Guess what? They’’re wrong.

Here in Chicago this week, it’’s freezing cold. If a pipe bursts in your basement, you’’re not dropping a plumber into a shopping cart and then sitting by the door to wait. You’re picking up the phone and calling. You might do a local search (—either on your smartphone or on another device) —but to get a plumber into your home to fix your burst pipe, you’’re going to want to call. You need to have a conversation–a dialog–with the plumber. You need to ask things like, “”How do I turn off the water? What should I do until you get here?””

The same thing goes for other kinds of transactions. When I was growing up, the life insurance salesman used to come and sit on the couch and talk to my father. Nowadays, most of that process has changed, but one important part has not: no one buys life insurance without having a conversation, an exchange of questions and answers. A dialog.

Even businesses that aren’’t driving leads for themselves (—agencies, for example) —understand the importance of conversation. It’’s been proven that these voice interactions drive revenue, and as a result marketing firms are hot on the trail of how to master (and measure) one of the most basic parts of business: dialogs.

We are rebranding our company because we recognize the power of voice, the power of dialog, and the uniqueness of humans. As a company, we further recognize that voice-based dialogs no longer occur exclusively on phones, and we want to emphasize that we’’re in the business of transforming commerce by helping businesses unleash the power of conversation to optimize marketing, grow revenue, and delight customers.

It used to be that companies could differentiate by building great websites and fantastic e-commerce experiences. Or, more recently, with wonderful apps. Today, that’’s nothing unique. Every business has a website. Every business has an e-commerce site. Everyone has an app. As we move deeper into the Digital Age, our tools become more sophisticated and our toys become more advanced. But if you want to differentiate your company today, you have to do it the old-fashioned way: you have to talk to your customers.

At DialogTech, we make it easy to utilize voice conversations, and we see a bright future in the integration of technology and humanity. We aspire to lay to rest the idea that technology must be devoid of humanity, and we are ready to lead the charge in changing the world. Join us in the revolution.

The post Ifbyphone Is Now DialogTech, and We’re Starting a Revolution appeared first on DialogTech.

        

Asked to give a speech on how to lead during turbulent times, Rosenfeld laughed and said, “Times are always turbulent, so get over it!” and offered these 4 lessons she’s learned that she wants to pass on to CEOs and leaders facing change.

1) Control the Controllable

Rosenberg quoted Jimmy Dean for this lesson: “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails.” Whether the winds that buffet your business are rising costs or shortage of much-needed resources, you can’t control what the challenges you will face. But you can control how you meet them. Rather than sitting tight and hoping the future will be better, adjust your course and navigate on.

2) 95% of Success Is Execution

According to Rosenberg, we should spend 5% of our time developing our strategy, and 95% of our time executing it. Once Rosenberg decided to make Mondel?z a snack spin-off of Kraft, execution took a lot of time and attention: changing the organizational structure to mesh with the company aspirations, simplifying processes, focusing investment on high-performance regions. New positions were created within the company to ensure that they weren’t attempting to do something new while approaching it the same old way. This is a particularly interesting way of thinking about and embracing change: it’s an opportunity to approach old processes and structures with a fresh set of eyes and goals.

3) Get the Right People on the Bus

A good CEO understands that changing a company isn’t hopping into a fast car and speeding off into the sunset, waving for everyone to follow. You need a bus—sometimes a lot of buses—and you need to get the right people on board with you. This means finding agile leaders with a global mindset, both internally and externally, mentoring them and nurturing them to be inspired and invigorated by change. You can’t do it alone, and the right leaders with the right levels of the excitement can guide the rest of the company on to greatness.

4) Manage Change Constantly and with Consistent Communication

Most CEOs have a clear and powerful vision of their company’s future—this is how they became CEOs to begin with. But communicating that vision is just as important as the vision itself, in ways that are effective and timely. Rosenfeld described global meetings with conversations led by her, but also videos, social media initiatives, internal community meetings, and videos, all with the goal of transparently discussing upcoming changes. Alignment can mean the difference between collapse and success.

It’s true—things are always turbulent when you’re running a business, and the bigger the business the more there is at stake. But when Rosenberg says “get over it,” she doesn’t mean resign yourself to a bumpy road. She means putting on your climbing gear and tackling the mountain ahead.

The post How CEOs Can Lead When the Winds of Change Are Blowing appeared first on DialogTech.

       

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The Call-Only campaign type is designed to help AdWords advertisers reach customers who are actively searching for a phone number to call on their mobile device. Since calling is the preferred contact method by mobile users, the Call-Only campaign type will be essential in driving more calls – and sales – to businesses everywhere.

