Call Tracking Myths grow along with Call Tracking industry.
I am not very sure how these viewpoints arised
Maybe it’s our fault!🤷♀️
Maybe we failed to educate how Call Tracking really works 🤔
But, we are here to make things clear!
If you’ve heard of call tracking or use it yourself, you may have listened to all sorts of opinions about it that aren’t entirely accurate. This is why we have created this article to make you aware of the myths on call tracking floating around and educate you solely based on facts.
First of all, even if Call Tracking can’t be considered a new technology, in the recent years it has attracted a lot of attention. Getting a call tracking software has become a essential tool to use for marketing agencies and businesses who want to track offline and online attribution.
All call tracking platforms offer similar functionality and features with minor differences. To track and record calls and receive additional call tracking metrics to help make intelligent data-driven marketing decisions, you must place-unique call tracking numbers on all of your marketing sources.
Glossary
Call Tracking is the method that allows you to track marketing activities that drive calls to your business. This is done by pairing what we call a phone tracking number, with a source you wish to track i.e. Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Newsletters, Offline ads, etc. These numbers forward calls to your business, with no change in the process whatsoever, allowing you to even record calls or play whispers to agents prior to answering the call.
To put it simply, call tracking is a local marketing best practice and a tool part of your digital marketing strategy. Though it is convenient to use, there are quite a few misconceptions about it that need to be cleared.
NAP is is an acronym for Name, Address, and Phone number, we will talk about that later!
Now, let’s talk about myths
Myth 1 – Swapping numbers might confuse website visitors.
This myth is implausible. If you’re familiar with call tracking, you’ve probably observed that the phone number on a website changes shortly after the page loads. To uninitiated visitors, this may appear suspicious. Even yet, if a potential consumer is sufficiently interested in the product or services you offer, they will dial the number shown in front of them, just as they would in offline marketing medium.
Even better, your call tracking service should let you employ a set of particular local or toll-free numbers for marketing purposes. Customers will be able to recognize the number, which should alleviate any worry about answering the phone. Even small businesses might profit from toll-free numbers on some of their marketing materials. If you start using a toll-free vanity number rather than another local number, your call rates will surge, as they are far easier to remember than a random string of digits.
Call tracking allows you to see how many of these calls are coming from new customers who have visited your website. You will obtain a particular number for call tracking when you use it, but it doesn’t mean you have to change your business’s phone number. Having several numbers allows you to track which marketing campaigns are generating calls. You also will not need to get a new phone number or advanced hardware.
If your website isn’t producing calls from the visitors it receives, there are several easy techniques to boost your conversion rates and inquiries substantially. Integrating your call tracking software with Google Analytics is best to see how much traffic converts to calls and, therefore, revenue and sales. As a result, be sure you’ve completed the entire sales cycle.
Myth 2 – Call tracking is complicated.
Call tracking doesn’t get any easier or more reliable than this when it comes to the standard or primary level of call tracking without any other analytics. When a customer sees your phone number and calls it, your call tracking data will show the number they contacted from as well as the ad source associated with that particular number.
Call tracking is significantly more effective than having call handlers remember to ask callers how they got to know about your company or product on every call and then expecting callers to recognize and accurately tell you how they heard about you, which is neither practical nor reliable. This makes a call tracking software a necessity.
While speech analytics is helpful for several tasks, it is woefully inadequate for accurately grading an employee’s telephone skills.
In the years to come, speech analytics may overcome background noise and mobile phone audio challenges and understand the complexity of human conversations, including homonyms, accents, and idiomatic expressions, thanks to breakthroughs in machine learning.
Myth 3 – Call Tracking and local SEO don’t flow together
Many local marketers are afraid of call tracking crippling their local SEO performance.😤
How did this myth come about? Well, most probably because of NAP (Name, Address, and Phone number).
Yes, NAP and being consistent is important for your business’ success!
So just to be clear: Call Tracking does not affect your local SEO, let me explain a little bit more.
What is NAP Consistency?
NAP consistency is all about harmony. Digital channels which include your NAP, should not only use the same information, but should also have the same spelling and formats. Many business owners believe that NAP consistency isn’t important because they simply assume search engines will take the load and figure it out on their own. However Google’s truth for local SEO is much different. Having the same and up-to-date NAP makes your business more credible and helps you rank better in local organic search results.
Don’t forget that your current clients don’t have your information memorized as much as you might think. They rely on Google search results most of the time, which is even more helpful with Google Assistant. You’ll be surprised how many of your “regular” customers don’t have your business phone number saved after listening to your calls.
Why Call Tracking doesn’t affect your NAP?
The key to this question is DNI (Dynamic Number Insertion).
When you implement Dynamic Call Tracking, your website’s phone number will be dynamically swapped with a tracking number only when visitors engage with your site and not when bots or crawlers do. Your visitors will constantly see the same phone number.
Thus, your NAP stays the same and SEO is not harmed.
Don’t forget that the beauty of Call Tracking is that it happens behind the scenes.
So, when it’s done right, it’s impossible to hurt your SEO.
Myth 4 – Emails, forms & chatbots have made phone calls irrelevant
Even if emails and chatbots have gained a lot of popularity, phone still calls remain very important for businesses!
In fact, 60% of customers that find a business online, prefer to contact them over the phone and 62% of customers prefer to resolve an issue by phone call!
You can’t take risks when in today’s digital world, it’s all about the customer experience.
Would you prefer to talk to a robot instead of a human?
Chatbots are for sure hot at the moment. And in fact with AI, they are becoming more and more sophisticated everyday. But, most of the time for complex issues, a conversation that started over chat ends up with a phone call.
You get the whole picture
Phone calls generate great value and new untapped insights. Getting the whole picture means:
• Identifying trends, weaknesses and opportunities faster so that you can better plan next actions and goals
• Better understanding the customer journey
• Digging deeper into customers’ needs
• Combining data from different mediums to understand what works better for you
• Allocating smarter budgets
It’s all about the conversion
Customers that call you are much more likely to purchase from and transact with your business. That’s because when a customer calls you – they are ready to buy! So, now it’s up to you to make this conversion happen.
It’s 2021, who doesn’t own a phone?
Most of the time, finding a contact on your phone takes more steps than going to Google and searching for it.
Here are some interesting facts to consider:
91% of adults have their smartphones within arm’s reach (source: Forbes)
2.5 hours spent per day on browsing (source: statista)
48% of local mobile searches end with a phone call (source: Search Engine Journal)
54% of buyers find it very important to be able to call the business during purchase procedure (source: Google)
47% of people said they would go to a competitor if they didn’t see a phone number on a search result (source: cxl)
88% of consumer local business searches on a mobile device either call or visit the business within 24 hours. (source: Nectafy)
You must understand and acknowledge how everyone finds you, whether they know you or not. People can contact you in many different ways each time they need your services. Therefore, do not overlook keeping track of this.
Conclusion
There are indeed a lot of misconceptions about call tracking and many call tracking myths. Some of them keep coming up in conversation. However, it is crucial to understand why they exist, what they are based on, and where they originate. Most importantly, learn to recognize the distinction between myths and facts. Contacting your service provider and clearing up any doubts is the most simplified approach to do it. Finally, we can conclude that it is unquestionably a vital tool for your organization.
