Remember the days when you never knew who was on the other end of a phone call?
Flash forward to the advantages available to today’s marketer. Now, sophisticated analytics can use multiple info sources to give you intelligence on everything from a customer’s income to his credit scores, home ownership, education level, purchasing power, social media profiles and/or likelihood of buying — and that’s before you even answer the phone. Once you do, further technology allows you to automatically record and compile data based on the conversation itself, helping you fine-tune your audiences, most effective ads and other elements of strategy.
“Rich data is about to do for call analytics what it has done for customer behavior online: build a rich profile of each caller and predict purchase intent in real time,” writes Andrew Osmak on MarketingLand.com. “Caller data is the kind of business intelligence that has been missing from call analytics, and will change how businesses interact with consumers.”
At one time, marketers feared call marketing was dead. But it’s back in a big way because of technological advances and the fact 77 percent of Americans own a smartphone. Spending on the related technology is spiraling like crazy and is slated to reach $13.7 billion by 2020 — a leap of 132 percent from the $5.9 billion spent last year.
How is the technology commonly used? Marketers contract for highly memorable toll-free vanity numbers they place in targeted ads using different copy and keywords, sometimes via pay-per-call campaigns through which the only charges come from answered calls. Call center specialists are trained to respond to the leads that roll in, and the software in place (such as Dial800’s Intelligent Handshake) captures myriad data about the callers that informs strategy from start to finish.
A few examples of how such caller data can be optimized:
- By instantly analyzing caller profiles, calls can be custom-directed depending on which calling centers are most suitable, most available and/or geographically closest, which staffers are most likely to appeal to the caller, etc.
- Staffers can use the data to customize sales pitches on the spot, increasing both productivity and accuracy and increasing the likelihood of offering relevant products.
- The real-time performances of salesmen and customer service specialists can be tracked at will, allowing for instant training or rewards where needed.
- Ad effectiveness can be compared in real time for future spending allotment.
- Calls can be recorded and analyzed for different purposes. For example, conversations can reveal keywords and phrases that signal intent to purchase and staffers can be trained to listen for them.
- Caller data can be stored for use in future campaigns. One recent study determined 70 percent of IT and business professionals worldwide see data archives as potential revenue drivers.
- Recorded calls can be reviewed for meaningful information about caller pain points.
“Call analytics used to be just about a call,” notes Osmak. “Now, every inbound call to a business is data. Soon data about callers will extend beyond optimization; it will influence business decisions on what the market needs and how it responds to everything that a company does, from product development to finance to operations. Using rich data to inform all decisions will become the norm rather than the exception reserved for large companies.
“If today you’re not sure how to use all the rich data becoming available about your callers, it’s time to collaborate on strategies with teams who have done it before for successful businesses.”
Talk to Dial800 about optimizing customer data through your own call marketing campaign.
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