Have you ever wanted to know how a customer found out about your business?

Was it through channel A, B, or C? Which campaign caused them to reach out to your business?

If you’ve found your brain racked with similar questions about your business, then it’s time you consider investing in call tracking.

In this article, we will take an in-depth look at call tracking as well as what the entire process entails.

What is call tracking?

Call tracking, generally, refers to the process of finding out how callers discovered your organization.

Typically, Sales and Marketing teams use call tracking software to classify phone calls. This is done based on the specific marketing channels that led callers to discover your business.

If you know what causes your phones to ring, you will be able to optimize future marketing strategies.

Also check out – Call Analytics

How does call tracking work?

Modern-day call tracking works through the use of cookies alongside dynamic number insertion to track activity online. Additionally, campaign level call tracking assigns each offline marketing piece its own tracking number.

Thus, phone calls that come from these unique numbers, will be forwarded to your main business line. 

Moreover, location-based businesses are able to set up their own mainline tracking number which helps them make sure that calls to their mainline are tracked. 

This multi-aspect tracking allows businesses to improve their overall marketing efforts and better understand what’s driving leads.

Then, you will be able to see which marketing campaigns and channels are generating more inbound calls. 

In addition to tracking call sources, you will also gain access to important metadata like:

• Name, number and location of the caller
• Call recordings
• Call transcriptions
• A timeline of visitors (a collective timeline of every interaction a caller has had with your site/marketing efforts)

How does call tracking software work?

Call tracking software is responsible for tracking and recording information from incoming phone calls. This includes the call source as well as audio recordings.

It allows businesses and marketers to attribute phone calls to the mediums and channels that drove them. For example, pay-per-call, local SEO, as well as other online and offline call-based campaigns.

Also Read: Call disposition codes

What is outbound call tracking?

Outbound call tracking allows your business to respond to leads faster. It shows you which calls still need to be followed up on or returned. Thus, allowing you to track and return those specific calls directly from your dashboard.

Moreover, each time you place a call, you will have the choice to place a call and review it later. 

These outbound call recordings can help you train as well as assess your sales and support teams. In addition to this, they also ensure that your customer service is excellent.

The importance of call tracking

Businesses take as well as make calls on a daily basis. But, without a call tracking system in place, businesses rarely know anything more than who’s making the calls and why.

Some businesses still ask their callers about how they came to know about their business in order to find out how callers discovered their organization. However, the callers are mostly unlikely to give you the correct answer to that.

However, by using call tracking software, businesses can benefit in multiple ways, including – improved customer service, ability to attribute inbound calls to the right marketing campaigns, understanding of which keywords lead to phone calls, measuring online and offline marketing campaign performance, and more.

Call attribution for smarter marketing

Call attribution provides marketers with all the data they need regarding call-related conversions. This helps them determine which sources are responsible for driving the most qualified leads and most calls.

Having all this information can lead to better optimized and more targeted campaigns for marketers.

Here are some call tracking features marketing teams popularly use to optimize their marketing campaigns:

Dynamic number insertion

Dynamic Number Insertion is responsible for assigning a unique number to each online source. It then displays that phone number to all visitors who arrive at your website through that specific source.

Source-level tracking

Source-level tracking utilizes a single, unique tracking phone number for each campaign you wish to measure. This feature is best used for traditional or offline marketing.

Visitor-level tracking

Visitor-level tracking makes use of dynamic tracking. This gives you the full visitor journey as users are navigating to, from, and around your website.

Multi-touch CPL Report

A multi-touch Cost per Lead report gives you a calculated cost per lead for each of your social ads, Google Ads, and more. 

This allows you to measure which advertising campaigns and keywords are driving the most cost-effective leads for your business.

Google Ads call tracking

Google Ads call tracking utilizes conversion tracking. It shows you how many potential customers called your business after seeing/clicking one of your paid ads.

Call attribution report

Call Attribution reports provide overall insights into which marketing sources and interactions are driving traffic and generating calls.

Improving your customers’ experience

Call tracking is not just about knowing where your calls are coming from. It is also about knowing how these phone calls have to be handled.

With the level of competition and the high expectations buyers have of businesses, more effort needs to be taken. Personalizing customer experience can be absolutely crucial to winning over customers.

And many times, it starts with a simple phone call.

Call tracking alongside analytics provides a lot of valuable insight into the customer experience and journey. This allows you to measure, report as well as improve on much more than marketing performance. 

Below, are some call tracking features customer service teams could use to provide a better customer experience:

Whisper Messaging

Whisper Messaging refers to a brief greeting that informs the person answering the call, which marketing campaign prompted the call. This process all occurs before they’re connected to the caller.

Call Monitoring

Call monitoring is the process of listening to live or previously recorded calls for a variety of reasons. This is done so to improve sales/marketing efforts, audit the performance of call representatives, and score the call for leads.

Call Recording

Call recording enables businesses to record both incoming as well as outgoing calls. These can then be used in marketing, training as well as other analyses.

Custom IVR system

IVR systems help easily route every call to the right person, every time.

Call by day and time report

Call by Day and Time reporting provides details on the number of calls received each day. This allows businesses to understand peak call time during the week and staff appropriately reduce missed calls.

Automated call scoring

Call scoring is basically the evaluation of phone call data against a predefined performance standard. This is commonly done for the purpose of scoring customer service agents.

Problems solved by a call tracking software

Various marketing concerns can be resolved using a call tracking software. This includes lead attribution, keyword research, and lead scoring.

Furthermore, it can help reveal various business opportunities depending on what your current customers, as well as leads, say.

Some of the problems that call tracking solves include:

Finding qualified leads

Using call transcribing features of your call tracking system, you can analyze your calls to find out if they’re coming from qualified leads. 

This allows you to make campaign changes, focus on what actually drives conversions, and prioritize following up on your best leads.

Identifying which marketing channels drive calls

Among the main uses of call tracking software is tracking calls by the campaign. 

The number of leads coming through the phone would be nearly impossible to know without call tracking. The channel from which calls originate would also remain unknown.

It is possible to see which marketing channel generated each call based on the unique phone number associated with it.

Proving and improving marketing ROI

Features like call recording, visitor-level tracking, and campaign attribution all allow you to track your campaign performance. 

This gives you valuable insight into which campaigns are performing the best. This information is especially helpful when adjusting your market strategy for increased ROI.

Understanding which keywords drive phone calls

Using call tracking, you can learn which keywords are driving conversions and calls from your paid efforts.

The visitor-level tracking method assigns each visitor a number from your phone number pool. It allows you to find out who is calling you and how they found you online. 

A visitor’s number is then freed up for another to use as soon as they have finished browsing your website. 

This feature enables you to keep track of your PPC visitors effectively. The feature also lets you know what keywords people used to find your business.

Identifying areas for improvement

The information contained in your call recordings goes well beyond marketing attribution. Call insights can facilitate the optimization of sales calls, product features, and content marketing strategies.

Conclusion

Call tracking is the process of determining how callers discovered your business.

Additionally, call tracking can also be used to attribute phone calls to the specific marketing channels that led to callers contacting your business.

It can even help you measure the success of your advertising campaigns. Furthermore, remember that investing in call tracking can also help you and your business optimize future marketing strategies. 

As you can see, call tracking can prove to be an essential and valuable asset to any business. It lets you know what makes your phone ring and your business can truly benefit from it in a variety of ways.