you’ve collected at the ready, as representatives will ask you a variety of questions that will help them better understand your needs.

Have you recently evaluated call tracking solution providers? What tips or comments do you have? Please share in the comments below.

Call Tracking / CRM — No Comments
3
Feb 11

Call Tracking Integrates Phone Calls with Web forms, Likes, Retweets and Conversions

2011 may be the watershed year when businesses finally figure out how to fully understand a complete picture of a customer’s universal history.

Forrester analyst, Kate Leggett, notes in her “Forrester’s Top 10 Trends for Customer Service in 2011” article that she’ll closely be following the topic “Universal Customer History Records Become a Reality” this year.

click to call keyboard Bravo! And while much of the speculation circles around how businesses will integrate social media assets into customer history dashboards, web analytics and CRM systems, there’s one very powerful – yet often overlooked – customer touch point which is crucial for many types of businesses to fully understand.

Yes, we’re talking about the phone call. If you’re not looking at phone call data you’re most likely missing the opportunity to connect with a significant segment of prospects who still want to pick up the phone and speak with a human being.

Today’s call tracking solutions offer sophisticated integrations and data solutions for marketers who want to see phone calls next to clicks, conversions, web form downloads, Likes and Retweets within their business intelligence systems.

Here are 5 Ways Call Tracking Makes Marketing Data More Meaningful:

Understand which marketing sources drive phone calls to your business. Call tracking data reveals which PPC keywords, websites, affiliates, email campaigns, Tweets, status updates or traditional offline advertising trigger a phone call.
Optimize marketing budgets based on hard data, including: log time, keyword, session, caller ID, call length, call recording, IP address, geo-location, campaign, adgroup and last URL visited.
Integrate call tracking data with web analytics providers such as Google Analytics and CRM systems such as Salesforce as well as custom interfaces.
Improve site design by understanding which landing pages drive phone calls.
Gain insight into customer preferences and sales funnel segmentation.

What dashboards or business intelligence systems do you use to understand how customers interact with your business?

Analytics / Sales / Search Marketing — No Comments
1
Feb 11

Improve Enterprise Marketing and Sales with Call Tracking

Enterprise marketing and sales departments are often in charge of huge budgets. It is the responsibility of department managers to allocate these funds in a way that delivers the greatest return possible.

These managers rely heavily on a combination of web analytics and CRM programs to help analyze and evolve campaign initiatives and sales tactics.

Unfortunately, what often gets overlooked is a call tracking solution to better understand leads that prefer to pick up the phone rather than fill out a web form. Depending on the industry, offering or audience, phone calls may make up a significant portion of lead volume.

Following are some reasons enterprises are starting to integrate call tracking software:

Increase ROI of marketing spend

Enterprise marketing may consist of both offline initiatives — such as TV ads, radio spots, print ads, billboards and trade shows — and online campaigns — including PPC, banner ads, mobile display ads and social media.

To understand the ROI of all these activities and improve their performance, enterprise marketers assign call tracking numbers to specific campaign elements. This tracking data can then be layered on top of web analytics to form a complete lead-activity snapshot, including traffic sources, site activity and conversion rates. Then, the data can be used to evolve marketing initiatives, and invest in activities that drive the best results and ROI.

Improve sales performance

The more information sales professionals have, the better position they are in to speak directly to a prospect’s needs and close the sale.

With call tracking, sales professionals can understand how the lead found the company, what pages they viewed on the site, and what other activities the lead has already taken (i.e. requested collateral, downloaded an ebook, read blog posts, etc.).

This information empowers a sales professional to qualify new leads and prioritize follow-up communications, and then customize a sales pitch to speak directly to what the lead appears to be most interested in.

From a training perspective, call tracking solutions also give the option to record calls. These recordings can be used to:

•    Help sales professionals understand ways to improve their performance.
•    Provide examples of objections and how best to overcome them.
•    Evaluate an individual sales professional’s performance and progress.

Where to start

Following are three ways enterprises can get started with call tracking:

1. Start Small — Pick a division of the company, or a specific marketing campaign, that is an ideal fit for call tracking. It should lend itself to phone conversions and involve a team willing to learn how to use the solution. This will be the test case for the entire organization and become the example of how call tracking can work. Success here will make it easier to sell to other areas of the enterprise.

2. Think Scalable — Prior to selecting a call tracking solution, take a big-picture look at what type of features other divisions of the enterprise may require. By doing this homework upfront, you can avoid having to switch solution providers mid integration and waste time learning a whole new system.

3. Get Trained — Request training from your call tracking solution provider as a means to get familiar with the tool’s features, and to understand how best to utilize the analytic data.

