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Call Management

Branding Your Radio, Podcast, or TV Advertisements With a Vanity Phone Number

November 16, 2018 by Kevin Dieny

How to use vanity phone numbers for successful advertising.

Radio and television channels were once considered a staple of every business that wanted to get the word out about who they were and what they did. Today, another channel has been added to this category that you also must pay attention to: podcasts. In fact, in 2018, six million more Americans listen to podcasts weekly versus 2017.1 Not sure if any of these three are right for your business? Look at these stats:

  • 64% of Americans have heard of podcasts1
  • Radio is the leading reach platform: 93% of consumers listen to AM/FM radio2
  • TV viewership reaches 88% of consumers2

Although these are overarching figures, your audience must exist in some, if not all, of these mediums. You only use these channels because of the reach and audience they provide. More research has to be done to determine where your target audience goes and where they spend their time. Sometimes that means that your audience is able to be reached and influenced best by a radio, podcast, or television advertisement.

Every brand is trying to get as many interactions as possible with their target audience because results have proven that on average, it only takes so many interactions before someone becomes a customer.

Geographic Locations & Technological Constraints

Radio, podcasts, and television are channels that are able to reach people where internet and other popular forms of advertising cannot. Not everyone has internet, not everyone has a smart phone, and those limitations make it difficult for you to reach your target audience. What matters is how much reaching that audience is worth because radio, podcast, and television have variable influence.

The Elevator Pitch

Radio, podcasts, and television are still popular channels for some industries because their products or services are well established. Some brands have deep enough pockets that they have maxed out their other channels and so radio, podcasts, and television ads are the next logical step. The key aspect of those channels is that you get your 15 or 30 seconds (or longer) to sell your brand, service, or product to the listener. You can influence potential consumers by using your advertisement like an “Elevator Pitch” to convince them. Celebrities, thought-leaders, and catchy sounds can give you an edge over other channels.

Multi-Channel

Few, if any brands, use radio, podcasts, or television channels exclusively. The reason that those channels are difficult to track comes down to the fact that brands use them in conjunction with other channels. Brands pair the radio ad, podcast ad, or television commercial along with dozens of other advertising channels. Multi-channel advertising to reach your audience wherever they go is now considered the norm.

Tracking Your Radio, Podcast, or Television Advertisement

As most businesses use radio, podcast, or television advertisements along with dozens of other channels, it becomes essential to track the lift of those channels. Even huge companies like NBC who deal with the problem of attributing media lift directly still struggle to provide clarity on lift.3
Television commercials have made history for how expensive they can be (such as first quarter Super Bowl ads). As spend increases on advertisements, so does the need to track the results.

Hourly Website Traffic Lift for Radio and Television

Radio and television media sellers can often provide the hours that your advertisement runs. If you know the hours that your advertisement will be used they you could theoretically plot some of the lift based on the type of traffic your website is getting. Assuming that someone who hears or watches your advertisement goes online to find your brand (soon after). This is the logic behind the tracking system that NBC was developing in the article noted above.

Tracking Lift in Phone Calls

CallSource has helped clients become very successful with radio, podcast, and television advertisements (as well as others) using call tracking. The idea is placing unique phone numbers across your advertisements and then using our analytics to easily display the results over time – by channel, ad, and source. Although brands have been able to source the calls, there was concern about the ability of consumers to remember and write down the number.

Memorable Call Tracking with Vanity Numbers

Clients who feel that their phone numbers are not memorable enough or not easily dialed are recommended to switch to Vanity Toll-Free phone numbers. The key difference for Vanity Numbers is the ease of remembering, dialing, and writing down the numbers. When it comes to radio, podcasts, or television advertisements, the Vanity Number is king both in being able to track the call for lift and being memorable.

Picking the Right Vanity Number for Your Brand

There are two types of Vanity Numbers and three types of coverage when it comes to finding the right Vanity Number.

Alphanumeric (Spellers)

Phone numbers that spell a word, phrase, or brand are called alphanumeric phone numbers (we also call them spellers). Alpha Vanity Numbers are readable and can be spoken where they do not look like a phone number. Alpha Vanity Numbers have been around long enough that everyone has figured out how to dial them.

