Call Tracking Myths for Newbies Completely Debunked..

If you’re reading this you are probably considering call tracking of some kind.

And why wouldn’t you? After all, it can tell you a whole lot about your business, how to get more leads and how to convert them. But there may be a little lingering doubt in your mind about whether call tracking is right for you. 

Well, here’s are quick “don’t even consider leaving this page without trying out AdMeter call tracking” guide.

1) I can’t deal with the hassle of changing all my advertising and phone numbers – aaaghhh!

Hell, you’re right...it would be a hassle to change all your existing artwork, adverts, direct mail etc. And what about people that already have your number in their mobile as a stored number?

Guess what?

Firstly we can repoint any existing numbers you have through the AdMeter system. So that’s sorted that out.

Secondly, you just use your new unique numbers on your new marketing – we give you the numbers to use. People will use this new number when they see it. No one remembers numbers any way. They just remember the name of your company or website and hit search. No worries.

2) I don’t want to upset Google by using lots of new numbers online – help me!

Google's NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) is important for listings online. Especially directories and the main website. Because Google uses this as a quality score when ranking websites...some local marketing “experts” say you should always keep the same number on your website and not use call tracking numbers. Ah...almost right. 

You see when you use call tracking numbers which are inserted dynamically, (they change according to where someone came from) then Google doesn’t worry about it because the dynamic numbers are inserted as javascript. Google doesn’t spider the dynamic number change because it’s not HTML – 

3) Call tracking is really expensive and it’s not going to pay me back my investment!

It’s not how much you pay for call tracking that counts...it’s what you missing out on. When you invest a pound and get five back - that's gotta be good news.

Call tracking will help you make more sales – we guarantee it. Our clients have doubled their leads and halved their lead generation costs. 

So that’s a good metric for you to see where we are coming from. 

From a few pounds a month to several hundred, it depends on how many things you want to measure. There’s a price for every company that’s great value for money. If you are looking for the cheapest call tracking system around, then that’s not us.

If you’re looking for a fantastically easy-to-use, reliable, secure, feature-rich, well-supported call tracking system that’s run by people that understand marketing, sales and technology, then that’s us. 

And we say, test it out. Start small. Because we know that once you try it...you won’t want to go back to being blind about where your calls are (and are not) coming from.

4) I use call tracking already – I’m just seeing if you are different...

Yep, that’s a good start to our conversation. Maybe you are using some “old call tracking” that doesn’t do what we can do. Maybe you can get us to take part in a one on one with your existing provider. A sort of shoot-out to see who’s best. We'd love to have that chance. Getting you more business is our mantra. We help you get that and we know you’ll stick with us.

And if you do want to go with us because we’re better, then we can arrange to port the phone numbers over just like mobile phone providers do when you change company. We’ll take care of it. 

So there's a challenge for you. Now you know the score what are you going to do about it.

Invest 10 minutes of your time by calling us.

0800 158 8825

0800 numbers, 0845 numbers & Call Tracking! Ofcom changes

There are changes afoot in the way companies use call tracking numbers over the next few years.

Ofcom has announced it's changing how telephone numbers are charged, with the intention of making the cost of calling businesses and services simpler to understand.

It's true that calling from a mobile, the supposedly free 0800 numbers...aren't exactly er...free.

Then you've got all the 08, 09 and 118 ranges. And it's a bit confusing to say the least.

Unless you are using a BT landline, it's difficult to know how much you are charged. Many organisations use these numbers, (because they are often used for call tracking, as well as revenue generation...) but Ofcome is expected to introduce  a single ‘access charge’ consumers pay thei phone company for all calls to these numbers, and a ‘service charge’ to the company or organisation they are calling.

Ofcom says,

"Phone companies will inform their customers of their access charge when they sign up to a new service, and it will appear on bills; while service providers will specify the charge for their service wherever they advertise or communicate it. Consumers will therefore be able to understand the exact cost of making the call by adding the access and service charges together."

