It takes great wit, skill, and labour to effectively generate leads. But all that effort could be for nought if you are not distributing your leads to the right destinations. The process of strategically distributing one’s leads is known as lead routing. Depending on the size of your business, lead routing can be a significant undertaking—involving multiple destinations and possibilities. In this way, it is not unlike the London Underground, the massive transport system that is approximately 249 miles long, connecting 270 stations and using roughly 4100 trains. Much like an efficiently operating Underground is critical to keep the city of London in business, lead routing is vital for those who hope to find success in the world of lead generation and performance marketing. What is Lead Routing? Lead routing begins with marketers who are generating leads across one or a variety of channels. When a marketer is generating a higher volume of leads, it becomes necessary to employ a lead management system to organise and distribute those leads. Lead routing is the practise of using strategic automation to send leads to their optimal destination based on a multiplicity of factors. Traditionally, the main objective of lead routing is to transport leads to the businesses who will see the most value in those leads—often leading to those leads being purchased at a competitive price. This process of intelligent lead distribution can often include the use of ping tree technology. A ping tree allows a lead to be shown to one potential buyer, who has the option to acquire the lead or pass. If they pass, the lead “moves down” the ping tree to the next buyer in the queue. This continues until the lead is purchased. Why Lead Routing is Useful Like a Underground that is clean and on-time in London, an efficient lead routing system will benefit multiple parties. Marketers For the marketers who work tirelessly to generate leads, lead routing is integral to achieving a high return on investment. It means that they are able to share leads with those businesses who have the highest interest in their leads first. As a result, high-quality leads are more likely to be sold at loftier prices because of their value to the buyers. Advertisers The advertisers who are acquiring leads find value in lead routing with ping tree technology because it allows them to get a “first look” or “early look” at the leads that are most relevant to them. It then becomes the choice of the advertiser to accept or reject a lead at a certain price point. This ability to choose from a selection of high-quality leads is very attractive to direct advertisers. Consumers The consumers who are filling out forms or making calls are also benefited by this system of lead routing. Because ping tree technology uses strategic routing, the consumer is in position to get connected to the business that is best equipped to serve them. Rather than having to perform an exhaustive search, consumers are presented to multiple vendors for whatever they are looking for: insurance, home service work, financial services, or other businesses. By being connected quickly, the consumer has a favourable customer experience. Lead Routing Solutions In order for lead routing to work, businesses need a superior lead management system. LMS SYNC from Phonexa, offers all the tools marketers need to track, manage, and route their leads. Any purchase exploration of a lead management system should ask the following questions: Do I have optimised lead routing to ensure a high return on my marketing spend? Can I access reports that are simple, efficient, and useful in making data-driven decisions? Am I able to filter my leads so that my business exclusively routes leads that are high quality and close to conversion? Does my lead routing ensure a smooth and successful customer journey?
For marketers seeking to improve their knowledge and find greater success, the smartest course of action will always be for them to face their biggest problems head on. This is a truth that has been known by discerning minds for, well, centuries. In fact, one of the greatest writers of all time—William Shakespeare—offers a quote in Henry VI echoing that exact same sentiment: “”Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.” It may seem far-fetched for digital marketers to heed advice from a playwright who died over 400 years ago, but there really is great value in marketers embracing “sour adversity.” Finding solutions to your biggest problems not only will you help your business run better, but you’ll likely also gain valuable insights into your industry and earn an edge over your competitors. For many, the solutions to their biggest marketing challenges can be found by utilising the right call tracking platform. Here are the ways that call tracking helps marketers embrace and defuse the issues that plague them. 1. Proving Marketing ROI According to a State of Inbound report, beyond “lead generation,” the greatest challenge that marketers face is “Proving the ROI of our marketing activities.” In-house marketers need to prove their ROI to justify budget spends while entrepreneurs need to know their ROI so they can understand their expected revenue. Of course, the most important reason it is imperative to know your marketing ROI is so that you can improve your marketing ROI—thus creating conditions for growth. Call tracking exists to help marketers solve this problem. Utilising a call tracking platform, you will be able to get powerful insights into how much your marketing investments are paying off. The right call tracking software will also collect valuable data on all your calls and give you the sophisticated reporting you need to not only know your ROI, but dramatically improve it. 2. Understanding Campaign Attribution In addition to wanting to know your overall ROI, another concern that can frustrate marketers is judging the relative success of individual marketing campaigns. It can be difficult to plan your next big campaign without a clear picture of how your last campaign performed. Fortunately, call tracking software gives you the opportunity to get exceptionally detailed reporting on every campaign you launch. With call tracking software, you can get a bird’s eye view of all your calls and campaigns. You’ll know how many calls each campaign produced, and how many of those calls converted. You will also be able to unlock and demystify all your data thanks to call analytics, which thoughtfully condenses and organises all your campaign data into easy-to-read reports, allowing you to closely judge each campaign’s performance. 