Using Call Tracking to Improve Content

Long gone are the days of disjointed marketing efforts and advertising campaigns. In today’s world of inbound marketing and readily available, in-depth analytics, it seems almost laughable to think of a time when businesses would spend advertising dollars without ever really knowing how many customers resulted from them. Now, we are often able to track our leads from their very first point of contact to the moment they convert and adjust our marketing efforts based on data. 

Why Call Tracking?

Two marketing components which are shown to work well together while also being individually useful are call tracking and content. Not so long ago, businesses were so attached to their phone number that it was an extension of their identity. After all, in the days before the internet resided in everyone’s pocket, how else were customers to reach them? Today, on the other hand, our society suffers from collective “digital amnesia” in which over half of us don’t even know our own office numbers, relying instead on our phones to do the remembering for us. As a result, the use of unique phone numbers for different ads or even for each individual lead (with dynamic number insertion, or DNI) has become a very appealing prospect that allows businesses to track and record calls while also gauging the effectiveness of related ads.

How Does Content Tie in with Call Tracking?

Call tracking may be a powerful tool in and of itself, but when used wisely, it can also provide valuable insight for future content. Sure, there are a lot of tools available to tell you which search terms have the highest volume or the lowest difficulty level, but call tracking takes it step further by showing you which terms led your real-life customers to convert. Generally speaking, there are two important ways call tracking and keyword analysis relate:

Which Keyword Led to the Call?

Research indicates that inbound calls not only produce more sales but greater amounts of revenue than web forms. However, as many as 86 percent of consumers are conducting online research before they ever pick up the phone. Clearly, these two elements need to be combined.

DNI generates a new, unique phone number for each visitor to a website. Once the number is used to place a call, information is gathered about the caller, including the source and keyword that led them to the site. Using this information, marketers can determine which specific terms are more lucrative to lead conversion and produce more content centered around them.

Which Keywords were Mentioned on the Call?

In addition to analytics that may be available after the call, a lot is happening during the call that can be of immense use to marketers as well. Many call tracking platforms offer call recording as well. This allows both sales and marketing to listen in on previously recorded calls to learn exactly what’s working and what is not. For content creation, in particular, this can be a great opportunity to hear directly from consumers regarding their interests and pain points. If these are being mentioned during the call, there is a very high likelihood that they are conducting online searches around them as well.

The current marketing climate offers nearly limitless possibilities to learn more about our customers and reach them effectively. Call tracking is just another means by which we can better understand the audience with which we are trying to connect. The more we know, the better equipped we will be to produce content that is relevant, timely, and capable of producing qualified leads.