We’d love to hear from some enterprise organizations that have integrated call tracking solutions. How have you used call tracking? What type of success have you seen? Please share your stories in the comments below.

Call Tracking / Search Marketing — No Comments
25
Jan 11

3 Call Tracking Decisions Franchises Face

Depending on the organization, franchise-marketing responsibilities may lie with corporate headquarters, the individual franchise owner, a group of owners within certain geographic regions, or a combination of all three. For corporate initiatives, marketers typically will need to justify expenses not only to c-level executives, but also to franchise owners.

While there are dozens of local marketing activities franchises can use to drive customers, TMP Direction Marketing/15 Miles’ white paper, “Bridging the Gap, From Search to Sales,” points out that 70 percent of local customers start their product/service search online.

For franchises, this means that each location should have its own online presence (i.e. website, landing page or website section, Google Places page). Next, marketing should focus on growing each location’s presence through local SEO, PPC, online directory listings and location-based check-in and review sites.

Unfortunately, tracking the ROI of these online initiatives is more difficult than simply installing and reviewing website analytics. TMP/15 Miles also reports that even after searching online only nine percent of local consumers make a purchase online. Instead, they prefer to place a phone call (38%) or visit the physical location (36%).

So for corporate marketers, while web analytics will help provide an idea of marketing return, a call tracking solution can help form a more complete lead-generation picture across all franchise locations. Here are the three call tracking decisions all franchises will face:

1. Is call tracking right for your franchise?

The first question that needs to be asked is whether or not call tracking is appropriate for your franchise. Call tracking solutions make the most sense for larger organizations that allocate significant budget toward marketing. The cost associated with a call tracking solution should be a fraction of total-marketing spend.

Also, evaluate internal capabilities to analyze tracking data and effectively use it to improve campaign performance. Depending on the size of your organization, you need at least one internal champion to manage call tracking for the entire franchise, and to help individual owners understand and act on the data.

2. What do we track?

Call tracking solutions have the ability to provide extremely detailed reports, if necessary, tracking calls that result from a specific keyword.

It is up to a franchise and its owners to determine what makes sense to track, but make sure you are not paying for data that you’ll never use. For example, while it may make sense to track calls from online ad spend, it may not be worth tracking calls from a niche industry directory that drives three website visitors per month.

3. Toll free or local phone numbers?

Call tracking providers enable you to purchase either toll-free or local phone numbers. From a consumer standpoint, it is recommended to go with the local phone numbers since the area code will help confirm for them the location is nearby.

Also, from a search-engine perspective, many experts agree a phone number’s area code is a local search ranking factor. According to Dev Basu, in David Mihm’s 2010 Local Search Ranking Factors, “In 90% of cases, local numbers seem to perform better in search engine result pages than toll-free ones.”

One item to note before activating a call tracking solution:

Google’s ranking algorithm

One aspect search engines look at when ranking local websites is how consistent the company’s contact information listings are across the web. Specifically, they look at name, address, phone number and website address. The more consistent this information, the more confident search engines are in its accuracy.

Unfortunately, with a call tracking solution you may use multiple phone numbers across the web. While there is no perfect resolution to avoiding phone number inconsistencies, in December, we discussed a couple solutions that may prove useful.

Your Thoughts

We’d love to hear from some franchises that have integrated call tracking solutions, and some recommendations they have for others interested in exploring call tracking.

Analytics / Call Tracking / Examples / PPC — No Comments
12
Jan 11

Are Your Web Visitors Converting Offline?

“I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted. I just don’t know which half.” This often-quoted sentiment by early 20th century marketer John Wanamaker – founder of Wanamaker’s, the world’s first department store and considered the father of American advertising — can easily be applied to 21st century web marketing.

Today’s web analytics industry has solved Wanamaker’s dilemma – to a degree.

Sophisticated Fortune 500 marketers and small business alike have embraced online marketing analytics and in turn, have improved their ability to convert web visitors into leads, made millions – if not billions — of dollars and most likely killed traditional media in the process.

But despite the promise of web analytics, Wanamaker’s unknown percentage still exists and the biggest mysteries in today’s online marketplace are offline conversions (calls to a business or visits to a retail outlet).

A 2006 comScore study commissioned by Google found that 63 percent of Website visitors completed their purchase offline. This means the source of a majority of leads may be left to question using website analytics alone. Additional research supports this fact: Forty-six percent of local online searchers contacted a business by telephone following their Web research (TMP Directional Marketing and comScore, summer 2009).

Phone call conversion tracking provides the answer. Most-commonly known as call tracking or dynamic number replacement, this technology allows online marketers to fully understand which of their online marketing sources drive phone calls.