3. Finding Data Blind Spots Every business is forced to grapple with knowledge gaps in their business—but call tracking software helps you aggressively close those gaps by giving marketers get a more complete picture of their strategies in action. The best call tracking software offers marketers granular reporting like being able to see more than just whether a call was accepted or rejected—but also details as to why. Call recording can give you access to conversations between callers and representatives so you can identify problem areas or learn what works best. Plus, automatic reporting via call analytics means that you can have easy access to the data reports that are most important for your business. Time can often be wasted transferring call data into reports and graphs that help you identify trends. With automatic reporting the work is done for you, allowing more time and energy to be spent on planning your next campaign. 4. Improving Lead Quality One issue that can often vex marketers is dealing with low-quality leads. If your business suffers from too many calls from leads that are highly unlikely to convert, then using a filtration system through a call tracking platform could be the answer. There are many benefits that come with using a sophisticated filtration system—not only are you able to pre-emptively screen out most bad leads, but you can also create and edit your own filters for maximum flexibility. 5. Optimising Your Business The cumulative benefit of tackling all these problems is that it will also help you take on one simple but persistent concern that every marketer is faced with: “How can I optimise my marketing strategy?” To that end, call tracking assists in many ways. With an accurate understanding of your ROI, you can build a better budget. Getting granular reporting on your campaigns can help you streamline your sales funnel and more effectively target your prospects. Automatic reporting will save you and your team time, allowing you to pay more attention to more complex issues. The benefits of using call tracking to tackle your most difficult problems are self-evident. There’s little doubt as to why wise men might say it’s “the wisest course.”
Your leads keep your business going. If you’ve got things sorted when it comes to lead generation, you should have a steady stream of inbound leads. These can come from calls, web forms, PPC ads, and many other sources. But just as important as getting those leads is being able to keep them organised, manage them, and then either convert or distribute them. In order to do this, it’s critical to know what a sales lead is and how to use lead management. What is a Sales Lead? When we talk about leads, we typically mean sales leads, but there are distinctions. Some leads are marketing leads, or marketing qualified leads (MQLs). These are leads that have been educated by your brand marketing and are deemed ready to present to sales. A sales lead, or sales qualified lead (SQL), is a lead that has taken an action that suggests they are ready and eager to make a purchase. A sales lead will have clicked a call to action with statements like “Call Now,” “Get Quotes,” “Talk to an Agent,” or something similar. A sales lead is very valuable because it is a lead that is far ahead in the sales funnel and are ready to take the plunge. What is Lead Management? Lead management is what happens to a lead once it enters your sales funnel as a sales qualified lead. From here, it is on a path to being converted by your sales team—unless you plan to distribute the lead to third parties for conversion. Lead management is important because it is the link between your lead generation endeavours and sales goals. If you don’t manage your leads effectively, you could be wasting all your marketing and lead generation efforts. If you are a very small business, you may be able to manage and organise your leads using a “manual” system like an Excel spreadsheet, a digital notes app, or even notecards on a bulletin board. But for most small, medium, and enterprise-sized businesses, there is a need for lead management software. Organising with Lead Management Software A lead management system is useful for many reasons, most simply because it puts all your leads in one digital place: the cloud. SaaS lead management allows you and other members of your team to track how leads made it to you and where they need to go. It makes sure nothing falls through the cracks. The best lead management software will do even more than help organise your leads—it can also illuminate ways you could earn more revenue. You can use filtering and restrictions with lead management software to improve your lead quality and only accept leads you are likely to convert. A feature like URL tracking can give you insight into the traffic source for each lead. By tracking the marketing that is driving leads your way, you can make better decisions about where to allocate funds. By knowing where your leads came from and effectively managing them with a lead management system, you can account for each lead, refine your approach, and pursue strategies that will lead to more conversions.
