All businesses are looking for new and improved ways to grow their business and increase their clientele. Advertising is a quick and easy way to get your message and name out there, and it's tempting to try every method you can find to expand your reach. But how do you know which methods are effective and which ones are falling flat? That's where call tracking comes into the picture.
Call tracking is a simple method at heart, requiring only a modern phone system and some software. The advertiser (the business owner) acquires a number of phone numbers, and uses a different one in each advertising medium he employs. All these various numbers can be directed straight to his offices, and all the potential customers who call are none the wiser. The phone system at the business knows the difference though, and a few pieces of software compile the information from all the calls into useful reports. 10 calls derived from television ads, 7 from the local newspaper, but only one from the radio. A simple glance at this information yields exactly the answers that the business is looking for.
Call tracking software can also be used to gather other data. Obviously, the time of day of the call is easy to record, as is the length of the call. Depending on what information is available from the caller, it may also be able to gather the caller's phone number (including area code) and physical location when the call was placed, which can be helpful for businesses that advertise over a large area or that utilize location-based media such as billboards.
All of the various data collected by the system can provide a very useful report to the business owner. Along with knowing which advertising media are most effective for her business, she also learns what times are the busiest for calls and where people call from (maybe that poster at the mall is really popular with the after-lunch crowd), which also enables her to be prepared for the flood at the busiest times.
The information from call tracking can be combined with other methods to produce even greater results. Calls can be monitored or recorded (within certain legal limits, of course), providing a persistent copy of the call for later review. This can be invaluable for training new employees and for analyzing customer service to provide a better experience for the caller. If monitoring or recording isn't desirable, it may be useful for the business to simply take notes on each call (such as the purpose of the call and the ultimate result) and correlate the notes with the tracking data. Over time, the data can be aggregated to provide information about repeat callers, and long-term data on the effectiveness of advertising. Call logging data, referring simply to the statistics of call length and times, as well as data about dropped called, missed calls, and the like, is a very simple form of data collection that can nevertheless be helpful in improving customer service performance
Call tracking is also useful in the process of purchasing advertising. Many ad companies offer a "pay per call" structure, in which the business pays based on how effective the advertising is. The more calls are received, the more the ad costs - but if calls go down, so does the price. There are some limitations to this system however, especially when it involves internet advertising. Due to the very high volume of views and clicks on online ads, a correspondingly high volume of unique numbers is required. The click-trail of each customer can also be derailed by various events and settings, such as the user declining or deleting cookies.
If you are in the market for some help with your marketing, call tracking could be just the software you're looking for. Streamline your process and find the most effective routes for your advertising with the help of your marketing specialists.
