Tracking the overall success of your marketing efforts is one of the biggest challenges facing entertainment and events companies today. What makes it all the more frustrating is that, in some areas, accurate reporting and data analysis is easy. Click rates, impressions, downloads and other online activities are easily monitored using Google Analytics.
 
If a consumer uses your website for the entirety of their transaction you can gather lots of valuable data about them. But what about the ones who call you on the phone? Or browse your site and then come to your office to make a booking?
 
A recent comScore study found that 63% of visitors to a website complete their purchases offline. That means a significant majority of people who end up purchasing your services begin the process online and finish it in person or over the phone. You have no way of accounting for the success of marketing dollars spent on those customers. Until now.
 
Call tracking is one of the most exciting tools available to events organizers today. It’s perfectly suited to businesses with high inbound call volumes and a national presence, as it tells you where each lead is coming from and in doing so, which marketing channels you should focus your efforts on (and which you can drop altogether). Here are some of the key advantages of call tracking technology:
 

• Accurately comparing close rates. Adding call tracking to your analytics platform gives you a clear, precise breakdown of how well your phone leads are performing in comparison to other lead sources. How does the close rate for phone calls compare with social media leads, for example? Over the course of a few months, this data becomes increasingly valuable, allowing you to adjust your sales process to focus only on those leads with a track record of closing.
• Linking phone leads to site traffic. Without call tracking, phone leads spring to life and then evaporate. If the deal isn’t closed there and then, there is no way of knowing whether your phone lead has ultimately proven successful. But by setting up custom alerts you can be notified when a phone lead returns to your website, allowing you to make the return call when they’re already close to sealing the deal.
• Identifying the source of each lead. Using a different phone number for each ad channel means you know precisely where a lead saw your commercial – before you’ve even answered the phone. You can test the effectiveness of a billboard campaign next to your online banner strategy, for instance.
• Conveying a strong brand image. Part of the appeal of call tracking lies in the phone numbers themselves. Buying a range of toll-free numbers can help you project a powerful corporate image that inspires confidence and trust in consumers.

 
The long term impact of call tracking on your business will probably be much greater than you imagine. Managing leads and converting them is no mean feat, and without a comprehensive call tracking system, it’s inevitable that a number of potentially strong leads will slip through the cracks. Call tracking eliminates that fear and, in time, those ones that nearly got away could prove very valuable indeed.