In an age of constantly-changing technology, it is critical that businesses are prepared to adapt in order to stay competitive. More than just keeping a healthy bottom line, the ability to evolve can mean the difference between continued success and closing up shop. One of the most famous examples of this is the “double pivot” achieved by Netflix. The company had originally started as a movies-by-mail company, sharing paper sleeves of DVDs with consumers who wanted to skip brick-and-mortar rental shops (and their notorious late fees). With the dawn of the digital age, though, Netflix pivoted to streaming services and delivered digital movies right into the homes of cinephiles. Netflix would pivot again and start creating their own feature and TV content some years later when the company realised its lack of original programming put it at a disadvantage. The lesson from Netflix is that there is never a bad time to take an intensive look at your business and implement necessary changes. One segment of your marketing strategy that is always worth examining is email marketing. Whether you are just getting started with an email marketing plan or have been utilising it for a long time, the right kind of email marketing software can help you evolve and stay relevant. Forge Stronger Connections The power of email marketing is undeniable, especially when it comes to your marketing ROI. According to Campaign Monitor, for every £1 spent on email marketing you can expect a £44 return on investment. Part of what makes emails so effective is that they allow you to communicate directly with a receptive audience. It’s the personal touch of getting your message into a person’s inbox that makes a difference. Email marketing software gives you the ability to create even stronger one-on-one connections with your target audience. With audience segmentation, you can divide your subscribers into different groups so that they get content that more tailored to their needs. Instead of sending one email out to all your subscribers, you’ll be able to craft readers according to age groups, buyer habits, or geographic location. Considering that subject lines are one of the most important factors in achieving a high open rate, it is especially wise to use segmentation to customise your subject lines to specific groups within your email list. Doing so will lead to a deeper connection between your brand and your top consumers. Optimise Campaigns You can further evolve your email marketing strategy by taking a renewed approach to how you evaluate your campaigns. Build better emails by using a sophisticated drag-and-drop template that lets you easily build emails to fit your business. When you have flexibility in your email design, you can quickly adapt to changing market trends and put together sharp-looking campaigns in a moment’s notice. Additionally, you can use your email marketing software to test different messages and see what’s working best. By taking a close look at your past open rates, you can make adjustments to your latest message so it has the maximum impact. All this will allow you to create email campaigns that perform better and deliver a bigger ROI. Make Data-Driven Decisions Ultimately, if you want to have agility in your business and be ready to adapt when circumstances change, you need to be as well-informed as possible. For the task of acquiring volumes of valuable information, there is no better source than campaign analytics from your email marketing software. Not only will utilising campaign analytics allow you to have all your campaign data in one space, but it makes it easier to understand the importance of that data thanks to automatic reporting and customisable dashboards. An easy-to-navigate user interface becomes especially significant when you need fast access to the most relevant data and reports. With an uncomplicated view of how your past campaigns have performed and granular insights into your open and click-through rates, you’ll be able to execute precise adjustments that can make a big difference. No matter how you utilise your email marketing software, there’s little doubt that it can be a valuable tool for optimizing your campaigns and making plans for the future. Staying connected to your subscribers and aware of market trends will allow you to pivot when needed like Netflix and avoid ending up in the dustbin of history, like a certain beloved blue-and-yellow video rental chain.
In this day and age, most businesses find value in acquiring web leads regardless of their industry. The world is now online almost every waking hour, which means that your target market is available for onboarding right now as you’re reading this. This paradigm shift to online marketing happened years ago and is now an accepted part of the advertisement industry altogether, which calls for one thing: lead management. Whether you have web leads, call leads, or both, you need a tool to help you streamline your marketing efforts, accurately attribute your ROI, and track and segment your leads according to their respective sales statuses. We’re talking about an advanced Lead Management System. Lead Management Systems provide a better, more efficient way to track, manage, and remarket your leads. Phonexa’s remarkable lead management system, LMS SYNC, captures all of your inbound and outbound leads so you can choose to handle them in any way you see fit. LMS SYNC is not just a tool, but a comprehensive solution to lead management. It works hand-in-hand with our predictive modelling solution, Waves, to create detailed reports on all your campaigns. Here’s how LMS SYNC can help you better manage your web leads. Detailed Reports on Every Campaign LMS SYNC works with Phonexa’s premier predictive modelling solution, Waves, to deliver comprehensive reports on your marketing campaigns. Waves creates a complete visual analysis of your web leads. You will be able to view your reports and stay updated with the latest campaign results. LMS SYNC and Waves make it easier for you to analyse trends, so you’ll have the ability to evaluate your campaigns in detail. Customisable On top of the powerful metrics and reports that you will receive, the LMS SYNC platform is also fully customisable for your convenience. You can create custom charts for any lead parameter of your choosing, as well as sort the parameters based on the number of leads sold, the EPL, revenue, accept rate and more. The charts also allow you to personalise the analysis process in a way that makes sense for your specific industry. In addition to being able to customise the solutions according to your business and industry, LMS SYNC also includes API integrations, accounting options, a handsome user management dashboard, and more. Feel free to set your campaign filters, group campaigns as needed, create duplicate settings, cap restrictions, create schedules and edit your Ping Tree settings. User-Friendliness Phonexa firmly believes in the power of simplicity, which is why our Lead Management System prioritises user-friendliness. The software is extremely intuitive and easy to use, which ultimately saves you more time overall. The old saying is true: “If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t know the subject well enough.” The reason why the LMS is user-friendly without sacrificing any important metrics is because we know how to manage leads in the most efficient way. Let the pros simplify the complex processes so you can focus your time on things that matter most, such as growing your business. If you’re ready to take a glimpse inside the advanced LMS, book a demo with us today! We’ll walk you through the entire software and show you how to easily streamline your current business process.