However, if you aren’t tracking the calls your mobile marketing generates you’ll have a hole in the ROI data you report on. By using a call tracking number in the ads or landing pages within your Call-Only campaigns you’ll have a true view of the number of website call conversions and web form conversions your AdWords campaigns are generating.

View Call Conversions Within the AdWords Interface

Also, in December 2014, Google quietly released custom columns support in AdWords. This enables advertisers using call tracking numbers to add a custom column for calls within the AdWords reporting interface.

Setting up custom columns is easy for customers who are already tracking calls as conversions.

Step 1: Select Customize columns and select the Custom columns tab.

Step 2: Create a new column with name, description, and select your Calls segment.

Step 3: View website call conversions alongside all other AdWords data.

What this new feature gives advertisers is a view of how many total conversions your AdWords campaigns received, with an additional view of how many of those conversions were phone calls. You can set up custom columns down to the keyword level to see which campaigns, ad groups, and keywords are driving the most calls and conversions.

In the image below you can see that of 12 total conversions for this campaign, 8 were phone calls. Having this capability in the AdWords interface makes it even easier for agencies, advertisers, lead gen firms, and the like to show the value of driving phone calls to prove that their marketing is effective.

Questions about tracking call conversions from AdWords? Request a demo of Ifbyphone today.

The post Google AdWords Introduces ‘Call Only’ Campaigns appeared first on DialogTech.

       

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#1) Smartphones Are Digital Portals, But They’re Also Phones

When mobile really got on its feet and became the portal to email, the Internet, and social media that we all know and (usually) love, the running joke was, “Smartphones are amazing! People use them for everything…even the occasional phone call! Ha ha!” But that mode of thinking is not only outdated, it’s dangerous, as it risks being blind to the needs of a huge range of consumers and would-be customers. The numbers speak for themselves:

• 79% of consumers would prefer to contact a customer service center over the phone
• 68% of consumers on smartphones used the “call” button on a smartphone local listing
• 70% of smartphone users think a call button is important
• 67% of online shoppers will call a business directly for any purchase greater than $100

#2) Smartphones Are a Tool on the Path to Purchase, but They Don’t Do the Work for You

Consumers increasingly use their smartphones to help make a purchase decision, and often this means good things for you. After all, people using smartphones are 30% more likely visit a retailer website, 39% more likely to call a business, and 51% more likely to make a purchase. But the mere existence of smartphones and your business in the same universe is not enough to truly benefit from what can is possible as a result of their integration. You must do just that: integrate, and optimize. At this point, a responsive website is not optional. I repeat, not optional. Prospects are using their smartphone to access your site right this second, and if you’re not optimized for that user experience, they’re going to surf right on down the virtual road. As mentioned above, 70% of smartphone users think a call button is important, so ensure you have phone numbers on every page for easy connection between them and you.

#3) You’re Not the Only One Struggling to Measure Cross-Channel Performance

According to this CMO Club study, 82.2% of marketers don’t have the ability to measure cross-channel performance or return on investment. 4.7 billion people worldwide will have access to a mobile phone by the end of this year—the mobile market is only getting bigger—and that means digital marketers have continually more activity and behavior to track and differentiate in their reporting. You’re not alone in your struggle, but don’t get comfortable: the tools are out there to bridge the gap and you definitely don’t want to be the only one not taking advantage of them.

Surviving the mobile tsunami isn’t as hard as you think. This webinar can be your lifejacket: Riding the Impending Wave of Smartphone-Driven Calls.

The post 3 Things You Must Understand About Mobile Marketing Today appeared first on DialogTech.

       

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A growing driver of these calls is mobile search. Mobile search is driving quality calls to your business. 3 out of 4 calls that came from mobile search lasted longer than 30 seconds, which means these are engaged callers looking for information and looking to make a purchase. That’s why, in a mobile world, if you want to boost your call conversions it’s more important than ever to make sure these quality callers are quickly vetted and then quickly routed to the most appropriate sales rep to be converted.

Click-to-Call is a Driving Factor

I touched on it above, but mobile search is generating a lot of calls to businesses. In fact, BIA/Kelsey reports that mobile search will drive 75 billion inbound calls to businesses by 2018. And a key factor in driving those calls? Click-to-call. 70% of mobile searchers have reported they click-to-call directly from search results to connect with a business (Google). They make these calls because they want answers­—fast.