Ofcom also intends that 0800 (Freephone) numbers will be made free from all telephones, including mobiles... although presumably consumers still pay to access these numbers via their phone provider, as mentioned above.

 Getting significant 0800 call volumes means more costs with Ofcom changes....

Consultation process

Ofcom has to have a consultation process as there will probably be a medium term process by which telecoms companies make the adjustments to their call tracking numbers.

This process is for 18 months from the end of May 2013.

What this means to you...

It would be a good idea to review the use of any 08 numbers you are using. It's likely that it will cost you more to operate these numbers once the Ofcom changes are made.

Even better, perhaps now is a good time to consider changes to your call tracking systems and how you measure calls. We'd be happy to help you with your audit.

AdMeter has local, non-geographic and premium rate phone numbers available - all able to seamlessly integrate with the AdMeter call tracking system.

As Ofcom is going to be looking at this area you can steal a march on the changes.

Call us today on 0800 152 8825 and we'll help you make sense of it all.

AdMeter.co.uk, the UK's top rated call tracking system.

Tracking Email Marketing Response Offline With Call Tracking

There are something like five gazillion emails sent every day.

It's an absolute miracle that anyone reads any emails any more but the fact is - they do work and they get things sold.

Most businesses are using email marketing and most of those would like to get better at it. Better at getting them delivered, opened and clicked or responded to.

There are plenty of things that can improve email and conversion rates...anything from putting icons in subject lines, e.g.

Why you'll ❤ 5 issues of Soccer Coach Weekly

to having social sharing icons in the email. (So it's obvious people should share the content.

Other things to do are making sure that there are great subject lines that engage e.g.

[FINAL CALL] ...The power of SCRATCH cards!
NEW VIDEO (this KILLED it on Facebook)

And of course when to send an email. (Tuesday and Thursday tend to be best.)

Test on-line and offline response

The key to email success is testing. And testing all the elements will enable you to create a profitable email marketing machine. One that is systematic and predictable when it comes to making money.

One of the major errors that many people make in their marketing with emails is only testing the open rate, the click through rate and the conversion rates (online).

This leaves a massive gap in their knowledge about how successful any campaign may really be.

You must measure ROI including offline response to email marketing and any social media marketing because if you don't you can't really measure the true success of the email (or tweet).

With many people getting and email and then reading more information on a website and then calling the business to enquire or buy, (particularly for high price services and items) it's crucial that you know which email nudged this action.

Because if you have a winner offline, that's generating a lot of calls then you don't want to change it!

Check out the video below to see how dynamic numbers records the calls generated from on-line media including emails and social media.

Email does work. Make sure it's working for you and that you know it's full power.

Call us today to find out how we can help you measure and improve your email marketing.

Call 0800 158 8818

PS. One little tip we recommend is to test resending unopened emails ( but changing subject line and/or offers). Sometimes people react to different things and maybe they'll react to your second email about the same thing. Try it out with a small test -it could change a lot of things for you when it works!

AdMeter.co.uk, the UK's top rated call tracking system.

Customer Insight and Customer Sales With AdMeter Call Tracking

I know I need an eye test. The Boots store, Reading, kindly sent me a postcard reminder. (Which I recycled). My wife “suggested” I get it sorted so I went to the mighty Google and searched....and I found the excellent Boots.com website and used the Store-locator thing...... a bit similar to this...........

This was really frustrating. Because I had to explain to my wife I hadn't done what she wanted me to do (get an eye test sorted) and doubly annoying because I had to call them again. (At the third attempt I did manage to get through - only because the pain from being "reminded" was more painful than hitting redial).

WHAT REALLY IRKED IS THAT NOBODY EVER CALLED ME BACK.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT.

After experiencing this call-engaged-hang up scenario, I thought maybe Boots were using local tracking numbers and they would soon call or text me back. My local search soon told me that they were not using unique numbers.

