[dropcap]K[/dropcap]nowledge is power. For marketing, knowing the effectiveness of your marketing efforts can help grow your business. The only problem is that while you may be successful and lead customers down your company’s sales funnel, can you be sure that you’re getting the maximum impact for your marketing budget?
It’s equivalent to shooting in the dark — sure, your marketing campaigns may be successful at times, but it’s useful to know why they’re successful with solid data to back it up so you can refine your methods to greater and greater results. Did you know that you can track your marketing campaigns with toll free numbers?
In this article, we’ll cover a few methods to more accurately track your marketing campaigns with toll free numbers.
Narrowing Your Focus
First, to track metrics of your marketing campaign with toll free numbers, you’ll need to narrow the focus of what this number is used for. To track the ROI from phone calls tied to advertisements, it is necessary to use a unique exclusive phone number to narrow the results. After all, if you’re receiving calls from various advertisements, it is difficult to track how effective the ad actually is.
Examples of Ad-Based Tracking
There are a number of ways of tracking ROI with unique ad-based tracking. These include:
- Limited-time-only offers (with redemption info available via phone)
- A billboard in a high-traffic area (with the phone number listed)
- A unique landing page on your website (with the phone number listed)
- Social media advertisements (during peak hours)
When you receive calls from the toll free number, you’ll know just how effective your advertising is and where customers are originating from.
Tracking from International Markets
One of the most common problems that plagues businesses that use toll free numbers in their international campaigns is that callers may not be able to call outside of their country. This is because foreign service providers either a) charge long-distance fees or b) block the call because it is out of the service area. Even if you’re been dutifully listing your toll free number, you may not be able to accurately assess how many customers are actually calling your business and not getting through.
Is there a solution? The answer is yes, with modern toll free numbers powered by virtual phone numbers. Virtual phone numbers can route calls from any country in the world instantly, and allow customers to reach your business no matter where in the world they are located. Virtual phone numbers that are specially designed to offer toll free services internationally are referred to as “ITFS numbers” (short for “International Toll Free Service numbers”).
By using ITFS numbers with the aforementioned techniques, you’ll be able to track customers that originate from international markets.
Using Add-Ons and Functionality to Broaden Your Reach
Many service providers of virtual phone numbers offer their services with intuitive dashboards, that offer in-depth metrics like the caller’s phone number, length of call, demographic info, and so forth. By analyzing this information, you can more accurately track your marketing efforts.
Furthermore, because modern toll free numbers are powered by cloud computing and VoIP (“Voice over Internet Protocol”), there are a number of Internet-based add-ons and functionalities that can aid your marketing efforts. For instance, you may want to track how many customers contact your business in the off-hours (ex. outside of 9 – 5pm). With “time of day routing,” a common add-on for virtual phone numbers, you can redirect those calls to another call center or have calls redirected to a voicemail.
Similarly, if your business wants to contact customers directly as part of its marketing efforts, then the add-on “outbound calling” can let your business appear as a familiar number (i.e. country code and area/region code) on the recipient’s caller ID. This can help you track your marketing campaign and more accurately assess which customers want to hear from your business.