We have never interacted with technology using voice commands with as much frequency as we do now, thanks to recent advancements in voice technology. First came the introduction of Siri in late 2011, enabling iPhone users around the globe to access the world’s first commercialised virtual assistant. 2011 was only seven years ago, but we’ve made significant strides since Siri. Now, it seems as though every modern American home has a virtual assistant of some sort to help with daily tasks, simple searches, and even household chores – everything powered by AI voice commands. As more consumers become accustomed to living with AI-powered voice systems, businesses across all industries are incorporating this technology into their customer journey for a more seamless experience. It would be a shame to miss out on this opportunity to connect with your target audience while AI voice tech is still so prevalent. We might not know exactly how this will evolve in the future, but this is how you can equip your business for the immediate technology demands. Personalise Your Calls The business-to-consumer interaction has been reliant on voice technology for decades, whether that includes a simple phone call between the agent and consumer or a full-fledged automated conversation between the AI attendant and the consumer. Companies have made considerable strides since the first attempt at creating the automated attendant, but one thing remains the same: our human need to connect in a personal way. That’s why call tracking is such a game changer. It’s the brains behind the voice, so to speak. While the interactive voice response system can sound impeccably human and offer a variety of self-service options, it won’t be able to deliver the kind of personalised experience consumers are looking for without the help of an advanced call tracking system. With call tracking, your voice recognition software will be able to service customers according to their specific status in the sales process, automatically route calls based on location, offer multi-lingual speaking options based on demographic and much more. The tools are there for you to be as inventive as you want with the personalisation process! Customise Your Customer Journey Companies should assess their customer journey through the consumers’ lens, determine the points of inefficiencies and research the technology you need to improve your pipeline. With call tracking, you can customise almost every aspect of your customer journey to make it as smooth and high-converting as possible. For example, a common inefficiency in the customer journey is putting the caller on hold for too long. When the wait time exceeds just 40 seconds, the chance of your customer abandoning the call increases dramatically. Call tracking can fix this issue by distributing your calls to the appropriate agents, departments or store locations based on your preferred settings. Your callers will no longer have to speak to an IVR or representative to get routed to the right line, allowing both sides to save more time and effort. By skipping this small but significant hiccup in the customer journey, your callers will experience a much smoother and quicker service with your company. In the world of customer service, quickness is everything. In fact, studies show that 82% of customers admit that getting their issues resolved quickly is the number one factor to having a great customer experience. The faster your customer gets to speak with the right person who can resolve their issues, the more likely they will to recommend your business to others. Call tracking delivers the speed and efficiency you need to convert more calls and boost your ratings. If your current customer journey does not involve any AI-powered voice technology, we highly recommend that you give this brilliant marketing software a try. It completely changes the way customers view and receive your brand. The communication process improves, customers are treated with consistent professionalism, and issues are resolved quickly without holds or hiccups. When your calls are equipped with advanced call tracking, your customers are happy and your bottom line increases. Everyone benefits.