If this was happening to me in Reading, I figured it was happening all over the country. (Just as it does with Estate Agents who miss 19,734 calls every month).

I decided to take this personal experience and talk to the head of marketing. A few weeks later, the issue was raised with the now ex-head of customer care at Boots. And this is the reply I got.

"Whilst your product is fascinating, we don't use the telephone as a lead or order generator it's simply a traditional customer care operation. All of our advertising is geared towards converting customers to purchase in store or on line."

Not Using The Telephone To Get Leads Or Get People In Store?

I should have been shocked but it's a familiar story with lots of companies that invest money on marketing and then don't even pick up the phone!

Here are some things we know that Boots could do to get sales using AdMeter;

• Capture missed callers and phone them back
• Send an SmS text apologising for the missed call
• Send an SmS reminder of appointments to Optician customers
• Send an SmS text promotion e.g. free prescription sunglasses
• Find out what people are calling for and improve marketing response
• Discover geographic areas people are calling from, (marketing opps)
• Drive online and store sales through text

AdMeter can't be the answer to everyone's needs. Because not everyone is prepared to take the action to improve customer engagement, and sometimes it's difficult to get through to the right person that can make decisions. (Although we think a "No" in this instance is a "Maybe").

However, there are some easy low-hanging fruit opportunities within most companies big and small. Where Boots has 3,300 retail outlets and a huge number of engaged and missed calls the opportunity to drive sales may be in the millions. For smaller companies it may be a few thousand.

The only way to find out truly is to take a trial of AdMeter to discover the insights it can provide and the action that results in more profit.

Whether you a big chain and you want to track all calls, capture the call data and use it for promotions - or a smaller company and you want to make the best of your marketing...

Get in touch today on 0800 158 8825 and we'll explain in a 10 minute call how we can double your leads in 6 months.

Marketing Channel Measurement - Why Aren't Marketers Doing It?

Marketing Sherpa report shows marketers still not measuring marketing.

We often contribute to Marketing Sherpa reports on articles about tracking marketing (because that's one of the things we do).

So when this article and chart appeared we thought we'd share it with readers of our AdMeter blog.

Marketing Sherpa asked a number of their readers (marketing specialists) 

Q: Which of the following are you involved with tracking, analyzing or reporting on for your organization?

The results came back and were put into the graph below;

These results highlight the indifference, or perhaps lack of experience, when it comes to tracking marketing, especially social media marketing.

As these channels can be tracked offline (via call tracking) and online, via dynamic numbers and email tracking (e.g. www.Admeter.co.uk provides these services) it still seems as though there are trackers and non-trackers in terms of marketing specialists.

Even with a nudge effect of marketing across several channels the ROI of these nudges is important and should be tracked for efficient marketing.

Marketing departments within companies must have the numbers to hand when justifying marketing budgets - owners of companies must have the numbers so they can make more money.

Knowing what works, what doesn't and how to change things so they do is the fundamental job of the CEO, the Marketing Director and everyone at the company. As everything starts with a sale...then this is the most important thing to measure and get more of.

We certainly agree with Marketing Sherpa when they say getting the right metrics, measuring them, and taking action is the key to marketing.

As AdMeter has proven time and time again, (and has demonstrated by being ranked #1 by TopSeos.co.uk for call tracking) getting the facts and acting on them is the key to doubling leads and income.

Our clients know this and we'd like you to know it too.

Benefit from a free consultation of 30 minutes from the UK's top call tracking company by calling 0800 158 8825 today.

AdMeter.co.uk, the UK's top rated call tracking system.

AdMeter Ranked #1 on TopSEOs List of Best Call Tracking Providers

AdMeter awarded top call tracking provider in the UK 

TopSeos.co.uk carefully reviews all the call tracking companies and regularly publishes its top ten. The top position is coveted by call tracking companies because it is generated by user review.