Since they do require some thought in the dialing process, they tend to be used where the purpose of displaying them is to reinforce branding. Consumers remember phone numbers when there is an element of the brand associated with the number. Even if you do not know immediately how to dial (1-800-FLOWERS) you will likely have an easier time remembering that than its digits (1-800-356-9377). This is even more relevant when it comes to advertisements that have seconds to display or speak the phone number (Radio, Podcasts, and Television advertisements).

Repeaters

Phone numbers that repeat digits are called repeater phone numbers. Repeater Vanity Numbers rarely double as Alphas – but they achieve a similar end. Repeaters are the easiest to dial because you will only be dialing a few digits. Repeaters can be easy to write down and can be quickly remembered following an advertisement.

Some brands use repeaters by incorporating them into a jingle due to the repetition of the digits. An advertisement that uses (800-800-7000) can feel confident in the consumer remembering and dialing the phone number because of the simplicity of the number. While repeaters do not stand out as much compared to alpha Vanity Numbers, they are much easier to dial and can be very relevant depending on the type of advertisement channel.

Branding with a Vanity Number

Branding is important to stand out to your consumers. While products and services represent a large share of the perception of a brand, the name and culture behind the brand tends to sell. Consumers want to buy from a brand they trust and who they think is delivering the best value to them. Branding, therefore, is crucial as competition and the market share intensifies. Ask yourself these questions:

  1. Am I losing customers to competition?
  2. Are my consumers shopping around for my products or services?
  3. Does my competition focus on branding?
  4. Do I feel that branding is a small problem compared to other issues I’m dealing with?

First, if you know you are losing customers to your competition, consider branding your company, products, or services with a Vanity Number. It’s hard to be #1 in a lot of industries but once you are there it takes work, luck, and smart business decision to stay there. Reaching #1 requires a tactical approach to winning both in brand and in customer value.

Second, if you know that your consumers are price shopping you and comparing your products and services to competitors, then consider branding. Products and services only sell themselves up to a point. There is a portion of every audience willing to try new things and they accept more risk. However, usually the largest and most valuable customers for a business come from those who prize the brand, professionalism, culture, and experience you offer above the products and services themselves.

Third, take a look at your competition – are they focusing on branding? Elements to consider are:

  • Do they have a Vanity Number?
  • How does their website look?
  • Are they advertising in Radio, Podcasts, or Television?

Branding is usually pretty easy to detect, but you could always survey an audience to get deeper insights before you commit to changes. Being customer-centered based on the feedback of your best customers is always an important aspect to any business.

Fourth, and finally – maybe you feel that branding is low on the list of your priorities. You have employees to correct, processes to refine, and business decisions to make that take precedence over branding that you feel will move the needle more than a simple number change. You may even feel that if someone wants to dial your number, they will, so why track it or why slap a memorable mask over it?

Although you know your business best, our insights have proven to us and thousands of businesses across dozens of industries that a Vanity Number works (and works well). We have seen businesses make the simple change and watched as inbound calls came in with higher quality callers and better customers. A Vanity Number is a simple way to position yourself as a higher quality brand and can make the difference in sales with very little effort.

How to be successful

  1. Media Buying – Find the right outlet for your advertisement. For radio: what languages, what station(s), where geographically, time of day, day of week, who will say it, etc.. For podcasts, which ones, and how it can be delivered (who will say it). For television, what channel, how long, and what you will showcase.
  2. Stand Out – You must be able to get your target audience’s attention and hold it long enough to remember the idea of the advertisement and the call to action you want them to perform (calling your Vanity Number).
  3. Influence – You have to be able to persuade someone by disrupting your audience from what they intended to do, and instead have them perform the call to action you want them to take. The more engaging your advertisement is that also leads them to want to take action to fix or solve their problem (that you can solve), the better the advertisement.
  4. The Call to Action – Effectively communicate the action you want your audience to take.

Media Planning Tips

  • Make sure your advertisement is relevant to the audience that you are targeting (do the research).
  • Consider a survey, pre-launch, to get initial feedback that can help you make the best advertisement possible.
  • Maximize the media spend you have by testing, testing, testing! Consider trying to spread your budget and being efficient with your spend in the Radio, Podcast, and Television channels.
  • Repetition is a critical factor, so consider that your audience might need to see the advertisement a second or third time before they act (what does this do to the design of your ad?)
  • Try to make your advertisement a story by showcasing a ‘before’ and an ‘after.’
  • Competitors can give you a lot of information if they are already advertising and how they are doing it. Look at their ads and their ideas and try to make for a better experience.

