877-490-8324With smartphone texting, online messaging, social media, and email, many of us find ourselves using the phone less and less to communicate. This is true many times, unless you own a business. The phone, for most of businesses is the primary pipeline for inquiries and new sales.
Statistically, 40% to 50% of highly qualified leads come through phone calls.
When phone calls come in, however, it’s still tough to ask how they “heard about you” unless you ask. Often, its a little uncomfortable asking a caller for this information initially. You want to keep the conversation about them and the reason they called.
However, new technologies now allow you to track customers or prospects who find your phone number on the web. This is called phone tracking. Here’s how a typical SEO phone tracking system works:
1. You buy or rent a number that either is a local number with the same area code as
your primary number or an 800 number (toll free).
2. You program your web site to display this new number ONLY if the person visiting
your web site found you through Google, Yahoo, Bing or a Pay Per Click campaign.
So, instead of seeing your current phone number, they see the new one.
3. When the person calls this new number, the system notifies them that the call will be recorded for quality assurance purposes (and for legal reasons).
4. On your end, when you pick up the call, you should hear an announcement telling
you that you are receiving a call from a person that found you on a search engine.
5. You take the call and simultaneously, the system records your phone call.
6. You can then use the recorded phone call log as a customer service training tool and also to follow-up with the lead through your typical lead nurturing process.
The beauty of this type of system is that it allows you to not just be focused on the rankings and the traffic you’re receiving, but be able to really tie some of that search traffic DIRECTLY to new business that is generated.
Also, if you’re spending money for Organic SEO or Google Adwords (PPC) campaigns, you can now measure the real cost of a new lead. Here’s how:
1. Take the total price you’re paying for SEO or PPC.
2. Divide that cost by the number of phone calls you get each month. This will give you your total cost per lead.
3. Track business generated from these leads and then factor in your lead cost calculated in steps 1 and 2 to see if you’re getting a good return on investment (ROI).
So, for example, if you’re spending $1000 per month on Organic SEO services and you get 10 calls per month, your lead cost is $100. If you close $5000 in new business from these leads, you can determine the value that your campaign really brings in. This varies, based on the gross margins you hold on whatever it is you sell, but you get the idea…
Some business owners think that leads should be cheap or a customer phone call should only be worth “$10”. But when you can actually hear the phone calls and realize that you closed a big “roofing job” or a got 5 new “DUI Cases” off of an organic search, the value of investing in SEO, PPC, and phone tracking becomes much clearer.
If this article makes sense and you’d like to see our SEO/Phone tracking system for yourself, please let us know. We’re here to help you.
Call us today at 1.877.490.8324 for some new ideas and a free, no-hassle consultation. You may also Click here to schedule a confidential consultation.
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To your success!
Ben Vaughn
Sr. Online Business Strategist
AutoWeb Technologies