We know that climate change will make water scarcer. But it could also have big economic impacts, Richard Damania of the World Bank says.
It almost goes without saying that analytics are crucial to developing successful online marketing campaigns. You know all about Kissmetrics, Google Analytics, Google AdWords and everything in between. But even if you're already tracking all of your online activity, you may still not have a full grasp of lead and conversion data unless you're also tracking phone calls.
Phone call tracking is the missing piece of the marketing analytics puzzle, allowing marketers to alleviate attribution blind spots and better understand their audience by analyzing which digital and offline marketing tactics are causing customers to pick up the phone and call. By integrating call tracking software, you'll be able to get a 360-degree view of customer behavior and gain a better sense of how to effectively reach your core audience.
It's true that you may already have a decent idea of who your customer is. However, call tracking can offer you additional powerful insights and information on your customer base, allowing you to understand your target audience like never before.
It's pretty straightforward, but the first and most obvious benefit of call tracking is the ability to listen to your customer firsthand. By recording phone calls, you're able to determine how effective your customer service is and identify where you could use some improvement, all with the ultimate goal of boosting customer satisfaction and conversion rates. You'll also be able to better qualify leads and determine which callers require more attention in order to turn them into loyal customers.
In addition, call recording allows you to listen in on your employees and their interactions with leads and customers. By honing in on your sales team's conversations with callers, you'll be able to better analyze their tactics and identify areas that require attention to increase conversion rates.
Finally, call recording allows you to get a better idea of where to spend your efforts, whether that's on your staff, your marketing assets or your product development. Whatever the case may be, recording phone calls can help businesses exceed their own expectations and achieve success.
Is there any instance where call recording isn't beneficial to a business? It's tough to say, but for smaller businesses just starting out, they may not have the budget or time to implement call recording quite yet. Also digital businesses that primarily rely on the Web for customer conversion and service may not see a great benefit. In all of these cases, free tools such as Google Analytics and AdWords may make more sense before diving into all the features of call analytics software.
Beyond call recording, call tracking software offers a variety of impressive features that can give you a clearer picture of the overall success of your marketing strategy. Among these include keyword level tracking, campaign level tracking and multi-channel attribution tracking. These features allow you to examine and analyze each of your campaigns with unparalleled precision in order to see actual correlations between your marketing efforts and results. By gathering such in-depth insights, you'll be able to better track your individual marketing initiatives and determine which ones are the most successful to your business.
We'll talk about each of these features separately and how they can help you improve your individual campaigns - and ultimately, your business's marketing strategy as a whole.
Let's first look at keyword level tracking. This dynamic feature allows you to see which keywords are driving the most phone calls and conversions, which can be exceptionally useful in tracking the success of PPC campaigns. Here's how it works:
The benefits of keyword level tracking should be clear. By seeing firsthand which keywords are driving calls, you'll be able to better understand which marketing efforts are working and which ones need to be fine-tuned.
Similarly, campaign level tracking allows you to see which marketing campaigns - both online and offline - are driving the most conversions. You'll be able to view data from your phone calls in your call analytics dashboard, so even if you've implemented a non-digital marketing campaign, you can measure its success alongside your online efforts. By analyzing the results of both your digital and offline efforts, you'll be able to get a better grasp of the success of your overall marketing strategy. You can apply tracking at the campaign level to a variety of efforts, including but not limited to print ads, billboards, TV spots, PPC campaigns and Facebook ads, to better understand which campaigns are resonating with your customer base.
Most customers interact with your business in more ways than one, but it can oftentimes be difficult to track their exact journey from start to finish. Multi-channel attribution bridges that gap, allowing you to track the entire progress of an online lead and effectively measure which online marketing channels lead to offline telephone call conversions.
To paint a picture of how this works, let's say you have a lead who first learns about your business through Google AdWords. They click on the ad, browse your website for a bit then go offline for the day. A few days later they remember visiting your website and decide to visit again, this time finding your site by doing a search or directly typing in the URL. They exit your website, and then a few days later pick up the phone after being retargeted through a paid display ad.