Call tracking software dynamically changes the phone numbers people view on web pages based on how they are directed to the site.

The tracking and reporting features then show users the sources that initiated the website visit and in some instances the value of a conversion, detailing all lead activity generated by the website.

By integrating call tracking data into a web analytics solution such as Google Analytics, Adobe, Unica or Webtrends, a more complete picture of the total user experience is achieved.

Now marketers can fully understand how to:

Optimize all campaigns: Know which campaigns, keywords and marketing tactics drive callers and whether those calls generate revenue – offline or online.
Improve site design: Understand which pages drive calls – customers may be confused, and there may be opportunities for site usability improvement.
Save money: Find new ways to more effectively close business online and reduce call volume.
Save time: An integrated reporting environment saves time in analysis by consolidating call information with your web analytics and CRM providers.

An integrated reporting environment combines online conversions with offline (telephone) conversions into one dashboard to more clearly see the true value of specific media buys. Marketers can use this dashboard to compare the performance of different campaigns and advertisements. For PPC campaigns specifically, calls can be tracked down to the keyword-level bid in Google Adwords and Microsoft AdCenter.

Successful case studies and client testimonials attest to the efficacy and urgency of including call tracking tools for optimal marketing success no matter the size of your budget.

Analytics / Call Tracking / Examples / Sales — No Comments
11
Jan 11

How B2B Marketers Can Use Call Tracking

B2B marketers often are responsible for managing countless thousands of dollars in marketing and advertising spending to generate new business leads for their company’s sales team.

Tracking the ROI of this budget is extremely important, both to justify expenses to management and continually improve campaign performance. To do this, many rely on web analytics and CRM reporting.

However a service that often gets overlooked is call tracking — a method for identifying leads who choose to contact the company offline (via the phone).

When call tracking is integrated with analytic programs, marketers are more equipped to optimize campaign performance, improve sales and reduce costs.

Following are some ways call tracking can be integrated in B2B marketing campaigns:

Company Website

By integrating call tracking into a website, companies can for the first time associate web activity to a lead that chooses to call rather than fill out a form.

Marketers can use this information, in combination with web analytics, to test the effectiveness of new page layouts, headlines, calls to action and messaging.

Call tracking software works by changing a website’s phone number based on the source a visitor used to find the site (e.g. search engine, banner ad, directory listing, etc.). The software then tracks the caller’s entire click path from browsing through sale, showing the likelihood for visitors from that source to convert into qualified leads and customers.

Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising

To optimize PPC campaigns, better allocate budgets and identify strong-performing keywords, it’s imperative for marketers to see which keywords are driving qualified leads.

Similar to how call tracking works for website visitors (see above), call tracking software dynamically replaces phone numbers depending on the PPC keyword a visitor used to find the site. Mongoose call tracking also can be integrated directly with AdWords to show traffic data and conversion ratios directly in AdWords campaign dashboards.

For more information, see our related post: Google AdWords Call Analytics Explained & Compared with Mongoose Metrics Call Tracking.

Social Media

Depending on the organization, it may already be highly active in social media or just starting to explore it as a viable marketing activity. Of course, as with all marketing initiatives, companies need to demonstrate favorable ROI to justify continued investment.

Call tracking can be set up to show unique phone numbers to visitors from specific social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Marketers can then compare the likelihood of these visitors converting into leads with other website traffic sources.

Traditional Marketing & Advertising

There are a variety of traditional marketing and advertising options that may be effective, but don’t result in website visitors. For example, product brochures, print advertising and trade show booths may offer audiences both a website address and phone number.

With a call tracking solution, B2B marketers can assign a unique phone number to each form of promotion. Now marketers can evaluate how effective a specific offline initiative is at capturing a prospective customer’s attention and motivating them to take action, and whether or not it is worth the budget and time invested.

Lead Nurturing Campaign

In some cases, a B2B sales cycle can take weeks, or even months. If this is the case, it is often marketing’s job to nurture these leads through the sales funnel. To help, marketers may introduce lead nurturing (or drip) campaigns.

These campaigns may drive visitors to landing pages with special-pricing offers, resource articles or simply display a number for the recipient to call for a limited-time-only offer. With call tracking, marketing and sales teams can see how many recipients choose to call.

The system tracks lead source, website activity (if any) and the resulting phone conversation, all of which is extremely valuable to the sales representative making a follow-up call.

We’re interested in hearing how B2B marketers use call tracking to improve their campaign’s performance. Please offer your experience in the comments section below.

Mongoose MetricsConversion & Call Tracking Blog