How Call Tracking Helps Marketing Agencies Prove ROI and Keep Clients

B2B & B2C Call Tracking for Marketing

Having spent several years on the agency side working with a variety of large B2B & B2C companies, I can tell you that if Don Draper had access to call tracking in the 1960s, he would have been the king of Madison Avenue. Big pitch meetings showcasing grand market strategies, dapper designs and clever copy still happen. But, except for a few ad agencies serving relevant call tracking industries, marketers are seldom valued by the strength of their creativity. Their efforts are instead measured by how they impact sales. Call tracking allows these kind of agencies to improve their results through targeted marketing and feedback.

Educated clients still understand that there are a variety of intermediary metrics that you need in order to achieve real results. For example, decent web form conversion rates are perhaps the best indication of whether a web landing page is effective, and email open rates are still the best way of judging whether a list—or subject line—is any good. However, a marketer’s bread and butter is proving returns in this ROI culture.

Lead Generation Agencies

Imagine what Don Draper could do with call tracking!

Lead gen agencies are one of the best examples of how far the needle has moved. Most agencies still bill their clients either per lead or based on a flat monthly retainer that will continue as long as lead production remains relatively strong.  Other agencies go a step further, getting paid per-close basis.

In any of these scenarios, agencies that aren’t using call tracking for their clients leave much money on the table. Call tracking is often resisted for two reasons: the first is that it’s an added expense on top of other tools, and the second is that it’s often (incorrectly) assumed that phone calls make up a small percentage of sales.

SEM and SEO

“SEO and SEM drove much more call volume than than we were expecting,” said Ryan Spiegl, SEO Director of evidence-based marketing firm DemandResults. “We also noticed that in some cases, phone calls were more likely to lead to sales than communications that were initiated through web forms. That told us a lot about the value of call analytics.”

That’s exactly the sort of information that can be huge for client retention and even billing. If your client is paying your agency a monthly retainer, you’re only worth the growth you can show on your analytics report. If you’re missing call data, you have no idea how many leads you’re really driving. That’s especially true if your client is selling something expensive, such as healthcare, legal services or cars.

So in case you’re doubting whether Don Draper would love call tracking, the answer is definitely yes. Showy pitch meetings may make for better television, but increased client billings is something a guy like Don Draper would really get behind.

Call Tracking Tips and ROI Efforts

Are you able to connect all of your direct marketing efforts to revenue that’s closed over the phone? Brands spend millions of dollars each year on direct marketing efforts, yet they often lack the insight to qualify which direct engagements really drive ROI.

If your business is struggling to quantify the returns on your direct marketing efforts, it can be helpful to examine some of the tactics used by direct marketing agencies. While many in the marketing community see direct marketing as an antiquated form of engagement that is being replaced by social, the top 10 direct marketing agencies bring in yearly revenues that exceed the $5.5 billion mark, according to a Direct Marketing News Agency Business Report.

Historically, direct marketing agencies have set the curve when it comes to marketing tech, helping to pioneer the use of call tracking solutions. In fact, Lester Wunderman, considered the father of modern direct marketing, is responsible for such  innovations as the toll-free 800 phone number and loyalty rewards programs.

Here are three ways that any business can use call tracking to acquire visibility that rivals the best direct marketing agencies.

Direct Marketing Emails

Direct marketing agencies often handle email blasts for their clients. A common call-to-action in any direct email campaign is some variation of “give us a call” followed by a phone number. The problem is that, unlike when a prospect fills out a web form, there is often no way to attribute a call to the email campaign  (and no, asking, “So how did you find us?” doesn’t count).

However, many direct marketing agencies have found that a phone call tracking system makes it easy to provision a unique local or toll-free telephone number for each email campaign. The result is that direct marketing agencies not only gain credit for every sale that from that email campaign, but they can also get real-time insight into which messages are resonating with customers.

Direct Mailing Campaigns

While advertising has been moving steadily toward digital (and even many of the top direct marketing agencies are diversifying into digital marketing channels), direct marketing agencies still handle lots of mailing campaigns to terrestrial mailboxes. For example, I play guitar and receive musical instrument catalogs all the time. These catalogs often feature phone numbers that can be used to purchase goods. In fact, the price isn’t even listed in the catalog for many of the high-ticket guitars. Instead there are the instructions, “Call for price.”

Some of the catalogs that I received were weighty and cost several dollars to make. Without call tracking, it would be impossible for these businesses to measure the ROI of their mailing efforts truly. But with a phone call tracking system, those businesses could provision a unique number for each catalog and gain visibility into how their catalogs were performing in comparison to other direct marketing and other advertising efforts.

If the catalogs aren’t offering good returns, then the businesses can dial down their catalog investment and spend more on display ads, email blasts and other channels that are paying the bills.

CRM Integration

In my experience working on the agency side of marketing, I have found that managing clients in a customer relationship management (CRM) system is highly effective.

If my clients are in Salesforce.com, I can see, in real time, which marketing efforts are driving leads, opportunities and revenue. Many direct marketing agencies manage clients in CRMs like Salesforce.com.

But the real magic comes from combining CRM solutions with call tracking systems.

While many such solutions can enable marketers to see metrics such as call volume and hold time, CRM-based tracking numbers enable businesses to quantify the impact of direct marketing campaigns on phone ROI.

To find out more about call tracking, check out Call Tracking: The Definitive Guide