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The phone may feel like a foreign language to marketers fluent in all things digital. You speak social media, email, and search. But the phone? That's not your world.
But today's buyers are multi-channel. They are mobile. And they want personalization. For them, the phone is a natural extension of the digital experience, and it should be a major part of your strategy. The first step is getting a firm grasp on driving calls. The good news, it's not much different than generating digital leads.
When you've got the right tools in place, the phone becomes your most effective and trustworthy ally. With an inbound call strategy you can:
Here are 10 proven ways you can start driving more quality inbound calls your sales team will love.
1. Display phone numbers on your website, lead forms, and landing pages.
Build calls into your lead generation strategy and give prospects the option to connect how and when they want. Displaying your phone number (not hidden in your website's footer) will build trust and encourage engagement. You'll be surprised how many of your prospects will choose to make a call over filling out a lead form because serious buyers appreciate immediacy. Plus you'll be doing your sales reps a huge favor by saving them from trying to contact these prospects later.
2. Use phone numbers strategically in ads.
It doesn't make sense to put a phone number in every ad, but it's effective in the right type of media. I recommend using them in your paid search advertising. Not only will you boost conversion rates by generating inbound calls, 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%.
3. Test your CTAs.
Just like any call to action, changing things like the color and font can make a big difference. Play with your phone number size, placement, and overall style to see what works best. Also make the language as clear and bold as possible. CTAs like Call for a discount rate! or Call to order give prospects a specific reason to call.
4. Include a phone number on your content assets.
Include a phone number on your mid-funnel content like e-books, whitepapers, case studies, and nurturing emails. In these cases, adding a phone number will get prospects on the line at the moment of highest interest, when you and your product are top of mind. Don't force interested buyers into an unnecessary cooling-off period. Let them take action.
5. Use click to call buttons for your mobile campaigns.
The rules of engagement are different for mobile users with small touchscreens. 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.
6. Always use tracking phone numbers.
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.
7. Integrate call tracking with your marketing automation and CRM.
Your marketing automation and CRM systems contain all sorts of information about your prospects. When you integrate call analytics with these systems, you add a new layer of data and get a true multi-channel picture. You can tie marketing campaigns to inbound calls and revenue. You can see exactly which marketing efforts are prompting prospects to pick up the phone.
8. Capture the outcome of each phone conversation.
Tools like conversation intelligence capture what's actually happening on your inbound phone calls in an automated and scalable way. Tracking what is said on a phone gives you the power to:
9. Tailor prospect communication based on phone conversations.
Bringing calls into the marketing mix 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 speaks to their use case or pain points. If they mentioned a competitor, you can send them a buyer's guide that demonstrates exactly why your solution is better.
10. Use call intelligence to do more.
With call intelligence, you can see how calls fit into the larger marketing picture. Armed with those insights, you can optimize marketing spend and campaigns to drive more of the prospects that ultimately turn into sales.
Digital fosters 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, and marketers need to start paying attention. I promise, you'll never hear a sales rep complain that they're getting too many quality buyers calling.
If you want to learn more about bringing phone calls to your marketing strategy, download Invoca's latest e-book, Calls are the New Clicks: How B2B Marketers Can Tap Into the Power of the Phone.
