Written by John F. Carroll on September 16,
2014.
I cringe when agents tell
me about spending thousands of dollars on advertising that doesn’t generate
leads.
And I’d be rich if I got
a quarter every time an agent asked me: “Can you believe I spent (large number
of) dollars and NOT ONE PHONE CALL?”
I’d bet all those
quarters that you’ve said that yourself once or twice…
So how can you really
know which advertising methods generate the most phone calls?
Of course you should ask
new leads how they found you, but tracking and measuring to determine true ROI
with that method is easier said than done.
The answer is cheap,
easy, and accurate: use call tracking numbers.
What is
a Call Tracking Number?
A call tracking number is
a phone number, different from your standard agency number, that you use to
advertise. When people call it they’ll be redirected to your phone number
without even knowing what happened.
The call tracking system
keeps track of the number of calls, where they came from, when they came and
how long they lasted.
If you to assign
different numbers to different methods of advertising it’s easy to see exactly
how many phone calls each advertising method generated.
Is it
Hard to Set up a Call Tracking Number?
No.
There are many services
that offer call tracking numbers for prices that make it almost crazy not to
use, considering how much the advertising itself costs.
At the bottom of this
article I’ll tell you about Kall8, the company that I’ve used for
years and I recommend but you can always just do a search on Google and find
your own.
You can have a call
tracking number ready to use in 10 minutes for under 5 bucks!
The #1
Rule for Call Tracking Numbers
Before getting into any
specific ways to use call tracking for your marketing, I have to mention this:
DO NOT USE A CALL
TRACKING NUMBER ONLINE!!!
But I’m all about online
marketing… Why would I tell you not to use this technique online?
You never ever use a
tracking number online because Google
robots constantly search the web looking for business contact
information. The more often they find your agency name, address, and
phone number exactly the same across the internet, the more comfortable they
are with showing that information to people looking for an agent and your
agency will rank better.
Conversely, if they
find your agency associated with several different numbers
across the web, they won’t know which is the correct phone number
and Google won’t want to risk giving website searchers the wrong info.
You’ll get dropped to the bottom of the list.
If a tracking number is
associated with your agency even on just one website, it could be picked up by
others and the wrong information could spread to thousands of other sites.
(Caveat – Using tracking
numbers within an image like the “01″ in the picture below is okay because
Google can’t read the numbers or text inside the image. This means you can use
tracking numbers for online banner ads)
5 Ways
to Use Call Tracking Numbers
1)
Measure Advertising ROI
Wouldn’t you like to know
if you’re getting your money’s worth for newspaper ads, billboards, signs, TV
commercials, park bench ads, church bulletins, and all the other things you
spend money on to get your phone number in front of people in your community?
Assign a different number
to each of those ad methods and you’ll have a clear idea at the end of the year
exactly how many calls you got. (Just like the smooth operator in the image
below ;))
(looks like call tracking
helps you get more dates too!)
I know what you’re
thinking…
But John – I don’t expect
people to call me when they see my ad in the paper. I’m branding baby!
It’s called drip marketing and I’m burning into their brain so they’ll
look me up when they need insurance.
I suppose… I don’t really
buy that but I guess that’s a discussion for another article….
Even if the “branding”
theory is valid, shouldn’t you still get some phone calls? If you spent $6,000
to put your face on a bunch of shopping carts, is ONE PHONE CALL TOO MUCH TO
ASK FOR?
Even if you don’t expect
the calls to cover the cost of the advertising, wouldn’t it be nice to compare
your different advertising methods against each other based on the number of
calls you get from each?
Calculate a dollars per
call value for each mode of advertising to determine what generates the most
interaction and invest more in the higher value methods and stop throwing away
money for the others.
Use this equation: Dollars
Spent / Number of Phone Calls = Cost Per Call
And spend more money on
the methods with the lowest cost per call.
2)
Direct Mail Measurement
Direct mail is a perfect
opportunity to use call tracking numbers because (more-so than print
advertising), it’s entire purpose is to elicit a response. I’ve heard all sorts
of numbers, but they usually say direct mail should bring a 1-3% response rate.
How did they determine
this? With call tracking numbers!
You don’t have to be
a big-time
insurance marketing company to use tracking numbers to
determine the response rates of your direct mail pieces. Just take 10 minutes
to set up the number and a month after your piece goes out, log into your call
tracking account and see how many calls were generated.
3)
Advertise In Other Regions
It can be hard to market
to another area when you have an out-of-state or a non-local phone number. Use
tracking numbers to get area codes and prefixes that match other parts of your
state or the country or just go with an 800 number.
While I am a proponent of
selling within your local community, the ability to sell insurance to a wider
area can be a very valuable tool for the growth and survival of your agency.
Do you know any good
fishermen that park their boat in one spot all day?
4) Get
Easy-To-Remember Vanity Numbers
Looking for one of those
cool 800 numbers that spell something?
Call tracking services
like Kall8 do offer vanity numbers for an
additional charge. A lot of the best ones are already taken, but you never
know. I just used Kall8 to run get a list of available
numbers that include the word “INSURE” and here’s a screenshot:
5) Lead
Allocation
Most call tracking
services give you the ability to forward your calls to different numbers based
on things like time of day or location of the caller.
If you wanted to forward
any calls after your agency closes to your cell number you could. You could
also split calls to your different producers based on the day of the week.
If you own multiple
agency locations, some tracking services even include the ability to
automatically determine which agency location the call should route to based on
the caller’s nearest location.
Why I
use Kall8 For My Tracking Numbers.
There are a number of
different services that provide call tracking numbers but I have used a company
called Kall8 for the past 5 years and it has
worked very well for me.
When I started in online
marketing, I owned several different businesses that all needed separate phone
numbers. I used call tracking numbers so every business phone would route
right to my cell phone and the caller ID would tell me how to answer the phone.
What drew me to Kall8.com is
the price. Currently, they charge $2 a month for an 888 number and $5 a month
for an 800 or a local number. After that you pay about $.07 a minute. It was
the cheapest base rate I could find and there’s no contract so it’s perfect for
short-term promotions or numbers that you’re not expecting many calls from.
If you’re spending $1,000
a month on a billboard, doesn’t it make sense to pay an extra 5 bucks to see
how many calls it gets you?
If you have other ideas
about using Call Tracking Numbers, I’d love to hear them in the comments below
or on our Facebook page.
Disclosure:
Although I have been paid nothing to write this article, some of the
links to Kall8.com are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to
you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase.
Please understand that I have several years experience with Kall8 and I
recommend them because they are helpful, useful, and inexpensive, not because
of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something. Please do
not spend any money on their services unless you feel you need them or that
they will help you achieve your goals.
John F.
Carroll is the founder and CEO of InsuranceSplash. For years, John has consulted
insurance agencies with internet marketing and sales strategy and he is
dedicated to making insurance marketing easy and effective for all insurance
agents. If you're an agent, connect
with John on LinkedIn, he wants to connect with you!
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