Ready to choose the perfect vanity number for your radio, TV, or podcast ad? Search for your vanity number here or talk to a specialist at 855-GOT-VANITY.

 

Sources:
1. https://www.convinceandconvert.com/podcast-research/the-13-critical-podcast-statistics-of-2018/
2. https://www.newsgeneration.com/broadcast-resources/radio-facts-and-figures/
3. https://www.wsj.com/articles/nbcu-to-measure-tv-ads-based-on-business-outcomes-1525431601

Filed Under: CallTrack Tagged With: Call Management

7 Vanity Number Stats That Prove a Vanity Phone Number Will Boost Your Brand & ROI

November 13, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna

The allure of vanity numbers aren’t only that they’re nicer to look at – but they’re also easier to remember. In a recent study, 72% of people correctly recalled vanity numbers after hearing a 30 second advertisement.

That same advertisement with a numeric number’s recall rate? It was only 5%.

Vanity numbers aren’t just easier to remember, though. Over half (58%) of consumers prefer to dial a vanity 800 number vs. a numeric toll-free one to reach a business.

In fact, advertisers can expect an 84% improvement in recall rates for a vanity number vs. a numeric telephone number when shown in visual media such as TV, billboards, and print.

About three-quarters of billboard advertising, and almost one-quarter of expensive television advertising will integrate a toll-free vanity phone number.

Tests have been conducted to find that ads with vanity numbers outperform those with generic numbers by 33%.

Still unsure if your consumers will want to dial a toll-free phone number to reach your business? Think again: 90% of Americans say they use toll-free numbers.

Want to find the perfect Vanity number for your business? Click here to find the Vanity number that’s right for you, or call us at 855-GOT-VANITY.

vanity-numbers-infographic-1vanity-numbers-infographic-2

Sources:
https://www.ringboost.com/blog/6-stats-that-show-the-competitive-advantage-of-vanity-numbers/
http://www.mountainmg.com/800_power_stats.php
https://www.marketingcharts.com/television-3204

Filed Under: CallTrack Tagged With: Call Management

Don’t Be Afraid of Your Data: Why Data-Based Decisions Are Necessary for Your Business

November 1, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

It’s time to trust data, not just your gut, when it comes to important business decisions.

It can get spooky out there in October.

Not only because of Halloween on the 31st.

October is the start of Q4 – the final quarter of the year also known for businesses as the sort of “make it or break it” time.

If you’re already ahead of your goals, then you may not be too worried. But if you have catching up to do, or are worried that a slower end-of-year season may skew your sales numbers, then you have some powerful decisions coming up that you’ll need to make.

It can be scary to look at your data when you’re unsure what to expect. But it is also necessary to make sound business decisions, and decision time for the coming year is upon us!

Accurate data › “Good” Data

While it’s always nice to share the company’s successes with your employees, it is also important to be accurate and transparent. Decisions shouldn’t be made only on what you hope for, but what the reality is.

You can’t rely on your “gut feeling” alone

A survey by Bi-Survey showed that 58% of respondents say their companies base at least half of their regular business decisions on gut feel or experience rather than being driven by data and information.

via GIPHY

Why is this?

Well, one reason cited is that half of the people simply don’t think they have access to the data that they need to aid in their decision-making.

Are you gathering data in the areas necessary to help your business make the right decisions?

It’s easy to continue doing things “as they’ve always been done” because it’s worked for you in the past. Yet, that is not a smart business move. There are always ebbs and flows, and the way business is done changes year over year. Simply staying stagnant is not benefitting your business grow and stand out. It is vital to put actual metrics to the decisions you are making in order for the business to improve.

Define and use your KPIs

In that same Bi-Survey survey, it was illustrated that 79% of respondents have a defined, standard set of KPIs in their organization, but only 36% are using them pervasively across the organization. This is obviously a major issue and an area for improvement for data-driven decision-making.

They noted: “best-in-class companies rely on defined and pervasively used KPIs much more than average and laggard companies.”

How do you make sure that your business is one of the best rather than just average, or behind the curve?