The top companies offering call tracking software solutions are evaluated carefully to identify the top performing systems using five main areas that are ranked in order to produce the top ten list;

• the user interface
• ease of integration into systems
• software features
• reporting methods
• support

The latest list shows AdMeter in top position - something we are proud of as it means we are producing the goods for our clients and can quite rightly claim to be "one of the best" when talking to prospective clients (hopefully you!).

AdMeter helps companies of all sizes track the success of marketing and sales with tracking and reporting of phone calls and emails that are generated by online and offline marketing.

Here are a few things we do (that get us recognition as being the best).

Media Tracking

Smart advertisers work hard to ensure that their marketing effort is focused on the most impactful portfolio of channels. Find your strengths with Call, Email & SMS Tracking.

Digital Advertising Impact

With pay-per-click, social media, portals and online directories all taking a slice of your advertising budget, it's essential you have the tools to separate the good, the bad and the ugly.

Marketing CRM

Using our Results Based CRM add-on you can combine your sales data with your marketing data for instant ROI & channel outcome assessment. Perfect for digital and traditional marketing.

When you want to know more about your marketing and the results it is bringing you...and want to discover more ways of getting profitable leads...talk to us.

Yellow Pages Call Tracking - Measure Your Yellow Book Marketing

Do you advertise in the Yellow Pages or the online equivalent Yell.com?

Do you find that it's a successful marketing channel?

The reason I ask is because I am fascinated by the big Yellow Book and particularly how the company behind the book has fallen from grace in terms of share price.

Only a few years ago, the Yellow Pages was the directory for businesses to advertise in. There were over a thousand pages of advertising...with sometimes hundreds of companies all competing under the same heading.

But then along came Google and 90% of people prefer their fingers to do the searching, as opposed to picking up the dwindling book.

I don't think that any business should ignore Yellow Pages as a potential marketing channel. The key point is that it can generate leads...you just have to know how to write a great advert, with a compelling headline and a brilliant unique selling point i.e. laser targeted advert.

And the only way you know if you are producing profitable leads is if you know how many it is generating and what you have paid for them. The answer to that is call tracking for Yellow Pages.

Let's imagine you advertise in the Yellow Pages for £1000 a year and get 100 leads. That's £10 per lead. When you convert 1 in 10 leads that makes customer acquisition cost of £100 from the Yellow Pages. a good deal or a bad deal - your profit margins will tell you that.

The only way you know though is if you track things from lead to sale and lifetime value of that customer generated from the Yellow Pages.

It's the tracking of calls that is so important when it comes to directories, and yet fewer than 50% of companies ever track the quantity and quality of their calls.

This is part of the problem for Yellow Pages too, (or HIBU as the parent company is now called). You see if they sold leads instead of advertising space, they'd still be 1000 pages thick. But they don't. They are still so very 20th century.

However this does not mean that you shouldn't stick with them if they are giving you good leads. It does mean you have to track your calls though. I have a sneaky feeling that if you get good enough leads now you'll be getting more next year because the book will have fewer advertisers competing with you.

I last checked on their business section of Yellow Pages to see what they had to say about call tracking...and whether they recommended it...or even set it up for clients in the UK.

The search results sadly showed that they are behind the times when advising clients. In fact there were no references to it at all in their knowledge bank for the UK. (See below).

I do know that the US Yellow Book and Yellow Pages South Africa are offering call tracking, (SA is using Admeter!) and I think it will happen in the UK and ultimately with all directories, whether online of offline.

Fortunately, it's easy to get call tracking for Yellow Pages Ads. Simply get us to supply you with unique numbers for your Yellow Pages adverts and tell us what you spend and we'll set up your AdMeter system for you. You use the unique number and bingo - you'll know whether your adverts a hit of a miss.

Don't ignore that Yellow Book though. It could still be generating leads for you and it's worth finding out.

AdMeter.co.uk, the UK's top rated call tracking system.