5 reasons why inbound calls are still important to your business

5 reasons why inbound calls are still important to your business

It’s tempting to think that, in marketing, the digital revolution has progressed to the extent that there is simply no going back – in any way or form. Taking this view, you might perceive picking up a phone again to be a retrograde step. Can phone calls really still help generate sales these days?

Surprisingly or not, the answer is yes – and you should be particularly alert when a customer calls your company rather than vice versa, as such calls can be especially potent sources of sales.

Inbound calls are demonstrably the best leads

Research from Invoca and mentioned by bytestart.co.uk says that 61% of businesses deem incoming calls their most valuable kind of lead. Similarly, according to BIA/Kelsey statistics, 64% to 86% of local firms say they convert more by telephone than through any other type of lead.

Conversion rates can be particularly high for companies that offer services or high-end products or operate online, though traditional retail businesses will typically draw more from footfall instead.

Calls convert far more often than online

According to Hubspot and Marketing Sherpa, inbound calls have a 25% to 40% conversion rate – significantly dwarfing the 2% of occasions on which online leads convert to customers. To make that difference starker: telephone leads surpass online ones 10 to 12 times over.

Even Google can also vouch for the great conversion power of inbound calls, noting that pay-per-call campaigns get 6% to 8% more conversions than pay-per-click.

Calls can make you a bigger money-spinner

If your business is typical of companies researched by Convirza, probably as many as 95% of your firm’s leads are derived online, with phone calls accounting for just 5% of the lead volume.

However, calls appear to bring revenue at a significantly speedier rate than online leads – as, according to Convirza’s research, phone calls were still responsible for 25% of the total monetary takings. At Planet Telecom, we can even help you limit your expenditure on calls in the first place.

Mobile-friendly marketing can encourage more calls

Google recently reported that users are now searching the web on mobile devices more often than on desktop. You can capitalise if you make your marketing efforts mobile-friendly – as, this year, mobile search is expected to produce 73 billion calls to companies.

That’s more than double the number of such calls that mobile search generated in 2013 – and Google has revealed that mobile search results directly prompt 71% of mobile searchers to call.

You can more easily enhance the customer experience

Often, when a customer calls your business, it will be to receive immediate action on an issue. Email is not considered such a fitting communication channel for this purpose, notes TG Daily. If you are readily available as the customer requires, they will perceive your brand as trustworthy.

Therefore, don’t neglect to effectively serve the needs of a customer who does call. We also offer a call answering service which can help your customers when you need to be away from that phone.