Lead Generation World London, one of the premier conferences in the performance marketing industry, returns May 9 to 10 in the UK, and the event is set to be a boon for advertisers and publishers currently navigating the lead generation ecosystem. This year’s event features speakers from various industries sharing their insights and expertise in lead generation. One of the industry experts speaking at Lead Generation World London will be Oliver Koukoulis-Fribbens, Commercial Director for Phonexa UK. Oliver will be presenting at Lead Generation World London on May 9 at 2:50 p.m. in Main Session Hall the following: “The Future of Lead Generation: Why Call Tracking and Distribution is Essential for Your Business” In order to give marketers a sneak peek into his session, overall leadgen trends, and what to expect at the conference, Oliver recently joined Michael Ferree, CEO and Founder at Lead Generation World, Contact.io and the AFFY Expo, for a show taping. The entire episode is worth a listen, but below are highlights of some of Oliver’s top takeaways. 1. Capitalise on Click-to-Call Journeys Oliver details a scenario in which a consumer immediately requires a particular service and is more willing to click on an ad rather than fill out a form. Lead generators can capitalise on this journey by leveraging click-to-call ads to give consumers the option to phone immediately. “You’ve got a flat tire, and you Google ‘roadside tire repair’ or something like that. You’re not filling out a web form, are you? Let’s be real here. You’re clicking on an ad — click to call — and you’re speaking to somebody,” said Oliver. “It’s capitalising on those sorts of journeys, but there are other types of journeys where the consumer is expecting to speak to somebody. They may still fill out a web form, but ultimately, they know that they are going to need to speak to somebody.” 2. Address Low Contact Rate Concerns by Improving Speed-to-Contact “I’m sure there are a number of listeners that generate web leads and sell them to a buyer, and they’ve had buyers complain about contact rate being low. “If the end goal is to get the customer on the phone, then let’s just get the customer on the phone in the first place rather than getting them to fill out a web form and then phoning them back. All of this just speeds up that route and, ultimately, allows for higher lead prices you can sell. If the contact rate is normally 50%, but you’re actually going to deliver live inbound phone calls where 100% of the people are on the phone because it’s a live inbound phone call, that lead is instantly worth twice as much.” 3. Leverage Bespoke IVRs to Qualify Leads and Route Them Accordingly “One of the things that we’ve developed as part of Phonexa is the ability to build bespoke IVRs within the platform. What that would allow you to do is ask similar questions to what you would do in a web form. “So, if we use car finance as an example, it could be asking how much financing you’re looking for, if you’re employed click 1, or if you’re unemployed click 2. Based on those answers that the consumer has entered, you’ve done that qualification piece, and then you can route the call accordingly based on those answers.” 4. Combine Web and Call Journeys to Convert More Leads Marketers that successfully convert leads through the phone may be tempted to focus on call leads solely but can also convert web leads by adding a phone number to their landing pages. “We have lots of clients that do really well with web leads, and obviously, a big part of the Phonexa solution is that we are able to help track and distribute web leads. As part of your overall strategy, adding calls is something that absolutely can help. “For example, we’ve got a client that generates web leads and, when the lead is submitted, they will land the customer on a bespoke Thank You page that uses Dynamic Text Replacement to pull in a company name and also a tracking phone number. It says, ‘ABC company is going to contact you; however, there is an agent available now. If you click to call, you can speak to somebody now.’ Some of those customers are then prioritised by routing them just after they’ve applied. “The other journey is actually a physical call with applications. The customer completes the application form, and at the end of the form, they’ve then got the option to speak to somebody now. Then, both the web lead and the live call are routed.” 5. Trackable Phone Numbers Don’t Just Have to Live on Landing Pages “Even after a call is distributed, you still have to determine where the call came from. “You want to know which creative (if you’re running a PPC campaign, social ads, etc.) actually generated that call in the first place so that we can go in and optimise our ads and keywords. We use something called Dynamic Number Insertion, which is a way of dynamically placing a phone number from a tracking pool to ultimately be able to tell where the lead came from. Then we can say we know that this particular keyword or advertising spend is actually generating the majority of the calls. “We know from our IVR that those are actually qualified leads, and ultimately they’re generating X amount of revenue. So go and spend more on that particular ad or group of ads.” Connect with Oliver on LinkedIn to set-up a meeting at Lead Generation World. Schedule a consultation to learn more about Phonexa’s performance marketing software and all-in-one marketing automation solution.