So the first step in quickly connecting with callers is simple enough: give them a number at which to call you (especially as more and more access these numbers on their smartphones and are thus already one step closer to calling). As straightforward as this is, some businesses still don’t realize that nearly half of mobile searchers report that they would explore other brands if they couldn’t easily find a phone number to contact a business (Google). That being said, the businesses that do provide mobile searchers with easy access to their phone numbers may still encounter challenges in converting these callers. That’s where step two comes in.

Speed Matters: Tools to Help Drive Business

After the call comes in, there are tools to help marketers quickly understand the intent of the caller. And if they are sales-ready, there are tools to properly route them. Using a hosted IVR (interactive voice response) system gives you the power to qualify phone leads automatically by asking callers questions relevant to specific marketing goals or campaigns. An IVR helps weed out misdials, solicitations, and basic inquiries, as well as helping callers with things such as account information lookup and assisting with call routing. Callers that then score high enough can be passed to a sales rep to engage in conversation. Your sales team will love you: they no longer have to waste time with mundane inquiries or wrong numbers, but rather will spend time converting the callers who are ready.

An IVR can help determine the initial route of an inbound call, but intelligent call routing can help you set parameters for how calls are directed. Whether you want top-performing agents to get the most calls, your calls to be routed based on certain hours of the day, or to be routed based on the marketing source that drove the call, it can all be done with call routing technology. Marketers using call routing help connect their sales team quickly with callers ready to convert.

Align Marketing and Sales for Max Speed

Strong communication between marketing and sales is a third step in making sure marketing quickly connects sales-ready callers and that sales is prepared to take these calls. Communication ensures your sales organization is always aware of current marketing campaigns. On the other side, marketing needs to confer with sales to understand what a quality lead looks like if they’re going to be able to drive more of them, and then qualify and route them appropriately –with speed.

When one of the main reasons mobile searchers call a business from their smartphones is to get an answer fast, you need to be ready to talk to them. And the elements to making this happen are at your doorstep. Learn more about how marketers are making the most of their inbound calls in our free white paper, “Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales.”

The post Callers Are Ready to Convert, Make Sure You’re Ready to Talk appeared first on DialogTech.

       

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But not only the talent is local—so is the beer and the food. The crowd couldn’t have been happier with awesome brews from Half Acre and Metropolitan and tasty jambalaya, etouffee, and King cake from Le Divas of Chicago. The only thing better than the food and drinks was the conversation, in which employees, founders, and tech-minded entrepreneurs were able to share ideas and insights—and a few laughs too.

We’re happy to be part of such a vibrant, engaged local culture that knows how to collaborate as well as compete. Big thanks to Built In Chicago for making it happen…and we can’t wait until next month’s event.

The post Mardi Gras Comes to the Windy City: Beads + Brews with DialogTech and Built In Chicago appeared first on DialogTech.

       

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Two mobile call conversion paths: landing pages and search engine results

There are two primary ways calls are triggered to a business from mobile search. The first is from visitors that see a mobile search ad, click on it, visit a company’s website, and then call. The second is from calls resulting directly from the search engine results page through mobile call extensions (the “Call” button, often referred to as mobile click-to-call). Ifbyphone’s solutions address both conversion paths, but the focus of this post is on the latter.

Tracking and analyzing mobile call conversions from search results

Call attribution and automation technology allows marketers to track and analyze the smartphone users that click on their mobile call extensions and have a conversation with their business. Marketers can attribute these calls back to the adgroup and campaign that drove the conversion, giving them useful information around which keywords, ads, and adgroups are successfully driving call activity from the search results page. Data on these calls – call duration, unique versus repeat callers, and a variety of other statistics – can be analyzed to provide additional insights into the behavior of mobile callers. All of this information is available on callers that do not even visit the advertiser’s website, thereby filling in a key piece of the attribution puzzle in today’s mobile-centric world.

Determining caller intent to further optimize mobile campaigns

The behavior of calls from mobile call extensions may differ from other conversion paths. In fact, it most likely will. Think about the kinds of businesses you tend to call, the kinds of questions you typically ask, and the kinds of problems you’re trying to solve when you click the “Call” button. The use cases can be quite different from desktop or other searches.

Analyzing these patterns is important to marketers so they can understand the intent of their mobile callers and optimize the path to conversion accordingly. Call recordings, how callers navigate through IVR menus, and the geo-location of the caller all provide useful signals in this process. Additionally, keyword spotting technology allows marketers to identify the specific phrases and keywords mentioned on their calls. These can be used to hone keyword lists, adjust bids, and further optimize mobile campaigns.

