While various forms of communication have taken over most of the customer journey, phone calls still matter for many companies. Usually they result in increased conversion, greater margin of profit and customer loyalty. The task is to correlate these outcomes with marketing activities, particularly distanced ones – offline campaigns. As with 20 marketers around the world you talk to, this complaint emerges again and again. A warm thank you to every guest contributor for their replies and understanding of various different marketing contexts.
Now let’s consider why calls are still important, how to incorporate them into your marketing mix, and tips for reporting & measurement.
Why Phone Calls Still Matter
Despite the variety of digital communication channels available to marketers today, phone calls offer unique benefits that continue to make them relevant and valuable:
- Personal Touch:
As consumption of technology-based applications and Artificial Intelligence-based chatbots and customer service grows, phone calls make clients feel connected to a human being. This interaction is useful in organizations where identification of the self and the other party is essential, health care, sales of high-priced products, service delivery in emergency circumstances, and law.
Vivipins CEO Michael Rice stated that this focus on the benefits that phone calls offer such as immediacy, personal touch, and a clear line of sight to converting inquiries to sales, we can convey the essence of this method in our marketing messages.
- Higher Intent and Conversion Rates:
Consumers who are willing to take their time and actually pick up the phone very often have a higher buying motivation. Businesses who keep track of the effectiveness of the leads they receive indicate that phone inquiries have a much higher closure ratio than online ones.
For instance, one firm realized that if someone called in regarding a particular product through the phone, 40% of these folks converted into consultations as compared to Internet inquires which only produced a 20% consultation conversion. To illustrate this point, consider this first-hand experience from attorney and business owner Oliver Morrisey of Empower Wills & Estate Lawyers:
Telephone conversations are more friendly than most of the automated interactions in the current world. They enable clients who might be experiencing challenges in our services to build rapport with us, and I am also able to respond to clients’ questions instantly. There is circumstances when such personal contact will prove to be extremely beneficial especially in a specific profession such as law since esteem, rapport and productivity is highly valued.
They also tend to produce a higher conversion rate than the other forms of communication. People who take time to call, are more serious about our services, 40% of the people who called, out right called to set up a consultation from our website, whereas, only 20% of the web traffic converted into consultation leads.
3. Larger Average Order Values:
Phone conversations are more personal, and it is easy to talk about products and persuade the other side to buy more or buy something else. Many companies say that phone leads yield about 25-30% higher order values than the Internet.
4. Immediate Problem-Solving:
For complex products or services, a phone call can easily fix a problem or provide answers to questions as they arise. It can be the pixels between closing a door on a sale and losing the customer all together due to indecision.
5. Demographic Considerations:
Although the use of such means to convey an intended message may be preferred in the young generations, the use of phone call is significant in the other demographic segments. For example, Property Saviour discovered that while the company aimed at homeowners over 55, 40% of them wanted to resolve the issue and complete the form using the phone.
Call to action prompts in offline marketing
To get the best out of phone as a marketing tool, there is the need to incorporate call-to-action (CTA) cues into the offline marketing communication effort.
Here are some strategies that have proven successful, according to our respondents:
Vanity Numbers: Some of the most effective vanity numbers to improve response rates. For instance, Mid-Atlantic Door Group selling garage doors got the Overhead Door™ incorporating “888-OVERHEAD” into a radio commercial tune. On issues to do with why this company embarked on this particular strategy to carry out its marketing campaign, the Vice President Residential and Marketing, Justin White was quoted saying,
Apart from radio, as you are aware it has been of immense help in making our decals simple and making all vehicles used in our multiple stations’ designs consistent. Rather than using a number which may as well be forgotten, here we are able to display our branded name once again!
Clear and Compelling CTAs: Link your phone number to a good call to action that customers would be willing to respond to. Linguo such as “Don’t Wait, Call Now, Free Consultation” or “T ak e the Word of an Expert” may get a good response.
