Firstly you need to understand how you are going to drive calls, which luckily isn’t that much different to generating digital leads. When you have the right strategies and tools in place, the phone becomes the most effective ally. An inbound call strategy can generate more high quality leads, connect your sales teams to motivated buyers and give a much more personal approach to your customers.
So how can you start driving more quality inbound calls to your sales team?
Below are some proven ways:
Display phone numbers on your website, lead forms, and landing pages
Displaying your phone number, not having it hidden in your website’s footer, will build trust and encourage engagement. You will be surprised how many prospects will choose to make a call over filling out a lead form because serious buyers appreciate the real time communication
Use your phone number in your paid search adverts
It doesn’t make sense to put a phone number in every ad, but it’s effective in the right type of media. Using your number in paid search advertising, not only will boost conversion rates by generating inbound calls, but you will also see your online click-through rate improve. Google reports that adding a phone number to paid search ads increases click-through rates by an average of 8%.
Test your Call To Actions (CTAs)
Playing with the colour and font of your CTAs can make a big difference. Change the size, placement, and overall style to see what works best. Also make the language as clear and bold as possible. CTA’s like “Call for a discount rate” or “Call to order” give prospects a specific reason to call.
Include your number on all marketing content
If you have mid funnel content like ebooks, white papers, case studies, and nurturing emails, you need to add your phone number to these. Adding your number will get potential buyers on the line at the moment of highest interest, when you and your products are at the front of their mind.
Click to call numbers on your website
The rules of engagement are different for mobile users with small touchscreens. Ensuring your number is a click-to-call gives mobile prospects the option to talk to a live person and quickly get their questions answered. Making a call beats filling out lead forms or typing over live chat any day.
Track your phone calls
With call tracking you maintain total visibility into offline conversations. You can follow a prospect through the digital experience to the phone call. For example, you can capture the keyword, ad, and landing page that helped drive the call.
Integrate your call tracking with your CRM
Your CRM contains all sorts of information about your prospects. When you integrate call analytics with these systems, you can add a new layer of data and get a true picture. You can also tie marketing campaigns to inbound calls and revenue. You can see exactly which marketing efforts are prompting prospects to pick up the phone.
Ensure you capture the outcome of each phone conversation
Tracking what is said on a phone (whether the customer was interested, not interested, needed some more time etc) gives you the power to understand the quality of your leads. It also allows you to test your sales messaging and work with sales agents to close sales better, which in turn will result in more sales.
Tailor your communications based on a phone conversation
When you bring calls into your marketing mix it makes your communication with prospects incredibly powerful. You have the insights to follow up with prospects with targeted messages based on their online activity and phone conversations. You can send them follow up content that addresses any pain points. If they mentioned a competitor on the phone, you can send them a buyer’s guide that demonstrates exactly why your solution is better.
Use call intelligence to do more
With call intelligence, you can see how calls fit into the larger marketing picture. Armed with your call data insights, you can optimise your marketing spend and campaigns to drive more calls from prospects.
Digital marketing allows mass communication and self-serve education, but it’s never going to completely replace voice conversations. For many businesses, phone conversations are the most important point of contact. You will never get a sales agent complaining that their phone is ringing too much with quality leads.