Integrating mobile call conversion data with bid management and CRM platforms

Calls from mobile call extensions can be integrated into bid management systems such as Kenshoo and Marin Software. For advertisers utilizing a bid management tool, this is critical to getting all conversion data in a single source and fully tracking (and proving) ROI. Calls from mobile call extensions can also be recorded in Salesforce to track as they progress from leads, to opportunities, to won accounts, to revenue.

Mobile call conversions: here to stay

As mobile consumes more and more aspects of our daily lives, marketers must realize that the buyer journey will increasingly involve new, complex paths. Optimizing the mobile call experience is a critical step to finding success in our mobile-centric world.

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Personalization is everywhere. 35% of Amazon’s product sales result from their recommendation engine (VentureBeat). 75% of Netflix users choose movies based on recommendations from Netflix (Gigaom). As technology becomes increasingly advanced, marketers are finding more and more ways to connect with consumers on a personal level, and one of those ways is to personalize the call experience.

Personalizing the Call

Consumers are expecting a personalized experience for every marketing interaction, and this means phone calls too. Due to the increasing use of mobile phones, more calls are coming into businesses than ever before. According to analyst firm BIA/Kelsey, by 2018, inbound calls to businesses are supposed to reach upwards of 73 billion. Creating a caller experience that is highly personal can lead to increased customer satisfaction and retention, as well as consumers who are more willing to make a purchase. Personalizing the call experience is crucial, but most marketers aren’t yet capitalizing on it.

Route Callers by Source

The caller experience can be personalized in a number of ways. Getting the caller to the right place is crucial, and this starts before a call is ever made. Using call tracking, you can determine where the caller found your phone number, and how they got there, providing you the ability to route calls based on marketing sources. Knowing where the call was made from and what they searched for to get there allows you to route that call to the person most suitable to handle that call. Or maybe the call originated on your careers page, meaning that call should be routed directly to your HR department. No matter what the source, call tracking will capture that information, which can then be used to route the call to the appropriate place. This real-time personalization gets the call to the right place based on how the caller found you.

Use Custom Surveys to Manage and Route Callers

There are numerous ways that calls can be handled depending on who specifically is calling. The most common way of creating an individualized experience for callers is by using interactive voice response (IVR). These automated surveys can route and qualify calls, process orders, survey customers, and more. With a voice automation solution, the answers to these IVR surveys can be used to route the call to the person best able to handle the call.

Advanced Call Routing Capabilities

Routing phone calls to the right place on the first try is a surefire way to keep consumers happy. With advanced call routing, it is easy to direct phone calls to the right location or person, all in real-time. Calls can be routed using geo-location to ensure that they are connected with the store or sales unit closest to them. VIP customers can get the special treatment they deserve when calls are routed based off of their phone number. Are your weekend calls handled by a different department or outsourced? No problem, just route your inbound calls based on a custom schedule. With all of these options you can ensure that your callers are getting where they need to and talking to the right person.

Enable Your Agents with Real-time Caller Information

The personalized call experience doesn’t stop after the call is routed. Enabling your sales and service reps with the caller’s information right at the time of the call lets them greet callers by name or already have an idea of why they are calling. With CRM screen pops, your agents will have immediate access to the caller’s name, number, location, the source of the phone call, and any search keywords that led the caller to you. This allows your sales and service reps to handle each call on an individual basis, personalizing the experience for the person on the other end of the phone.

Every marketing experience that the consumer has should be personalized just for them. By adding real-time call personalization to your arsenal, you make your customer experience better and more personal. With so many options on how to route your inbound calls, your callers will talk to the right person, right away. Interested in learning more about real-time call personalization? Check out our white paper, the Marketer’s Guide to Qualifying, Routing, and Scoring Inbound Calls to Optimize Sales.

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All of the 30 quotes you see in Salesforce’s original post are fantastic, as they echo the increasingly embraced notion of customer-centric business. But out of all the (beautiful) images Salesforce created for this list, we focused on the one you see above and the one you see below for very specific reasons.

We’ll start with the top image.

“The future of communicating with customers rests in engaging with them through every possible channel: phone, e-mail, chat, Web, and social networks. Customers are discussing a company’s products and brand in real time. Companies need to join the conversation.”

Someone needs to buy Marc Benioff a drink just for this quote alone. In so few words, it highlights so many important truths, especially given the number of companies that claim to have joined the customer-centric turn that business has taken, but still resist actually communicating with their customers. There are so many channels of communication that exist to connect us with our base, but rather than embracing them as an opportunity for growth, many businesses actively resist them. This is particularly true for the phone and social media, channels that too many businesses (wrongly) view as either too complicated or unnecessary, despite the fact that the numbers say otherwise. “Every possible channel” means every possible channel. And with mobile search set to generate 73 billion calls to businesses in 2018, no industry can afford to ignore this opportunity to connect with their customers.