The holidays are approaching as the year winds down, and marketers across various industries are ramping up their lead generation efforts to convert as many leads as possible to close out the fourth quarter of 2022 on a solid note. Some marketers approach this time of year with the intent to re-engage lapsed prospects and previously purchased leads. Although the reasoning behind that approach is understandable, it’s hard to justify considering that these leads didn’t convert for a reason. Regardless of what caused a prospect to bounce, the chances of re-engaging a low-intent lead remain low — for the lack of a better word. An effective approach heading into Q1 of 2023 would be to assess the demand for the particular product or service you market and engage new prospects looking for solutions ahead of the new year. As Director of Business Development, I constantly monitor emerging trends across the insurance, home services, and finance industries. The following are some tips for engaging new prospects during the holiday season. Identify Industries Currently in Demand Instead of dedicating most of your time to working on used leads, take note of any consumer trends emerging during this quarter to assess the current demand in any of the markets you operate in. For example, with open enrollment for Medicare currently underway, medical insurance marketers are scrambling to generate supplement leads to meet the demand of consumers currently shopping for such coverage. On the flip side, the demand for auto insurance has decreased considerably due to rising interest rates, making it harder for consumers to finance a car. Select companies are buying a significant portion of auto insurance leads, compounding the issue for marketers battling for high-quality prospects. Then there’s the home services industry, experiencing highs and lows. Despite the growing threats of inflation, the industry is still going strong, but the demand for specific services is dwindling this time of the year. For instance, the need for pest control services takes a dip during colder months, which means lower volumes of HVAC leads for these businesses. The same can be said about the solar vertical — homeowners typically don’t shop for these services during winter. It is an excellent time to start planning for solar because it can take a couple of months to get solar panels installed, just in time for the warmer months to pick back up in Q2 and Q3 of next year. Take Advantage of Opportunities Stemming From a Down Economy As consumers continue to bear the effects of inflation and a slow economy, new opportunities are emerging for leadgen marketers. The demand for loans and debt settlement is progressively increasing as more and more consumers are growing in need of refinancing or access to fast cash. Converting leads during an economic downturn may seem implausible — especially with the holidays right around the corner — but there are opportunities, as evidenced by the demand for financial services. Personal loans and debt settlement are hot verticals in the current economic climate this time of the year. Keep an eye on consumer trends and take advantage of any opportunities resulting from economic uncertainty. You’ll find that there are more opportunities than ever before. Develop Relationships for Long-Term Success When it comes to leadgen, one pain point marketers are constantly trying to solve is finding their target audience. The most valuable leads a marketer can get are not necessarily from the platforms on which everyone else is competing — Facebook, Instagram, Google, etc. Of more importance is determining where your target audience is because the more information a marketer has on that consumer base, the more successful they’ll be. This is where a presence at industry events and conferences can prove invaluable. Some marketers approach industry events to attract new customers, but the opportunity to develop relationships with potential partners is just as beneficial. From my perspective, if we’re in the same industry, the potential for helping each other grow is always present, whether through a direct client relationship or from a partnership perspective. So, Phonexa is scaling its customer success teams to help nurture these relationships and generate more contacts. We recently launched our partnership program that offers monetary incentives and mutually beneficial referral relationships with partners, their clients, and even Phonexa clients. One thing I always make sure to communicate when attending these events is this isn’t a zero-sum game. There’s always enough business for everybody, so it never hurts to have a conversation. You never know how someone in the same industry can help you. From my experience, this message has always been well-received when connecting with others at events or conferences. Are you interested in a tech partnership to elevate your experience? Join Phonexa’s Partnership Program to tap into a new pool of prospective clients, business partners, and perks that make a difference for your business model. Final Thoughts As marketers continuously search for new business opportunities during the holiday season, it’s important to have scalable infrastructure capable of supporting all their leadgen efforts through proper tracking, reporting, and analytics. A flexible software solution allows you to leverage reports and analytics to help determine the most critical metrics and KPIs. The trends shaping consumer behaviour during the fourth quarter of 2022 may carry over into the new year. Continue engaging new prospects as you would during the first three quarters of the year and adjust to the needs and demands of your target audience. Doing so will put you ahead of the competition heading into 2023 and beyond. Want to learn more? Schedule a consultation to tap into Phonexa’s all-in-one automation solution for performance marketers, aimed at supplying all marketing areas covering calls, leads, clicks, email, SMS, accounting, and more.
