With each new client the on-boarding process takes on many different shapes and forms, we truly believe that there is no one size fits all solution. During on-boarding, we evaluate a variety of strategies and software solutions which we align to fit with our client’s particular needs. Through the exercise of getting to know our client, we dig deep to understand the client’s current online visibility and their overall business goals and objectives. Aside from the obvious tools like Google Analytics, SEMRush, Moz and many others which provide incredible insight into data and usability (check out HotJar and UsabilityHub) the tool we’re going to focus on in this example is CallRail and how it helped provide us with incredible insight about a client’s “lack of sales”.
For those unaware, Call Rail provides call based tracking, recording, and analytics for organizations looking to explore call based insights. The technology is very feature rich including things like real-time call statistics, Google Analytics Integration and keyword call tracking. Not to mention the ease of integration. Into solutions like WordPress with their plugin. Although CallRail isn’t the only company on the market who provides this type of solutions. They certainly are one of the leaders and are continually improving their platform to provide additional functionality. You can read up about all their latest releases by following this link here.
Our client, we’ll refer to them as Client X to maintain confidentiality, is a large international manufacturer of heavy-duty industrial products for the construction, mining and marine industries. We were originally hired to evaluate their current marketing strategy and analyze ways to grow visibility. Through SEO as well as lead generation through CRO (conversion rate optimization). During our initial conversations, we were made aware that most of their sales come from phone calls. Due to the complex nature of their business and the engineering specifications of their product line, CallRail was a perfect fit.
Although the website wasn’t built with conversion in mind, the phone number was visible and the product line was clearly laid out, providing clarity to the end consumer with regards to what it is Client X provided. Evaluating a websites layout, design and call to action strategy is extremely important, if the users interface is broken, you’re simply not going to get the optimal volume of leads.
After integrating the necessary tools to monitor online and offline activity we started to see a significant increase in their online traffic, the increase in nearly 320% over the span of 4 months. Long and short, they were obtaining an obscene number of new leads both online through form submission and offline through calls.
Part of the digital marketing process is meetings, conversation and collaboration in order to ensure that both Client and our organization were on the same page with regards to expectations and the KPI’s defined throughout.
During one particular conversation, while we were drooling over the volume of traffic and conversions we were generating, Client X indicated that their sales had not increased even though their call volume and leads according to the analytics were through the roof. This came as a surprise due the niche nature of the business and the keyword targets we were seeing traffic come from. It’s rare to see this volume of traffic without seeing an increase in sales, something wasn’t adding up.
We immediately took action and started looking at the following items which.
I’d recommend everyone do.
1. Call to Action
Did the site have a clear and concise call to action, does the site make it clear as to what Client X’s service offering was?
2. CRO or Landing Page Optimization
Does the page need CRO or Landing Page Optimization. To better understand the consumer and why they’re not following through to acquisition?
3. General Buying Cycle
Look at the general buying cycle of the consumers you’re trying to attract. For instance, we know for niche search i.e. “2016 BMW M5 Winter Tires and Rims for Sale” will have a likelihood to have a higher conversion then “Tires”. The example above is generally referred to as a long-tail keyword. Which has a tendency to occur later in the buying process after clients have done their research.
After reviewing the above. It dawned on us that perhaps the site wasn’t the issue. Maybe it was how the leads were being handled. One of the great features that CallRail offers to clients as part of the Call Flow process is Call Recording. This would allow Client X and us to review what was truly going on with the calls. The marketing initiative was generating.
You can enable this feature by going into CallRail, heading to the company’s settings tab and checking off “Enable Call Recording”.
We asked Client X if this would be acceptable to them. (SIDE NOTE: I’d suggest always getting formal approval as the nature of being recorded can be uncomfortable for some clients). Client X agreed to allow call recording and off we went. We knew it wouldn’t take long. As the call volume was significant enough to give us insight within a reasonable time frame. Was the client’s product just not up to par, was the cost too high, were we just getting unqualified calls? We were pondering all of these questions.
After about a week of call review, we were in shock to discover what we witnessed. In a nutshell, it turned out the salespeople taking the calls had a terrible attitude towards the new prospective clients. Treating the new opportunities very poorly and ultimately mishandling the call. Treating the callers like idiots and with very little respect.
Being very familiar with Client X’s conversation rates. It was clear to us and to management as to why Client X wasn’t getting the growth. Projected based on the leads generated. The moral of this story is the way you handle the leads is just as important and getting those leads generated.
Client X immediately implement call handling protocols and educated (disciplined) the staff and they haven’t looked back since. Their traffic still continues to increase and year after year. They’ve seen a significant increase in their sales and attitudes towards new customers.
Thanks to CallRail, our client’s business was back on track!
