5 Key Takeaways from the 2023 Call Analytics Platforms report: A Marketers Guide

The 2023 Call Analytics Platforms Guide by MarTech.org is out!
Even better news – we read it (that’s right, all 46 pages), and share our favorite 5 key takeaways you can learn from.

The phone call has become the most popular engagement channel for a majority of U.S. customers, leapfrogging email over the past two years, according to Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer report. Even as customers increase their use of multiple
channels to research and buy products and services, the telephone – particularly the smartphone – has solidified its role in the purchase journey.

The use of phone calls by businesses offers the opportunity to provide fast answers and detailed information to customers who are considering high-consideration purchases such as insurance, automobiles, and real estate.

Marketers can mine phone calls for important information and insights, particularly in the absence of third-party cookies on the web.

As a result, first-party data is becoming more critical to targeted, data-driven marketing strategies.

The use of first-party data enables brands to exercise greater control over customer data and comply with privacy regulations, such as GDPR, CCPA, CPRA, HIPAA, and HITECH.

Call analytics platforms have become essential tools for identifying and activating the rich data hidden in the growing volume of inbound calls. Call analytics platforms track both online and offline leads, following a call from its source (i.e., website, social media or click-to-call search or display ads) to a sales representative (i.e., based on geographic location or product line and on to a conversion or lack thereof).

In fact, advances in AI and machine learning are leading to more sophisticated call analytics platform use cases, including the following:

• Multi-touch attribution (MTA): Call analytics platforms provide online-to-offline attribution across media channels, helping marketers understand the role that each customer touchpoint plays in a conversion. The result is more efficient resource allocation and more relevant messaging based on customer preferences.
• Marketing campaign optimization: Call analytics platforms connect calls to the search keywords, social display ads or webpages that drove them. Marketers can use unique phone numbers for each website visitor to understand which pages and elements are leading to the highest quality calls, as well as which ones are causing visitors to leave. Call data, including demographics, product interests and buying stage, can also be used to optimize search bids or make on-the-fly changes to campaign messaging and creative.

Dynamic number insertion (DNI) technology assigns unique phone numbers to different digital marketing campaigns to track the source of an inbound call. Vendors offer DNI by call source, online session, or URL, and can dynamically generate local numbers or extensions based on a consumer’s location. Call fraud prevention tools are also available to identify, monitor and block suspicious call patterns and routes. Vendors differentiate their platforms by offering more advanced capabilities such as call tracking, call analytics, call recording, transcription, and integration with CRM and marketing automation systems, among others.

Machine learning-based lead qualification, scoring, and routing systems automatically distribute calls to the most qualified sales reps or departments based on variables such as caller source, geography, demographics, or intent. Interactive voice response (IVR) and whisper messages are tools used in intelligent call scoring and routing to prequalify callers and alert reps to relevant caller data. The system can track calls to follow conversions and other qualifying events.