Define, create, and report on your KPIs!
It is impossible to create or check-in on KPIs without having data behind them. While you may think you need to work on one area over another, data may show something completely different. Perhaps it is the area that you think your employees are excelling in that actually need more attention. Without the proper data, you can’t make the proper decisions.

The scary truth of making decisions without data

Rob Enderle, a former analyst at IBM, wrote about a particularly awful incident that happened at his time there because of a decision that was made despite a lack of data.

In his article Data Analytics Will Fail If Executives Ignore the Numbers, he recalls when IBM decided to sell a business unit of the company, ROLM, to Siemens.

Although the IBM executive team commissioned research on the implications of this choice to determine whether or not it was a wise decision, they already made the decision before the research was done. Why?

Perhaps the executive team trusted their instinct that it would be a wise move and thought the data would reflect that, but when the research came out, it concluded that selling this business unit would be, as Enderle puts it, “a catastrophic failure for the unit.”

The unit ended up losing more money than IBM initially paid to acquire it.

The takeaway here?

Smart decisions are data-based decisions.

Although it can be scary to take a look at your data since it may not conclude what you were hoping for, wouldn’t you rather be wrong in your suspicions than wrong in your decision-making for your business’s health and prosperity?

Data-based decisions improve your business

Although we are close to Halloween, I don’t want to tell you only the scary stories. I’ll leave you with a happy ending so that the lesson here can be learned.

Let’s take an example from a business that everyone knows about and can look up to for best practices: Google.

Now, of course, I know you don’t have the manpower or budget that Google has to apply at your business and quite frankly – neither do most. Still, Google’s example showcases something that all businesses can do in their own way.

Google was curious to discover if managers were necessary for the workplace, or if everyone should just be responsible for their own work and productivity without anyone to report to. To find out, they put a project together to answer the question: “Do Managers Matter?” which they codenamed “Project Oxygen.

Once they started the project, however, they started realizing that managers do matter, and shifted their question to see what makes someone a good or bad manager.

Statisticians gathered over 10,000 observations about managers, across 100 variables from various performance reviews, feedback surveys, and more. They then coded the comments to look for any patterns.

Once those patterns gave them working theories, they then figured out a system to interview managers and gather more data to look for evidence to support those theories.

After coding and synthesizing the results of the in-depth interviews, they gathered their results (which they basically broke down into a list of eight qualities of a good manager) to incorporate into various training programs.

Laszlo Bock, Google’s vice president for “people operations” (aka Google’s human resources), noted in the New York Times article that outlined this whole plan, Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss, “We were able to have a statistically significant improvement in manager quality for 75 percent of our worst-performing managers.”

Google’s “Project Oxygen” plan goes to show that even something as seemingly difficult to assign data to such as human qualities can be improved by using data to drive results.

Don’t let your business’s future become another scary story

As you are looking over your year-to-date results to determine your 2019 decisions, let data, not your intuition, be your guide.

Need help gathering more data to make better decisions at your business? CallSource wants to help you do just that. Schedule a time to talk to a specialist today and start making sound business decisions tomorrow.

Filed Under: CallTrack Tagged With: Call Management, Digital Management

4 Ways to Improve Call Management

October 11, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

It’s time to improve call handler skills so that you don’t receive as many missed opportunities.

Missed opportunities are basically wasted marketing dollars. When an interested prospect calls your business, it hopefully shouldn’t take more than the right questions and direction of the conversation to ensure that the call ends in a booked appointment with your business.

What are some tips so ensure that you are able to book the prospect rather than missing out on an interested lead?

Read on for 4 tips below.

Maximize Your Phone Answering Availability

Do you know when you are missing the most calls? Check your inbound call data to discover when you have the highest number of unanswered calls or missed appointment opportunities.

After determining which hours of the day (early morning, lunch or evening) have the most missed calls or opportunities, rearrange call handlers’ schedules accordingly.

HINT: Look at your call detail report and calls by time of day to see when you are receiving calls that go unanswered.

Bring Down Barriers

Understanding office constraints can help you to reduce stress in the office and improve the long-term outlook of call handling.

For example, many CallSource clients have found much success by delegating call handlers’ number one priority to be just that — answering calls. Other duties assigned should all be secondary, or assigned to someone else who doesn’t have a main priority of appointment setting.

Give your employees the time and energy to focus on answering phones for positive caller experiences and better call outcomes.

