Call tracking for your accountancy firm

Most businesses are, by now, familiar with tracking their online marketing campaigns, and understand why this is necessary to achieve the best possible results. But many still don’t have call tracking in place. This can mean that your overall picture of where your leads are coming from and how customers are behaving can become skewed. Whether your accounting firm conducts takes most of its new business through calls, or primarily works in person or online, call tracking is an important part of marketing for accountants, helping you to make better business decisions.

Why do I need call tracking?

Mobile device usage has grown exponentially in the past decade, with over half the world’s population now reachable by a mobile device. As such, businesses are switching the focus of their marketing efforts to mobile users – and in response, many consumers now convert on their phones.

The introduction of phone services to Pay Per Click adverts and Google Business Profiles means that users can now make a search on their mobile and contact the business directly from the search engine results page, without even clicking on a web link. So knowing where and how calls are reaching you – whether from your PPC and SEO efforts, direct mail campaigns or elsewhere – is essential to optimising your marketing strategy and generating new business.

Here are some stats that might help to put the importance of call tracking into perspective:

  1. 4 out of 5 local searches on mobile devices end in a purchase (Search Engine Watch)
  2. 70% of mobile searches lead to action on websites within one hour (iAcquire)
  3. 6-8% of mobile users are more likely to click on PPC ads that contain phone numbers (xAd)
  4. PPC phone leads are three times more likely to convert (B2C)

If you’re still not convinced that investing in proper call tracking is a good idea, here are some excellent reasons to start.

  1. You can streamline your budgets

Call tracking can help with the overall split of your marketing budget, enabling you to spend it more effectively and attain the optimal return on investment (ROI). Tracking your marketing ROI is vital if you want to ensure you’re not throwing money away on campaigns or channels that aren’t performing. Call tracking can help you to identify the sources of calls – from a targeted mailout, an email campaign, PPC advertising or SEO – in turn helping to determine where to allocate resources and where spend is perhaps unnecessary.

In addition, you can identify when your busy periods are throughout the day, since the stats can be broken down by hour. This might result in you tweaking your PPC campaigns to ensure optimal impressions between, for example, 12pm and 2pm, and pulling back on ad spend from say, 9am-11am. Overall this can save your business an awful lot of money and keep your budgets streamlined.

  1. You can appeal to local customers

Sometimes customers are put off when they see a freephone number, such as an 0800 number. These numbers tend to give the impression of a large business, perhaps with call centres – and many consumers prefer not to have a conversation with someone who is required to follow a script. According to a 2018 article by MightyCall, 86% of consumers have the perception that a local business will offer a better quality service than an international company.

As such, enabling dynamic, local numbers means you could generate calls that may not otherwise come through. If you have offices in various parts of the country – or even in two different towns in one county – local numbers can be used to reassure customers that the level of service they’ll receive is satisfactory.

  1. You can evaluate staff performance

Of course, generating calls is great, but in order to get the business in, somebody has to be answering them. Call tracking enables you to see exactly how many calls were answered, which went to voicemail, and which went unanswered. This data can be broken down by day or even hour, enabling you to optimise staff levels at your busiest times. You can also see how long each call lasted, which can also help you determine which channels are your most effective, and roughly how long a consultation should be to persuade a customer to invest in one of your services.

If you want to go one step further, some providers can deliver call recording functionality, which enables you to monitor the calls and how they’re handled. This can help you identify where staff may need extra training, or enable you to determine how engaging and persuasive the conversations are once a potential client makes a call. After all, your marketing copy can be really compelling, but only the person at the end of the phone can give a customer the necessary confidence in your service to convert.

I’m sold – so how do I track calls?

Typically, calls can be tracked with the use of unique phone numbers that are assigned to a particular campaign. These can be seamlessly directed to your chosen department where your in-house staff can receive them. Your tracking software will then identify how many calls came through each number, alongside other data such as whether the call was answered and how long it lasted.

To learn more about proper call tracking for your KPI reports, or to discuss the benefits of tracking in more detail, contact the team at Whitefish Marketing today. As specialists in marketing services for accountants, we can help you find the best solution to fit your needs and budget.  

Avatar for Chris Surridge
About Chris Surridge

Chris is our marketing director. He comes from a split background in automotive and accountancy marketing, having worked with such brands in the past as Lookers PLC, Mercedes Benz and Vauxhall, as well as working with governing bodies such as ACCA and CIMA in the accounting world.