Without multi-channel attribution you would only see the first channel a visitor came through, in this case Google AdWords. Call tracking enabled multi-channel attribution provides the ability to view the entire customer lifecycle and effectively measure which online marketing channels lead to offline call conversions. You not only see the first touch point, but the touch point that resulted in a phone call. This data can be used to optimize campaigns and provide proof of successful marketing campaigns that are driving conversions.
While all of these features offer powerful insights to savvy data-driven marketers, it's important to note that they may not be right for everyone. For business owners who may not be very experienced in analytics, call tracking software might seem like a completely foreign land. And as mentioned before, call analytics may not have great benefit for businesses such as e-commerce companies that drive revenue through clicks and not calls. Be sure to thoroughly weigh your options before integrating call tracking into your marketing strategy.
Call tracking isn't just beneficial to individual businesses who really want to hone in on their customer base, but it can be crucial in proving ROI for marketing agencies as well. Call tracking makes it easy for agencies to deliver what clients pay for: proven results. Just like the scenarios outlined above, call tracking enhanced lead attribution capabilities empower agencies to show their clients which campaigns are driving valuable phone calls. Moreover, call tracking can help agencies make smarter marketing decisions, which can lead to a reduction in wasteful ad spending and drive better ROI. Better ROI creates happy clients that stay with an agency for a longer period of time.
Agencies also reap benefits by integrating call tracking software with other software applications that they are already using, such as Kissmetrics. Additionally, the leading call tracking providers offer specific features to help agencies serve their clients. These features include white label solutions to provide a seamless agency brand experience, the ability to handle multiple client companies via a single login, custom client reporting, and view-level access to enable clients to access their call analytics dashboard to view their data and see the results for themselves.
Kissmetrics has partnered with CallRail to deliver call analytics. Integrating with CallRail alleviates attribution blind spots and allows you to see a more complete picture of how your customers are interacting with your company, not just on your website but also through the telephone. You can track which phone numbers generate more calls and deliver more new customers.
With the CallRail Kissmetrics integration, website activity is automatically associated with a phone call without a person needing to collect any identifying information. CallRail is the only call provider that automatically associates phone calls to web visits to phone calls in Kissmetrics. This works beautifully with Kissmetrics's person-based analytics approach.
Integrating CallRail with Kissmetrics is simple two-step process. First, go to the Kissmetrics site settings page and copy your Tracking API.
Then head over to CallRail's Kissmetrics integration page and paste your Kissmetrics API key and click the activate button.
Whether you're a standalone business or a marketing agency, call tracking provides a variety of powerful features that aid you in tracking the success of your marketing campaigns to ultimately improve ROI. By zeroing-in on customer behavior and data, you'll be able to gain a better understanding of your target audience and fine-tune your overall marketing strategy to boost conversions.
About the Author: Lance Weatherby has vast sales and marketing experience with both early stage and high growth technology startups. He is currently Vice President of Marketing for CallRail, an Atlanta based marketing technology company focused on call analytics that offers an integration with Kissmetrics. CallRail's call tracking software is used by more than 30,000 companies and marketing agencies. He can be found on Twitter at @lance.
The average price of a new vehicle in the US is about $32,086 which is a lot for a single purchase. While having a car may be crucial to most people who can't rely on others or public transportation to get around, buying a brand new car may be out of the budget.
Even reliable used cars can be a financial stretch, and financing is often necessary. Financing allows you to borrow money so you can buy your car now, while you pay off the loan plus interest over time.
It sounds nice to drive now and pay later, but owing extra money on a depreciating asset like a car may not appeal to you. When I graduated from college and my 17-year-old car died, I had very little savings and no way to get to work. I was caught between an expensive rock and an impossible hard place: I either had to finance a new car or lose my job.
I ended up paying off a 60-month loan in just 18 months, which allowed me to actually enjoy owning my car before it lost a large portion of its value.
There are a few things you can do to finance a car the smart way and pay off the loan fast.
Before you go to the dealership or lender, be sure to check your credit score to make sure you can qualify for a low interest rate. The lower your rate is, the less money you'll have to repay when you take out a loan.
I recommend checking as many of your credit scores as you can (there are often significant differences) and looking closely at the lowest one. This is the score most lenders will probably look at.
