Testing Marketing Response Via Call Tracking and Email Response

When time is short but ideas are many, you really want to make sure you test things that might improve your marketing in priority order.

We know that practically every client of ours makes massive strides in improving their marketing when using AdMeter to track response to their campaigns. What people do struggle with sometimes is knowing where to start and how to continue improving conversions.

Whilst working with a recent client we researched their testing system and found that they had half a system in place. They were changing things to test conversions but weren't really recording the results and building upon each test.There wasn't really a control that they could test new hypotheses on to create a new "winner".

Much of the improvement in marketing response was ad-hoc. This mean that the changes they made could have been responsible for improvements, or maybe it was because of external factors.

Commitment to testing

The commitment to continued testing is a huge part of improving marketing. Yes, it's hard sometimes to change entrenched ways of doing things. Sometimes you have to bring in experts. And yes...AdMeter's role is often giving the facts, which you can base decisions on to make those changes!

We recommend clients...

• Make a commitment to test marketing
• Start with a simple test where improvements are easy to implement and measure
• Resist the temptation to stop testing if things don't improve

Using some of the processes detailed in the book "You Should Test That" by Chris Goward it is possible to prioritise (and measure systematically using AdMeter) the response to certain improvements and introductions of marketing tactics for any firm.

In working up a priority plan for testing there's a simple spreadsheet you can use to score your hypotheses.

For example let's take a law firm (solicitors). They want to improve their marketing and want to measure response to some new tactics and improvements to existing tactics. But they cannot do it all at once so they decide to prioritise their activity.

They use a simple grid to help them decide which improvements will make the biggest financial impact and how easy it is to make those improvements. (Company culture can often prevent change either through lack of knowledge or tradition so this is an important factor to consider).

They come up with the following rankings using potential impact, importance (money) ease of implementation and total score as they headings for the columns. This allowed them to prioritise by coming up with a total score...

All of the yellow highlighted improvements (high scoring) they decide to implement in a three month marketing plan. They track the improvements using AdMeter and continually test further improvement to create "winning" marketing tactics. Any improvements on these tactics are carefully tested to ensure external events, e.g. time of year, are controlled for.

The truth is that very few companies will test things. Even fewer will do so systematically. Most companies are so overwhelmed with things they never get started.

By providing our clients with the tools to measure their current marketing efforts and future improvements - aligned with our insight into how to prioritise - AdMeter can help you improve your marketing no end.

We'd love to score a few goals for you. You set 'em up...we'll help you knock 'em in.

Call your call tracking and email strikeforce today on 0800 158 8825

PS The book "You Should Test That" by Chris Goward is excellent. Although it is mainly about online conversion optimisation it can easily be used for offline marketing conversion.

Bank Holiday and Missing Calls - Call Tracking Advice

Yesterday was a Bank Holiday in England. That basically means a shopping day for most people or a day watching cricket on the television.

For some people, like me, who are fascinated with how companies respond to enquiries by phone, it's a day to do phone research. (Sad but true!)

I know that companies are reluctant to pay lots of staff to come in on Bank Holidays, (after all there are quite a few every year in the UK.) Retail outlets are often understaffed, garages are short of sales people and the normal office world...well everyone has gone away to Cornwall or Majorca for the school half-term haven't they?

So let's find out what the results are of calling a few main players in my home town.

Research on calling on a Bank Holiday

Estate Agent - call handling

I called up 3 real estate agents. I phoned at 11am - which gave the staff plenty of time for them to open, have a cup of coffee and man the phones. Results of the customer enquiries were as follows; One estate agent open and answered the call. One was closed and didn't answer/no answer-phone and one was open and didn't answer full stop.

Results - One win, two losses.

Car Dealer - call results

I phoned these at 1pm. Sneaky I know, it being lunch time and all. But hey, that's when I like to call, (along with lots of other people that want to set up a test drive of a £20,000 new vehicle.  I expected car dealers to be better at answering the phone and they were.

Of the three that were called, 2 answered the phone within 3 rings, (via a receptionist). The other one didn't answer but did have an answer-phone. Now I hate answer-phones and declined to leave a message.

What was I going to say? "Er...I just wondered...if I could take a test drive...and I am available this afternoon...but I'm not sure if you are going to get this message...and if you don't them I'll waste all afternoon wondering if you did or not...etc"

Results - Two wins, one loss.

Furniture retailer - results of calls

Now I don't need a new sofa. But as all these furniture retailers insist on advertising on TV over Bank Holiday weekends, they could at least answer the phone couldn't they? Well the answer is yes they could. Because of the three calls I made, all three answered.

Now I think that's pretty standard because companies should answer the phone. What I think they didn't do is capture my phone number for marketing reasons because they aren't using a call tracking system that automatically does this.

When I call back in a few weeks, (in response to  a campaign from this weekend, they'll have no way of tying the two things together...the sale to this weekend's advertising).

Results - 3 wins (First leg) 3 losses (Second leg) That's football terminology by the way.

What are my conclusions?

Firstly, call tracking, missed call email alerts, automated text messages and the whole armoury of what something like AdMeter can bring to a company is a must. Hundreds of millions of £'s worth of enquiries are made every Bank Holiday, often driven by a desire to spend, (the customer) and marketing (the company expenditure).

Secondly, it's obvious that companies are automating data capture and are therefore leaving millions of pounds of sales on the table. When people make an enquiry by phone, they can be captured. It's the first aspect of finding a customer. The second aspect is to get them, which you can do with something like sms text messaging. (Keeping them and growing them can then follow post-purchase using successful loyalty marketing programmes.)

When you want to look at how you can find and get more customers you might want to consider a call tracking system as a fundamental buidling block of your marketing systems.

The call tracking system from AdMeter will help you get more sales. Period.

When you want to find out if you have a problem then let us have your office or retail outlet phone number.

We'll soon tell you how AdMeter can help you by doing a little phone research.

P.S Ford Retail don't miss calls on Bank Holidays because they use AdMeter.

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

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.

Call Measurement Tracking and Pay Per Click Advertising

Here at Admeter.co.uk we are seriously into Call Measurement Tracking.

It's what we do. We are also into how calls convert because that is ultimately what we want out clients to get - more sales converted callers. That's why it's important that our clients use dynamic numbers when running online PPC, blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other type of online marketing.

Dynamic numbers means that the number changes on your website, according to where the lead came from. There's a video showing it in action below;

Many companies that are using Pay Per Click advertising have not set their campaigns up to measure PPC offline leads and conversions.

Converting more PPC ads

Marketing Experiments will soon be holding a webinar about this subject and we have contributed our thoughts that companies are concentrating on (obsessed with?) PPC and online marketing but they forget that most B2B and a big percentage of B2C PPC leads actually want to complete their transaction offline...predominantly by phone.

This focus on online conversion is reducing the number of successful PPC leads. The lure of online measurability is seducing marketers into "the transaction has to be online" mentality which reduces the success of or skews the results of PPC campaigns.

Calls worth more than clicks

We already know from many call tracking measurement studies that calls are worth more than clicks. They convert at a higher rate. Let's face it...if you pick up the phone you're pretty much going to be interested in buying something...or at least making a serious enquiry.

Now that its is possible to use call tracking systems to measure offline conversion ALL marketing campaigns can focus on getting lead via PPC that convert best whether online of offline. They can also measure the success of a campaign with true metrics, (which can integrate into CRM systems to generate reports on lifetime client value).

Tracking the PPC success has never been more accurate...it's just that you have to know how to do it, get a partner that can help, and analyse and act on the information to produce superior results.

Who you gonna call?