HINT: Moving phone appointment setting away from reception is worth testing. We have seen significant gains in caller and waiting room experiences after shifting phone responsibilities.

Specialized Phone Lines

When hiring new front office staff or call handlers, it is time consuming to train on various technical aspects of the phone (routing, trunking, etc.) in addition to phone handling skills. An efficient way to improve a customer’s experiences is to designate phone lines for specific departments.

You can also use an IVR menu to route callers to specific departments or employees (Press 1 for web support, etc.). This decongests your main phone line during peak hours thus reducing hold times and botched transfers ensuring a better customer experience.

HINT: Extra phone lines can easily be acquired and tracked for accountability to ensure best practices set in place by management are being followed by staff.

Specified “Call Back” Employee

Missed calls, dropped calls, and voicemails are very important to follow-up on. Call handler priorities ebb and flow during the day, it is helpful to have specific call handler, skilled in outbound calling to return all your missed calls.

Having a designated outbound call handler to find the answers and prepare for the return call, decreases distraction for your other call handlers.

HINT: If a callback was scheduled to follow-up on a specific question, it’s helpful if the answer and solutions are prepared ahead of time before the callback.

Want more help improving your calls? Download our free call handler checklist and start improving employees’ phone skills!

Filed Under: CallTrack Tagged With: Call Management, Performance Management

Over 70% of Inbound Automotive Leads Don’t Book an Appointment

October 1, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

How many sales dollars is your dealership losing from poor phone skills?

While it is true that the internet has taken up a large part of the consumer’s buying journey, the phone is still key in a prospect’s car buying process. Phone calls are still the initial point of contact with your dealership for 25% of all consumers.1

During their discovery process, consumers will often call a car dealership looking for more information before stepping foot into the dealership. It is important that your dealership is prepared with experienced call handlers to not only answer all incoming calls, but also to get the caller to come into your dealership.

What can you do to improve this missed opportunity rate?
Well, improve phone skills and follow up with these possible lost leads, of course!

With that being said, knowing that the ultimate goal of a call handler is to book callers into an appointment, it is evident that auto dealerships are failing in this aspect.

 

How many of your leads are slipping away?

CallSource data2 shows that 71.88% of dealerships’ total bookable calls end up in a missed opportunity – meaning no appointment was booked. That’s almost ¾ of your inbound prospect calls!

These aren’t people calling in for directions or for some unspecified reason – CallSource call analysts label calls into a bookable category only when it is evident from the phone conversation that there is an opportunity to set an appointment with the phone prospect.

When over 70% of these interested consumers aren’t verified to come into your dealership, how many leads are you letting slip away to your competition?

 

Improve your conversion rate, improve your ROI

Further, most of these missed opportunities are in your sales department. Almost 60% of total bookable calls are missed sales opportunities. Based on an average sale price of $2,200, that’s over $13,000 in missed sales for every 10 bookable calls your dealership receives.

What can you do to improve this missed opportunity rate? Well, improve phone skills and follow up with these possible lost leads, of course!

CallSource cannot only record calls and improve phone handler performance; we can also alert you within moments when a possible lead does not book an appointment with your dealership.

Contact a CallSource representative today to learn more about our DealSaver program and start recapturing your missed opportunities.

Reference:
1. http://press.autotrader.com/download/2016CarBuyerJourneyStudyBrochureFINAL.pdf
2. CallSource data based off of 3 million sampled and completed automotive phone calls over 2 years.

Filed Under: Call Coaching Tagged With: Call Management, Performance Management

9 Automotive Buying Trends: The Consumer Journey from the Internet to Vehicle Purchase [Infographic]

September 25, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna 2 Comments

You won’t believe how car buying has changed in the digital age.

The car buying journey from inception to purchase has added a lot more steps since the age of the internet.

No longer do consumers simply walk into a dealership and purchase a car off the lot. Much more time and research has been involved, and you need to make sure that your dealership is keeping up with the digital needs of your consumers.

Check out these 9 fascinating facts below to learn more about how your consumers are finding their perfect vehicle through the internet.

Car Buying Trends - 1
Car Buying Trends - 2
Car Buying Trends - 3

2016 Car Buyer Journey Study 2018 Car Buyer Journey Study 2017 Netsertive Auto Buying Path Survey

Filed Under: CallTrack Tagged With: Call Management, Digital Management

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