Why Call Tracking is a Marketing Game-Changer
Hey there! As a fellow marketing geek, I‘m excited to dive deep on CallRail together. In today‘s digital marketing landscape, most brands rely heavily on online channels to generate leads – from SEO and PPC to email and social. But what many marketers overlook is the power of good old fashioned phone calls as a lead source.
In fact, research shows that over 50% of digital marketing leads come via phone calls rather than website forms and other online lead capture methods. And get this – phone calls have the highest lead conversion rates across all marketing channels, converting at nearly 70% higher rates than other lead gen sources.
With stats like these, it‘s clear calls are still crucial for sales prospecting. But here‘s the catch – unlike website analytics, most marketing platforms provide zero visibility into phone call data and attribution. We can see all our website traffic and digital lead sources, but calls remain a black box.
That‘s where call tracking comes in. With call tracking software like CallRail, we can finally attribute those invaluable phone leads back to original sources like PPC, organic search, social campaigns, and more.
This gives us the power to truly understand our total marketing ROI across online AND offline lead driving channels. Let‘s dig in on how CallRail makes this possible!
CallRail Overview – Marketing Analytics Made Easy
CallRail is hands down one of the most popular call tracking and analytics platforms designed specifically for marketing attribution. The software offers some awesome capabilities to help us track inbound calls and gain super detailed insights into our highest converting marketing channels, campaigns, keywords, and more.
Here‘s a quick rundown of CallRail‘s key superpowers:
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Call Attribution – Attribute calls to sources like PPC, SEO, social, email, and anything else driving calls
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Call Recording – Record and analyze calls for training, lead scoring, and monitoring
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Real-time Dashboards – Visualize call analytics and marketing insights as they happen
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Lead Center – Unified workspace to manage all prospect interactions
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Form Tracking – See which landing pages and forms produce the most calls
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Keyword Tracking – Uncover which keywords drive the most phone calls
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Flexible Call Routing – Easily set up local, toll-free, and vanity tracking numbers
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CRM Integrations – Connect call data to platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot
With CallRail, we can say goodbye to marketing blind spots and finally see accurate ROI across all our call-driving campaigns and activities. Let‘s look at some examples.
Who Gets the Most Value From CallRail?
Now that we know the basics, here are some examples of teams and businesses who can benefit big time from CallRail‘s platform:
Marketing Teams
- Optimize budget across best-performing call-driving campaigns
- Improve PPC and SEO strategy based on keyword-to-call data
- A/B test landing pages to increase call conversions
- Accurately track offline marketing efforts like TV, radio and print
- Reduce cost per lead by focusing budget on profitable channels
Sales Teams
- Access detailed call records to have smarter prospect conversations
- Append CRM records with call intelligence for enhanced visibility
- Prioritize hot inbound leads faster based on call analytics
- Improve lead response times with unified Lead Center inbox
Agencies
- Share concrete call attribution insights and ROI reporting with clients
- Justify the value of marketing efforts leading to calls
- Uncover missed call opportunities due to poor tracking
Law Firms & Legal Services
- Capture and record inquiries from Google/Facebook ads
- Build custom intake forms to capture caller details
- Track online marketing ROI and optimize cost per lead
Home Services
- Tie appointments and calls back to digital ad sources
- Track website conversions and landing page optimization
- Sync call data with dispatcher routing systems
No matter what you sell or who you serve, if phone calls are a big part of your customer acquisition strategy, CallRail can help amplify your marketing performance.
Now let‘s explore some of CallRail‘s most powerful features and functionality.
Key Features and Capabilities of CallRail
Call Tracking & Marketing Attribution Reporting
At its core, CallRail offers detailed call tracking and attribution reporting to tie every inbound call to a source. The platform makes it super easy to set up tracked phone numbers that forward calls to your business lines.
Within the CallRail dashboard, you get complete visibility into attribution data for each call including:
- Traffic source (PPC, organic search, social, etc)
- Campaign and keyword details
- Landing page or ad clicked
- Location and duration
- Trends over time
- Conversions by channel
These rich insights help you accurately measure marketing ROI, double down on high-converting campaigns/keywords/ads, and optimize your marketing budget across channels driving calls.
CallRail also integrates directly with platforms like Google Ads so you can sync over campaign data for better reporting.
Lead Center
The Lead Center feature is like a built-in CRM for your sales team. This shared workspace compiles a complete timeline of all prospect interactions including calls, texts, emails, chats, and form submissions.
Reps get the full context on prospect engagement to have more effective conversations and close more deals. It also makes lead handling more efficient.
Key Lead Center capabilities:
- Unified inbox to manage communications
- Automated lead tagging and scoring
- Track lead responsiveness and activity
- Call coaching tools and call barge
- iOS/Android app for calls and notifications
For sales teams that rely on calls and texts to engage leads, Lead Center is a game-changing sales acceleration tool.