Now for the bottom image, below:

It seems like such a simple thing. Providing consistently amazing customer service is the best gift you can give, right? Yes, so why do so many businesses treat it as an option and not a necessity? This mindset is often due to the idea that call centers have to be expensive and complicated to manage, but that is an outdated mode of thinking. With the increasing sophistication of call management tools that are available to businesses of all sizes, companies who don’t implement them are running out of excuses.

Look at companies like Zappos, for example, whose customer service is not only exemplary but legendary. Of Zappos, The Guardian writes:

“At Zappos, customer service is how they market the brand. Zappos takes most of the money it could spend on advertising and invests it in customer service. Treat people amazingly well and they’ll tell their friends. Zappos lets it customers do the marketing. Hsieh writes: ‘The telephone is one of the best branding devices out there.’ Rather than urging customer service staff to take as many calls as quickly as possible, there are no quotas and the longer the call the better.

Now that is something worth talking about. That is the kind of approach to customer service that sets some businesses ahead…and others behind. And that is inspirational.

Want to learn more about how to move toward becoming a customer-centric company? Download this free white paper, Beyond the Cloud: The Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers.

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“Flagship” Road: Your Core Content

I say “Flagship” because these forms of content are some of your core pieces. Businesses typically invest a good amount of time into their development and as a result they have a much longer shelf life. Maybe you spend a month developing, researching, and writing a white paper – you want that investment of time to extend to the life of the actual piece of content. Start small and determine which form is a good fit for your business before you try and tackle them all.

You can build authority by using analysts or voices of expertise within your business to develop Flagship content such as white papers, research reports, and webinars. These pieces often lay the groundwork for content curation because they are more in-depth and cover multiple facets of a topic. Businesses are able to break down Flagship pieces and repurpose the information for the other two content segments, which we’ll get into next.

“Constant” Drive: Your Delivery Content

In this day and age, our customers are always on and easily accessible. Similarly, we need to have content that is always available to them, with consistent ways of delivering it. This definitely requires organization, but with good planning it will help you produce a steady stream of information for your customers. And having voices at every level contribute – from staff to directors to the CEO to your own customers – can help the content you create resonate with different audiences. Have your CEO write a blog, or that next email include the testimonial of a customer.

Constant content often plays the role of distributor in your overall curation strategy: it helps you communicate (or recommunicate) new and existing content. You have the opportunity to consistently highlight your content to drive more engagement. While you may have more of an initial time investment when developing your strategy for Constant content, it will pay off. Once you have a plan in place, the pieces will be easier to develop and deliver to your customers.

“Quick Hits” Highway: Your Mobile Content

What constitutes “Quick Hit” content can vary from business to business, but one thing remains true across the board: it is meant to offer easy-to-digest information. Keep this content light and not too in-depth, and when readers want something more they’ll turn to your Flagship content. Quick Hits are especially suited for today’s increasingly mobile audience. While browsing on our smartphones, what are we more inclined to view: a visual infographic or an in-depth research report? Creating infographics, videos, surveys, tip guides, and the like will help you reach this mobile audience.

Your customers will typically see Quick Hit content when they’re traveling at 70mph, so it needs to be memorable. It needs to grab their attention, whether that’s with a catchy message or a visually appealing display. You can always curate ideas for these pieces from your Flagship content and deliver them via your Constant content.

Measure the Success of Your Content Segmentation

The more you can understand how your customers consume the above content segments, the better you’ll be able to define what success metrics you need to look for. Were you nurturing leads? Did you want to drive conversions? Then as you gather this data you’ll be able to optimize your content to drive more of the results you want.

I hinted at it above, but as more content is consumed on mobile devices, the more important it is to understand which forms are best suited for the platform and how they are going to take action. Voice has become increasingly important to mobile marketing: people are now one step closer to calling you for more information. Making sure you have a phone number within your content, and being able to track where calls originate, helps you round out measuring the ROI of your segmented content. All so you can create more relevant information for your customers and deliver it on the platform they want.

Interested in taking control of your content? Check out our free white paper to learn more about how you can get more out of your content marketing: “Marketer’s Guide to Proving (and Improving) Content Marketing ROI.”

The post 3 Avenues to Content Segmentation Success appeared first on DialogTech.

       

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