Sometimes in the focus on clicks to websites, calls are forgotten. This is unfortunate, since calls actually produce higher sales and sales interactions.
BIA/Kelsey researches local marketing. This report in 2013 is still relevant today.
Here is what some of its research is finding:
Local businesses and local marketers say that phone calls are their best leads. Sixty-four percent of local marketers say phone calls are better than any other lead source. They are better than clicks, traffic, form fill-outs, social media leads and even foot-traffic. These local marketers value calls above anything else.
Phone calls are the best. Why are they the best? Because they convert to customers more often than anything else.
This plays right into mobile phones and the way shoppers use them.
Local businesses spent $68 billion last year to generate calls. That number is increasing. And an increasing percentage of that $68 billion is coming via mobile.
An increasing number of local businesses are turning to mobile to generate high-quality calls. The first foray into mobile for these businesses is an effort to drive calls via paid search.
Phone calls turn into customers 10x to 12x more often than Web leads do. This is pretty powerful stuff.
Research from Marketing Sherpa and Hubspot indicates that form fill-out leads only convert to customers about 2 percent of the time. Data from Mobile Marketing Daily shows that 25-40 percent of inbound phone calls to local businesses turn into customers.
That means, that calls turn into customers 10x to 12x more frequently than Web leads do.
If you have been focusing only on clicks, take a look at calls your business is receiving. Are you tracking them? Are you receiving them in a professional manner?