Visual Prominence: You also need to make sure that your phone number is prominently displayed in your promotional pieces. Another is to make fonts of a large size, the main color to contrast and place important information at the center.
Incentives: Suggest an incentive a client will derive from taking a call to ensure they are willing to answer the phone. This is especially good news for direct mail advertising and promotions techniques since it suggests that people are more receptive to claims that are made directly to them than to promoting messages that are relayed indirectly.
Channel-Specific Numbers: Have a unique number for every channel of marketing such as an absolute number for billboards and relative for ads.
Offline Marketing Monitor and Attribute Methods
Where the use of phone calls in your marketing campaign is most effective is where you are able to monitor and assign those phone calls appropriately. Here are some of the most effective methods that CallTrackingMetrics’ customers use and ones also recommended by fellow marketers:
Call Tracking Software
First, make sure you’re using a solid call tracking platform that can log and review your respective calling metrics. Only when call details such as the length of the call, the number of calls made and the success rate are known can marketing be adjusted. Moreover, customized software, especially with intelligent component integrated, makes an effective follow up of the conversations and discovery of how the customers can be made happier.
Unique Phone Numbers
Third, buy and assign a specific phone number to every marketing campaign or channel you wish to monitor. As a result, it becomes easy to link calls directly to some efforts.
For instance, a NYC event space company to ensure its offline specific numbers for its separate particular placements into certain magazine and print publication lead generation results.
Promotional Codes
Print your promotional codes on your newspaper or magazine advertisements or any other form of advertising that you undertake and ask your clients to mention them when they are calling. While it aids in the area of attribution, it can also grow engagement levels in the process. According to most of the marketers, it is best to provide a specific code or words that will activate the promo.
Train Your Team
Ensure that your customer service representatives know how to ask the caller how they got to know your company. Preventing this simple question from each call can yield meaningful attribution data to future marketing programs.
Integrate with Your CRM
Integrate the call tracking system with your CRM solution in order to track the whole customer’s journey. It is only when call information is matched to customer profile that the role of call in overall sales cycle as well as, critical conversion touch points are established.
Also, with this integrated approach you help your sales and marketing managers to be more accurate in making decisions and using more targeted follow-up approaches, to achieve higher customer satisfaction and retention rates.
Strategies for Effective Use of Call-Centric Marketing Strategy
Now that you’re hopefully convinced that calls remain a key component of your offline marketing strategies, let’s review some best practices to ensure they deliver tangible results:
Ensure Consistency:
Your phone scripts must align with your other communication strategies no matter the platform.
Optimize for Mobile: It is important to understand that after customers buy your product or see your ad many will be calling from mobile devices. Make sure that the phone numbers are ‘click-to-call’ on mobile friendly landing pages.
Test and Refine:
It really helps when you practice constantly different CTAs, phone number placement, scripts to improve your conversion rate.
Train Your Team:
Give training to your phone representatives. They commonly interact with leads and buyers and are involved in the moments that may either clinch a sale or cost it.
Integrate Online and Offline:
Be sure to think through your phone call actions in terms of how they might relate to other elements of your digital-marketing communication, and vice versa. It is essential to take a view through the customer contact centre lens when attempting to achieve the said outcomes.
Conclusion
However, the appeal of digital marketing must never be overshadowed by the stunning simplicity of the phone call. Phone calls are a powerful tool in any marketing mix; by establishing qualitative call tracking and call attribution frameworks, marketers can both enhance ROI and deliver a best-in-class experience for the consumer.
Just recall that it does not make sense to think of phone call as a way to communicate with customers in the same way it was done a decade ago, it is all about recognizing phone calls as one of the channels in your marketing mix. When integrated with digital pushes and appropriately sourced, calls, specifically those to the office, can indeed fuel massive business growth and customer satisfaction.
Therefore, do not hang up on phone calls yet. But load up your strategy and score your business with success instead.