Call Recording & Transcription
CallRail offers optional call recording with storage, transcription, and analysis features. Recorded calls can be used for:
- Sales coaching and reps training
- Dispute resolution
- Quality assurance monitoring
- Competitive research
- Automated lead scoring
- Customer service optimization
Transcripts and voice analytics provide searchability and insights from call data.
Form Tracking
Beyond just calls, CallRail also tracks web form performance and submissions. You can see which landing pages, offers, and forms produce the most calls vs. just submissions.
This helps improve landing page conversion rates through A/B testing form layouts, designs, copy, and calls to action.
CRM Integrations
To maximize results, CallRail seamlessly integrates call data with leading CRM, marketing automation, and analytics platforms including:
- Salesforce
- HubSpot
- ActiveCampaign
- Marketo
- Google Analytics
- Facebook Ads
- Zoho CRM
- AdRoll
- WordPress
These integrations append lead records, push notifications, associate campaigns, and unify data across your martech stack.
How CallRail Compares to Top Alternatives
CallRail is arguably the most popular dedicated call tracking solution for marketers. However, there are other platforms offering similar capabilities that may also be worth considering.
Here‘s a peek at how CallRail compares to two of its top competitors:
| CallRail | ActiveCampaign | Dialpad | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Call Attribution | Robust attribution | Decent attribution | Strong attribution |
| Lead Management | Lead Center unifies interactions | Contacts tracks interactions | Real-time lead alerts |
| Marketing Integrations | 50+ native integrations | Nearly all martech tools | Limited integrations |
| Analytics | Customizable reporting | Standard reporting | Strong analytics |
| Call Recording | Transcription and analysis | Basic recording | AI conversation insights |
| Pricing | $$ | $ | $$$ |
A few key takeaways from the comparison:
- For existing ActiveCampaign users, their call tracking feature may provide enough functionality for a lower cost
- Dialpad beats CallRail in its voice intelligence capabilities but lags on marketing integrations
- CallRail strikes the best balance of robust attribution, sales features, and flexibility
Depending on your budget, existing tech stack, and functionality needs – CallRail, ActiveCampaign, or Dialpad could all be suitable. But CallRail remains the leader specifically for marketing teams.
CallRail Pricing – What‘s the Investment?
CallRail offers paid plans designed for different customer needs based on call volume, features required, and team size.
There are two main plan categories:
Call Tracking Plans
Call Tracking plans start at $45/month for basic call analytics. Higher tiers add more call minutes, tracking numbers, conversation intelligence, lead center, and form tracking.
Lead Center Plans
Lead Center plans start at $24 per user/month and include shared inbox, interaction timeline, call coaching, sales acceleration tools, and mobile apps.
For small teams, the Call Tracking Complete plan and Lead Center Inform plan provide a robust feature-set at a reasonable cost. Larger teams may need multiple Lead Center seats.
CallRail also offers a free 14-day trial to test it out. For large deployments, annual contracts and enterprise plans are available.
Getting Started With CallRail as a Marketer
Excited to implement CallRail for your marketing stack? Here are my top tips and best practices for rolling it out effectively:
Step 1: Audit Your Marketing Channels
Thoroughly audit all current marketing channels and campaigns that could be driving phone calls – both digital and traditional. This gives you a blueprint for tracking.
Step 2: Define Your Goals
Outline your goals and key metrics for call tracking. Do you want to measure overall volume? Call quality? Conversions by campaign? Reduce cost per lead? Get crystal clear on intended outcomes.
Step 3: Select Your Tracking Numbers
Determine the right local, toll-free, and vanity tracking numbers to drive optimal call visibility. You can use a single number or multiple numbers per campaign.
Step 4: Install Tracking Codes
Embed CallRail scripts on your website to enable form and landing page tracking. Use advertising platform integrations to track paid sources.
Step 5: Monitor Performance & Optimize
Dive into call analytics trends to uncover high-performing campaigns, keywords, and offers driving calls. Shift budget to those converting channels.
Step 6: Share Insights With Sales
Make sure sales reps have access to call details and history via Lead Center. Sync call data to your CRM.
Step 7: Expand Tracking
Once set up, look to continually add new tracked marketing channels, numbers, and platform integrations for deeper visibility.
With the right CallRail setup tailored to your marketing operation‘s unique needs and objectives, you‘ll gain the phone call visibility every digital marketer needs in 2023 and beyond.
Let‘s talk more about putting a custom plan in action for your business! I‘m confident CallRail can help you boost marketing performance, increase ROI, and hit your customer acquisition goals by leveraging call data.
