Plugging the response gap

How measuring the offline response to advertising can help improve ROI

Monitoring the traffic from email marketing and referrals to your website is relatively simple. The major hurdle for the majority of marketers is measuring the offline responses to online activity. Most consumer organisations still receive the majority of their enquiries (on average about 63%) via the telephone so therefore it is vital to include this response mechanism. This method of response management however, is often overlooked. The importance of understanding how your customers come to you and which channels bring about the most significant response is paramount to increase ROI on marketing campaigns.

The importance of understanding how your customers come to you and which channels bring about the most significant response is paramount ...

To help you measure your offline responses here are some easy to set up tracking options to suit your next campaign:

1. Call Tracking Telephone Numbers
Call tracking telephone numbers are specific telephone numbers inserted into an advertisement, direct mail flyer, email, website, Google advert or any other form of promotion or advertising that requires a response. These telephone numbers are routed over your existing phone line and will be answered in the same way. The telephone number is monitored to measure how many calls have come in, how long they lasted, how many rings it took to be answered and where in the country the call came from. Any unanswered calls are also picked up.

Free Trial Try two tracking numbers for six weeks with full reporting.

2. Dynamic Numbers (Pay Per Click Call Tracking)
Dynamic numbers are a great way to measure telephone responses from marketing such as pay per click advertising, search engine marketing or banner advertising. Simply using a referring url on your online advertising to track these enquiries will enable you to get a clearer idea of how many telephone calls you got from your online campaign.

For those of you engaging an SEO expert to raise your position on the search engines, this tool is vital.

For those of you engaging an SEO expert to raise your position on the search engines, this tool is vital. It measures the offline responses as so often this area isn't monitored and therefore skews the results. It is essential to measure the telephone response using call tracking as online marketing doesn’t just result in filled out web forms.

3. Call Tracking Reporting
If you are having to justify your marketing spend and demonstrate ROI, call tracking reporting is essential. Allocating specific telephone numbers is the start of this process, using reporting that you can drill down to get the information you want is the next step. Analyse your data by date, time, and duration of call, duration of ring, channel, media group, and campaign. See clearly the cost per lead, how many calls were unanswered and where in the country your customers are calling from. Depending of the type of business you run, you will have different uses for the reporting. If you want to clearly identify the ROI of your marketing budget, right down to cost per lead, having reporting in black and white to justify your marketing decisions is essential.

...how successful have your ads been in terms of actual sales?

4. ROI on Sales
Its one thing measuring the ROI on your marketing efforts to justify you’re spending patterns; but how successful have your ads been in terms of actual sales? Linking up your database with a call tracking reporting system is the Holy Grail in terms of sales management. Simple to achieve and extremely worthwhile when planning future marketing campaigns; call tracking ROI measurement is the next step on from call tracking and will give you the control you need during an ever changing climate.

5. Call Recording
If your marketing is going well and you have a steady stream of traffic resulting in enquiries from your website why are you not converting? How are your sales team performing? Are you listening to how they speak to customers? Isn’t it time you did? You can record your calls that are coming in as a result of your marketing activity using a simple network level call recording system. The best system is one that works with your existing call tracking reporting tool.

Free Trial Try two tracking numbers for six weeks with full reporting.

To get more information on our call tracking services please fill out this form.

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