Navigating the modern age of the United Kingdom’s demand generation market has been quite the challenge for those on the tech side of operations. It’s been an uphill battle bringing innovations to the table and battling for the attention of traditional companies with an outdated and non-compliant approach to lead generation. But that seems to be in the near past now. And if there’s one thing that I learned from this spring’s conference-going, it’s that the UK’s leadgen scene is experiencing an innovative revival that tech companies like Phonexa have been investing in as a first mover. But there has been some serious “spring-cleaning” going on, as companies like Phonexa and others attend and support industry-changing initiatives like the inaugural Lead Generation World London (LGWL) conference hosted from April 3 to 5. LGWL gathered old and new industry professionals together to dive deeper into how we can collectively improve the state of lead generation in the country and across Europe. The three-day event covered all industry segments and leadgen verticals, presenting immense networking opportunities through constructive discussions and educational forums. It was a lead generator’s dream — a chance to share tech and marketing innovations and learn new tactics with each other and the world. There was something for everyone, and after numerous meaningful discussions, I’ve returned to our headquarters in Bournemouth with the following takeaways: Tech is Leading the Change in Leadgen Industry Advanced marketing automation softwares and tools are driving the lead generation industry into new horizons of exploration. There are three reasons why I say this: Automation technology optimises marketing processes and gives marketers the freedom and time to focus on building in-person relationships with prospective clients. Automation technology provides marketers with detailed reports, analytics, and predictive modelling to make educated, ROI-driven decisions for their business models. Technology just covers more and costs less. At Lead Generation World, we heard about the benefits of backing a leadgen company’s operations with comprehensive tech that will cost less and cover a broader scope of activities. If you back all of those general points with an all-in-one suite of automation technology that covers every aspect of marketing, from calls and leads to SMS, email, accounting, and more, you get a winning strategy and the ability to run killer campaigns. Luckily for us, recent conferences have done precisely that for the UK market. As a matter of fact, Acquia recently found that martech investments are set to soar in the UK this year, hinting at a growth-focused market projection that will drive the leadgen industry into new heights. The below infographic expands more on these findings, diving deeper into the near future of marketing technology in our region. UK’s Lead Generation Market is at its Most Dynamic Stage If there’s one exact thing we took away from our time at LeadGen World, it is that there’s no singular, one-size-fits-all solution to lead generation. Frankly, all speaker sessions at the conference brought forward a new approach. With dynamic sessions covering buyer psychology, the consumer acquisition journey, shopping trends in Europe, and the art of converting leads into customers, we heard a plethora of different perspectives that just work. Adding those strategies to our already-depthful tech perspective gave us a hint that leadgen is going in the right direction regionally. I had many meaningful conversations and meetings during the events, but during one of my chats with Michael Ferree, the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of LGW, I really got a sense of the future that our industry holds and all the big plans and potential companies foresee in our market. With plans to host an even bigger event in 2023, Ferree promised his dedication to growing the industry through providing best practices, new strategies, and custom conversations for leadgen businesses of all types. This makes me hopeful and excited for what’s to come in the next few years. Everyone Must Participate in the Digital Evolution of LeadGen Whether it’s a lead generation network, a tech provider, or even someone just looking to get started in the field, Lead Generation World London showed us a time and a place for everyone and their opinions and perspectives. But growing the industry with the entirety of its potential takes a collective effort in attending more events, sharing more knowledge, and cultivating non-competitive environments for everyone to indulge in. I was impressed with how much collaboration and partnership-building took place at the conference. Also present were people with different backgrounds who challenged each other and the general rhetoric of what should be done. We spoke about consumer privacy laws and overall compliance regarding lead generation — a topic that needs to be approached and amplified in our market. What’s Next? With the LGWL and vertical-specific events like Insurtech Insights, I return to the workplace with much anticipation and excitement to help drive a new force into the lead generation area in the UK and across Europe. The Phonexa UK team will continue to attend future events locally and internationally to talk about our all-in-one platform for marketing automation and learn more about industry needs, pain points, and requests to provide our solutions and support. To discuss further what’s to come out of Phonexa’s UK division, you can expect to meet our team at the eCommerce Expo 2022 in London, MailCon in Las Vegas, and other events. Connect with David Pickard on LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with future events the U.K. team will attend. Schedule a consultation with our team in the UK to learn more about how Phonexa can be the one-stop-shop for all of your marketing automation needs.
