Why Are Some Local Marketers Scared of Call Tracking?

0
97

Share on LinkedIn

local marketing call tracking

Nighttime in your childhood home. You’re 9 years old. You’re in bed. You should be enjoying a restful slumber. Instead you are wide awake.

Why?

Well, two hours earlier you had somehow–and quite miraculously–convinced your parents to let you watch a horror film with them. Maybe The Shining, or The Ring, or Sixth Sense.

You had watched the entire movie as your parents dozed on the couch. Now you’re absolutely horrified.

You’re terrified.

You’re convinced there is a monster under the bed, a boogeyman in the closet, a killer lurking outside the window, or a ghost wafting through the air toward your bed.

Regardless, you’re now terrified beyond all reason and rational thought.

——————————————————————————————

Some local marketers we talk to have this same reaction to call tracking.

Some local marketers are legitimately scared of call tracking. We talk to these local marketers everyday.

And just like the fear of that 9 year child eventually dissipates as the child drifts off to sleep, eventually the fear local marketers have about call tracking also dissipates. As they understand what call tracking is, how it works, and what it does, local marketers lose their fear.

So why are local marketers (some of them anyway) so scared of call tracking in the first place?

1) They don’t understand call tracking

We fear what we don’t understand. And many local marketers have never used call tracking. They’re not familiar with call tracking. They don’t understand call tracking.

Most local marketers fit into this category. They just aren’t familiar with call tracking. Once we give them a 15 minute demo of LogMyCalls they aren’t scared anymore.

2) They fear it will hurt SEO

We hear this occasionally. Local marketers are concerned that changing phone numbers on websites in order to track calls will hurt SEO. They’re worried it will confuse Google’s crawlers if the phone number isn’t consistent across all of their directory listings, websites, and marketing campaigns.

This can be a legitimate concern. Google does demand consistency for NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number), BUT before you let fear consume you, let’s discuss what exactly this means and how call tracking can still be implemented WITHOUT impacting SEO.

– Google crawls only the phone number that is hard-coded into the website. On the other hand, call tracking Dynamic Number Insertion displays unique phone numbers via Javascript snippets. The hard-coded number does not change. Thus NAP is not impacted. Thus SEO is not impacted. Thus local marketers have nothing to fear.

Significant studies have been conducted by our competitors in the call tracking space and by major companies like ReachLocal that show, WITHOUT QUESTION, that using call tracking in this way does not impact SEO. Period.

Also, FYI, this Javascript snippet method is the same method that A/B testing platforms and dynamic content platforms use to dynamically alter landing pages and websites. It is widely accepted that these things don’t impact SEO at all.

– Make your current number a call tracking number. Call us, we can do this for you.

3) They aren’t sure how to implement it with their clients

Many local marketing agencies simply don’t know how their clients would use call tracking data. Or, they aren’t sure how to get their clients to use it.

Too much effor.

Not so. Instead of selling it to clients individually, why not just roll call tracking into SEO, PPC, or other offerings? Offer 3 call tracking numbers and analytics access for every $500 spent with you (or whatever).

That way local marketing agencies don’t have to sell it at all. It is just included. Simply roll the cost of call tracking into your offerings. Clients will LOVE the analytics once they start using them.

4) They don’t want to manage it

Some local marketers fear call tracking because they truly don’t want to deal with it. They don’t want to manage a bunch of call tracking accounts.

Don’t worry. LogMyCalls will do that for you.

5) They’re scared of the data

Some local marketers are scared of call tracking because they are fearful the data will expose them. They fear that if clients see a couple months with limited phone calls, those clients will cancel.

These fears are legitimate.

Local businesses, increasingly, demand more phone calls. They’re migrating, increasingly, to local marketing firms that can demonstrate through call tracking that they are generating phone calls.

The day of marketing without consequence is utterly over.

Fear Not

Stop being scared of call tracking. There is nothing to fear. Call tracking doesn’t impact SEO, it is easy to implement, and it isn’t expensive. If you’re an agency, your clients WILL love that you offer call tracking.

Trust me.

If you’re a local business, you are wasting money if you’re not using call tracking. How on Earth are going to be able to determine what works and what doesn’t?

Remember this statistic: according to market researchers at BIA/Kelsey, 66% of local businesses say phone calls are the best leads.

You want calls. You need to track calls.

Republished with author's permission from original post.

McKay Allen
LogMyCalls is the next generation of call tracking and marketing automation. The award winning product from ContactPoint, LogMyCalls provides lead scoring, conversion rate tracking and close rate mapping. For more information visit LogMyCalls.com and call (866) 811-8880.

ADD YOUR COMMENT

Please use comments to add value to the discussion. Maximum one link to an educational blog post or article. We will NOT PUBLISH brief comments like "good post," comments that mainly promote links, or comments with links to companies, products, or services.

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here