Do…use call tracking to measure the effectiveness of offline advertising.
For example, a company should never launch a direct mail campaign without using call tracking. We partner with some of the biggest direct mail companies in the world.
The same rule applies to radio ads, TV ads, local print ads and other forms of offline advertising: don’t do them unless you’re using them in tandem with tracking numbers.
Do…use call tracking DNI on your website.
Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) allows marketers to track which campaigns, ads, and keywords generate phone calls and which don’t. This is done via a snippet of Javascript that dynamically generates a unique phone number when the visitor arrives on the site. As has been well documented, this doesn’t hurt SEO or impact NAP.
Do…gather data via call tracking reports.
Marketers should use call tracking get make decisions about future marketing spend. The data is only as good as the action that follows. If you won’t use the data that call tracking provides about ads, campaigns and keywords, you shouldn’t use call tracking. In short: change your marketing behavior.
Do…use call recording.
For marketers call recording is an oft-unused feature. And this is sad. Call recording comes for free with even the most basic call tracking packages. Marketers can use call recordings to gather important customer data and improve customer experience. They can also gather lead quality and campaign ROI data.
Do not…use call recordings on your directories. This will hurt SEO.
Some call tracking companies try to brush the problems with SEO and call tracking under the rug. They shouldn’t.
When call tracking is used incorrectly it can hurt SEO. Using call tracking numbers on various online directories is an example of using call tracking incorrectly.
For an in-depth treatment of call tracking and SEO read our 30-page White Paper on the subject. (Seriously, we wrote 30-pages on call tracking and SEO). It is the most in-depth treatment of the issue ever.
Do not…ignore call tracking data.
One of the biggest mistakes marketers can make is sinning in ignorance. Marketers that fail to gather and/or heed call tracking metrics will make mistakes, have blind spots, and will make false ROI calculations.