A good way to determine how soon you can pay your car loan off before you actually finance it is to calculate your loan amount and potential interest rate along with a repayment term that meets your preferences.
Related: Try Our Free Auto Loan Calculator Here
If your credit score is low, financing a car may not be worth it. But if you have a score that's above average, you'll qualify for a low interest rate, and you may be able to take out a smaller loan and pay it back quickly.
My credit score was average when I financed my car, so I didn't receive the best interest rate, but I had a large down payment and kept my loan amount small (just under $10,000) which helped me pay off the loan faster.
When you go to a dealership to finance a car, the sales agent will most likely ask you how much you would like to pay each month. It may sound like they're trying to accommodate your budget and make you feel comfortable with the amount you'll have to borrow, but this may not be true.
While it's important to have an affordable monthly payment, there are other factors to consider, like your interest rate and loan term. If you have a low monthly car loan payment of $200 but a 72-month term and a 10 percent interest rate, you will be spending thousands more over the life of your extended-term loan. You won't be saving any money; you'll just be spreading the loan amount over a longer time.
Don't fall for this trick. Get a reasonable monthly payment with a shorter term or commit to making extra payments on your loan so you can pay it off sooner.
Related: Calculator: How Much Car Can You Afford?
We just explained how easy it is to manipulate a monthly car payment by making a loan longer. It's a trick dealers love to use to veil the actual price you're paying for the car.
While negotiating may not lead to a significantly lower price, it's worth a try-especially if the timing is right and an opportunity presents itself.
Just like dealership salespeople can try to sell you a more expensive car, you can also try to talk them down on the price or choose a more affordable car on the lot. An important question to ask is how long has the car you're interested in been has sitting on the lot. If the car has been there for a few weeks or months, you may be able to ask for a lower price since the demand obviously isn't too high.
This technique can also work if you're buying a car directly from a previous owner. Even taking $500-$1,000 off the purchase price will allow you to save money and have a smaller car loan to pay back.
Read more: Negotiate And Win! How To Beat Car Dealers At Their Own Game
If you financed a car and you received a high interest rate because your credit wasn't that good (more than 5 or 6 percent for a car loan could be considered high), you can refinance your car loan just like you can refinance a mortgage. If you've been making payments on-time, your credit score might have improved so check it again before applying to refinance.
Refinancing with a lower rate can help more of your money go toward the actual principal balance and not just interest. That saves you money and can either reduce your monthly payment or help you get the car paid off faster.
If your credit has markedly improved, you may be able to refinance with your existing lender. Otherwise, a local credit union is a great choice for auto loan refinancing, or you can visit a site like LendingTree which can help you shop several competing banks to get you the best rate on a refinanced car loan.
Try It Now: Get Free Auto Loan Refinancing Quotes At LendingTree Now
To pay off my car loan in one and a half years instead of five, I prioritized the debt by making extra payments. Here are a few specific ways to help you pay off your car loan sooner rather than later:
Make your extra monthly payment amount at least half of the minimum payment amount. If your monthly car note is $200, start by putting an extra $100 toward your loan each month.
Use lump sum payments to rapidly reduce your loan balance: Your tax refund, bonuses at work, or cash gifts.
Ask your employer for a raise or establish some side income, and put the extra earnings toward your debt.
Sell your car for a more affordable vehicle if it makes sense financially. I considered doing this but decided against it after weighing the pros and cons. If your car is worth more than you owe on it and if you can use the difference to purchase another car that would be reliable and have low mileage, this could be an option to get rid of your car loan debt all at once and pay for a new car in cash. If, however, you're upside down on your car loan (meaning you owe more than the car is worth) or you wouldn't be able to find a reliable car for much less than you're currently paying, it's often best to stick it out with your current ride.
There's a right way and a wrong way to finance a car. Circumstances may force your hand, and you'll have no choice but to finance. If that's the case, monitor your credit so you maintain a high score, and be sure to get a loan you can afford to pay back quickly-not just a loan with an affordable minimum monthly payment. Then prioritize your debt by putting extra money toward the monthly payment each month to shorten your term.
Smarter Auto Financing: How To Pay Your Car Loan Off Fast appeared first on Money Under 30. © Moneyblogs, LLC.
