Why measuring phone calls should be integral to your marketing strategy

By Michelle Param
7 Mar 2022

4 min read

UK budgets for digital marketing tools are due to surge by an average of £30,800 this year, with 91% of UK marketers expecting to invest even more in Martech next year.

Gathering data from online journeys is helping marketers to evaluate the performance of digital ad campaigns, however, marketers are being blindsided from understanding the total value of campaign spend. So why is this?

Why measuring digital data alone creates blind spots

70% of marketers have reported a major blind spot)when consumers move from online channels to offline channels, so not being able to see where campaign spend results in an offline sale will limit marketers from having a true indication of how well the marketing strategy or budget is performing.

It’s becoming clear that, despite more engagement on digital channels, customers still choose to speak to people as part of their purchase journey. Understanding this can give marketers a wealth of opportunities to tap into many more insights that they’ve been missing.

To get a better, more holistic view of the true customer path to purchase, every marketer’s priority should be on leveraging intelligence gleaned from their calls.

The rising trend of the phone call

Consumer phone calls to businesses have been on the rise since COVID-19. Phone calls also are likely to convert at higher rates compared to digital channels. This is because, at the moment a customer picks up the phone to you, you’re in a very strong position to convert. It's very likely that the customer has already spent time on your website doing research so their phone call to you shows a strong intention that they're almost ready to make a purchase. It’s at this moment where you're is in a prime position to turn those calls to conversions.

How call intelligence helps remove blind spots

We’ve put together 5 considerations for marketers wanting to remove their blind spots over their call channels to drive more accurate reporting, improve marketing ROI, customer experiences and revenue growth:

1. Not all customers begin and end their journeys online

Your digital campaign may be performing well but it’s important to understand that some customers will prefer picking up the phone, especially for high value items. Getting a view of the fuller picture on which of your campaigns are generating the most revenue, we recommend adding call tracking to your tech stack. Using call tracking allows you to identify and optimise key website pages that are driving higher phone conversions, and you’ll be able to pinpoint the pages where adding a phone number leads to an increase in sales. Then, you can use these insights to improve your decision making for improving your future campaigns.

With recent studies revealing that phone calls to businesses are increasing since the pandemic due to more customers wanting reassurance before they make a purchase, having your eyes on all your marketing channels (online and offline) is key. Our pulse check data also indicates this, specifically drilling down into the retail sector, where call volumes are seeing a very healthy uplift.

2. Your calls should be measured as conversions

Your reporting should capture each phone call as a lead or sale which can be used to analyse the results of a campaign. It will also be possible to gauge how well your campaigns perform for different audiences. When marketers capture this key success metric, you get a much better understanding of the total cost per acquisition.

3. Your conversations are key to converting customers

Marketers can tap into even deeper insights from more than their phone calls. Analysing the content, tone and sentiment within conversations can be a real game-changer for marketers.

Conversation analytics enables marketers to see how long calls linked to specific campaigns are lasting and how effectively they are being handled by call handlers. This tool allows you to answer questions such as _‘What percentage of calls are leading to conversions? _Are there any common barriers that occur in the conversation? Can your digital ads be tweaked to improve the outcome of your phone calls and increase the likelihood of making sales?

Call attribution data like this can be used to make revenue-generating changes that can improve the performance of your campaigns and shine a light on the (previously undetected) insights that can help you assign value to your online and offline channels.

4. Use your call data to drive your conversions

Marketers need to understand which calls are generating sales, and where those calls are originating. And, thanks to our partnership with Google, we offer a Google Ads integration that allows your customers to directly connect with you via a range of phone number insertions that you can include in your ads. These include Call extensions, Call ads and Location extensions. So, you get the benefits of call tracking directly from Google, getting granular insight on what activities resulted in those calls, allowing you to easily connect campaign activity to calls and conversions.

5. Understanding the value of your calls

Recognising the value of phone calls can help marketers improve how they reach and engage with your customers. It also streamlines the whole process. Removing the blind spots will reap rewards when the time comes for pulling together those slides for your monthly board report.

Interested? Let's talk

Every conversation matters. Start one with us to discover how call tracking and Conversation Analytics can eliminate the blind spots in your campaign activity.