Last week we wrote about the Google study that discussed a deluge of mobile phone calls. Turns out that 70% of mobile searchers call a business directly from search results.
That’s a big deal. This massive increase in calls argues the case for Conversation Analytics better than we ever could. These calls need to be analyzed. That’s what Conversation Analytics does.
Just under the surface within that same study Google unleashed some data that could be critical to your business (or if you’re an agency, your clients’ businesses).
Importance of Mobile Calls to Specific Industries
Google researched 7 specific industries (Travel, Restaurants, Auto, Local Professional Services, Retail, Finance, Technology) to determine how important click-to-call was to each of them. They determined that, “click-to-call was an important feature…” for all of the 7 verticals they researched. But, there were 4 verticals that stuck out.
In other words, there were 4 verticals where click-to-call following a mobile search were CRITICALLY important.
Here they are:
Auto Repair, Tire and Auto Parts
– 62% of consumers searching for auto parts and services would be very likely to use click-to-call
Some of our biggest clients are in the automotive industry. They use Conversation Analytics to track conversions, lead quality and sales performance.
Car Rental
– 60% of those searching for car rental information on their phone would use click-to-call.
Professional Services
– 76% use click-to-call to schedule an appointment for professional services
This would include lawyers, dentists, doctors and any cash-pay medical professionals like dermatologists, chiropractors, plastic surgeons, etc. The calls these businesses get are extremely valuable. Every call could be worth, potentially, several thousand dollars.
If you’re an agency, you’re going to want to get credit for the calls you drive these businesses. Call tracking can do that for you.
But, you’ll also want to get credit for conversions–i.e. when these calls actually turn into customers. Conversation Analytics can do that for you.
Financial Services
– 61% of people searching for financial services on their smartphones are likely to use click-to-call to make changes to bank accounts or manage their accounts.
We’ve worked with credit unions, banks, insurance companies, and even financial advisors. These companies get phone calls from mobile searchers very regularly.
What are the implications for these 4 verticals?
1) They need Conversation Analytics. Or, at least, call tracking. These businesses get a lot of phone calls. They need to get sales data, marketing data, and lead data from these calls.
2) They better have mobile-ready sites. If a massive number of smartphone users are trying to access your site, you’d better have a nice mobile site.
3) They better have phone number plastered on their sites. BIA Kelsey says that almost half of all local businesses don’t make it easy for mobile searchers to call from their site. In other words, they have numbers that are sort of hidden on their site.
4) They better be doing mobile PPC. Mobile PPC drives calls like crazy. Do it.
It’s true, call tracking services like LogMyCalls can be a great tool for measuring results of marketing efforts, running A/B tests, and even coaching and training employees via automatically recorded phone calls.
Especially with the integration to Google Analytics; services like this makes it easy to evaluate key performance indicators without having to learn a lot of complex new tools.