Phone calls have always been the driving force behind commerce. With the pandemic, the way businesses and people communicate transformed dramatically. Under normal circumstances, consumers wouldn’t opt for voice or video calls. However, the good old humble voice call made a comeback during the pandemic. So, individuals and enterprises now experience the phenomenon referred to as “calling like never before.” According to the Times, the number of regular calls increased by 35%, and wireless calls almost doubled. While consumers typically start their journey online, they tend to finalize the transactions over the phone. It is only natural since in-person visits are still out of the question in parts of the world. As for businesses, they tend to focus even more on paid search campaigns, which, in turn, drive calls. That is why it is crucial for enterprises to learn about the origin of these calls and attribute them to individual marketing initiatives. That’s when call tracking providers come into play. Is Call Tracking A Secret Formula For Success? The risk of losing call conversions is always there. And it leaves us with the question: Is there a way for enterprises to find that winning formula? It is no secret that leveraging intelligence gained from phone calls can help businesses adapt to the ever-changing consumer behavior, make in-flight optimizations, and deliver frictionless experiences to customers. Yet, the call channel remains a blind spot for many companies. A Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership Paper revealed that more than 80% of surveyed enterprises admitted that the lack of intelligence from phone calls negatively affects their marketing results. But with the help of call tracking companies, marketers can gain access to the ROI metrics, like customer acquisition cost (CAC), that uncover the immediate marketing impact of their campaigns. As enterprises across different industries begin to recognize the value the calls bring, they start wondering where they fit in and whether call tracking is a good fit for their niche. Let’s take a closer look at the top 7 industries that have much to gain from call tracking. #1. Insurance Trust is the foundation of the powerful bond between carriers and policy holders. Without it, agencies, insurance providers, and agents have no chance of connecting with consumers and selling more policies. More often than not, calls are used to bridge the gap between carriers and consumers. Conversation intelligence is an excellent choice to make the most of this person-to-person interaction. It can help insurance companies identify cost-effective channels, optimize the lead acquisition process, handle insurance leads, identify development opportunities, and gain actionable insights. #2. Home Services Home service professionals are always in the field speaking to сustomers and assessing project objectives or deliverables. But let’s face it: recommendations and calls mainly keep companies in this business. That is why they need to gain the maximum value from their marketing practices and personal communications. Let’s look at solar providers, for instance. They used to generate leads mainly through telemarketing and old-fashioned door-knocking. Today, these methods are no longer relevant or efficient. Meanwhile, the demand for solar technology keeps increasing — around 18.9 million households can be powered by the current U.S. solar capacity. Here’s the deal: leads mean installment opportunities. Turning to call tracking can help home service businesses efficiently manage calls, identify the top-performing campaigns, optimize their marketing spending, and even review the state-by-state comparisons. Ultimately, the software is flexible and can be available on the go. And that is exactly what home service professionals need to stay on top of things. #3. Legal There’s no denying that stakes are high for legal firms. The competition is fierce, to say the least, and advertising is beyond expensive. Smart spending, in-depth insights into ad campaigns, and high-quality leads can transform legal firms in a matter of days. Law practice is all about attention to detail. With the clarity that lead gen and call tracking offer, firms can pinpoint the top-performing keywords or ad units, analyze every incoming call, and follow every prospect’s journey closely. #4. Real Estate Real estate marketing is a tough game to play. Realtors and agents need to tackle day-to-day tasks while keeping their renters engaged, closing as many deals as possible, and communicating with potential buyers. And while real estate marketers are no strangers to multitasking, they have to do a lot of research, investigate buyers’ backgrounds, and regularly provide guidance to clients. That is why it is crucial for them to understand which marketing initiatives are worth their time, effort, and money. With conversation intelligence and call tracking, they won’t miss a single important detail, a call, or a message. #5. Hospitality Revealing costly blind spots is why most enterprises are interested in gaining insights from calls and consumer call experiences. Hospitality is one of the top 10 industries leveraging phone calls, according to Forrester Consulting. It comes as no surprise since phone calls have always been the most critical stage of the hospitality and travel sales funnel. Leveraging call tracking allows hospitality companies to accomplish four major goals: Identifying missed calls driven by paid ads Attracting more clients Decreasing CPL Enhancing customer service As for the hospitality consumers, they are the most determined group when it comes to making calls. And catering to travelers is the ultimate objective of every company in this line of business. That is why one-on-one conversations about booking arrangements or international travel are the day-to-day attributes of the industry representative’s work. #6. SaaS SaaS companies typically have complicated sales cycles, metrics, and models, not to mention numerous points of customer contact. Let’s say that a business considers purchasing a SaaS subscription. But since there are several touchpoints, it is only logical that at least one phone call will be integrated tightly into the process. Conversations with clients are the cornerstone of this industry. So, it is not uncommon for consumers to have a long list of questions that can’t be answered online. As a matter of fact, that is also true of digital marketing companies. Call tracking can empower SaaS companies to cultivate sales and call experience and enable them to keep a close watch on customer contact points. #7. Healthcare One of the best-known and evergreen house call industries is healthcare. And let’s face it: there is no denying that conversation analytics is fundamental to the success of healthcare businesses. However, health service providers tend to choose all types of software carefully because of sensitive client data they need to store and encrypt. Incoming calls, in this case, represent crucial opportunities for providers to sell their services. That is why call routing and IVR, among other features, can do wonders for healthcare sales reps. Besides, clients often have questions about upcoming appointments, screenings, insurance, or emergency visits. Call tracking is a force of progress and evolution when it comes to modern health services. Make data-driven decisions a priority and schedule a consultation with our experts.
