Best Call Tracking Software

For all businesses, Return on Investment (ROI) is the best method of estimating the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. A healthier ROI figure points to a better business bottom line, improving the business's holistic growth. 

To help vector the progress of marketing initiatives in the direction of positive ROI, there needs to be tools and functionalities that help distill insight into the success of the initiatives mentioned above. An easy way to estimate the ROI of campaigns is through call tracking. 

Call tracking has evolved from its humble guise and somewhat limited functionality to being something of a chief protagonist on the broader marketing and sales analytics armory. This Buyer's Guide of Call Tracking Software can help prospective new users of the software understand the value of their purchases and the capability of the software.

Considered an essential tracker of the profitability of an inbound marketing campaign, call tracking involves keeping a simple check on the number of calls received on a particular telephone number. The numbers are used as part of an online or offline campaign to allow people to connect with your businesses for multiple purposes.  

Call tracking is a means to an end, i.e. it can point us in the way forward to achieve excellent marketing results, not accomplish it on its own. While it may not generate a direct marketing result, it will certainly inform marketing managers about the effectiveness of different campaigns thereby, leading to campaign optimizations.

Let's suppose an organization wants to run three different marketing campaigns - A Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Google Ads campaign, a radio advertising campaign, and a TV Ad campaign.

While it is easy to measure the performance of an online campaign (Google Ads) to a fine degree, it is often difficult to figure out success of the latter two. One way to supplant this lack of insight is by checking the number of leads generated by either campaign.

Attaching distinct phone numbers to each campaign and then checking the number of inbound calls from these campaigns will give managers a better idea of what works. Once a user dials-in, the software takes a decision on re-routing the call based on user intent and other factors.

In rudimentary terms, call tracking simply ensures the recording - manually or automatically - of the number of calls to each unique phone number. 

In the modern era, it is possible to record different aspects of calls such as duration, emotions in the conversation, feedback, etc. for bettering marketing efforts.

With a break-away from traditional forms of marketing and sales, companies have realized that measurement of ROI for every initiative implemented, is necessary. Marketing's efforts must be put into channels that generate maximum leads, thus generating better ROI. Conversion Tracking, Caller Identification, Keyword analysis, reporting, etc., all play a vital role in improving campaigns.  

Call tracking gives companies an easy and efficient tracking method. With features available today, such as voice analysis, telephonic marketing is a viable method to track success. It tells businesses whether they should only focus on a digital marketing strategy or fan their marketing efforts across different channels.         

The activity also leads to a strategy popularly called Growth Hacking. Growth hacking, though primarily focusing on online channels, are used to deliver exceptional customer growth in marketing activities.  

We live in the conversationalist era. People (prospective buyers) need to interact with the brand more to solidify their purchase decisions. Call tracking not only enables businesses to understand which campaign generates leads but analyzes the degree to which they're connecting to consumers over the call, using a specific set of tools - akin to social listening.  

The 21st century has proven that this insight is significant. The better the conversations over the tracked phone number, the greater is the success of the business. 

On the face of it, call tracking helps marketers understand which channels they must invest correctly in, to help the organization grow its business top-line. It helps businesses focus on channels that generate maximum marketing ROI.

Once set-up, call tracking is largely autonomous, and performing analysis is easier on the data available. This helps optimize otherwise laborious marketing initiatives.

Nowadays, companies have to ensure customers get the best service possible. Using call tracking systems business managers can listen-in on calls and pinpoint service needs. Tools such as sentiment analysis are vital to help companies guage customer intent and mood. This plays a part in enhanced user satisfaction.

Can you endear your brand to users from multiple cultures as well? Of Course, Call routing can channel calls from particular geographies/lingua regions to specific linguistic centers, where they can speak and interact in their local languages.

Other factors tracked over calls can actually lead to substantial improvement in certain company processes, which they may not have paid attention to. Call tracking also helps businesses understand the value of particular goods/services offered to a particular segment of the population. It will plan an important role in improving current offerings, quality of after-sales services, the need to establish an entirely different product line, etc.

Doing the above will help companies future-proof themselves against trends and pioneer modern problem-solving products. It also leads to a better-focused Customer Relationship Management (CRM) mechanism.

Outbound call tracking software is used by different departments within an organization thanks to its ubiquity and ease of use. Let’s look at some of these departments in detail. 

The Marketing function within an organization needs marketing campaigns on point to effectively drive customers through the funnel, with the right message, so as to convert leads into fructified sales. 

Marketing managers and executives use call tracking software to analyze the effectiveness of the marketing campaigns of different channels in which they’re implemented. The idea is to increase ROI per channel. Campaign optimization, marketing communications, SEO and organic strategy, Paid advertising, etc., are avenues that marketing personnel will look to improve on after analyzing call tracking software reports.  

Thought the buck stops with marketing? Think again! Sales personnel need to achieve targets. Therefore, sales managers will closely follow call tracking platform communication and lead conversions rates per channel to further optimize sales processes. This involves an analysis of consumer sentiment, tracking conversations over a phone call, and analyzing touch-points. 

At an operational level, call center managers will look at call tracking tools’ features such as time spent on calls and other reporting metrics to formulate methods to increase employee efficiency and customer service parameters.

The induction of call tracking as a concept began with the fertile era of offline marketing. Here, marketing managers - and even individuals running paid advertising in papers or other offline mediums - would attach specific phone numbers to channels. The leads generated from a particular channel would be manually recorded to decode which campaigns have better visibility and perform better.

In the online era, companies invested in advanced call tracking systems to effectively increment their marketing analytics efforts. Attaching phone numbers to multiple online paid and organic campaigns for customers to interact with, was possible. With the sheer number of campaigns that could be set up, it became imperative to track them effectively.       

Call tracking software could follow dynamic number insertion or simply track the number of leads coming in from a particular campaign on a specific number. Over the years in the digital era, call tracking software has evolved leaps and bounds. Nowadays, even a simple campaign phone number tracking involves a plethora of other functionalities associated with it. 

We can analyze the page from which the call was made, the time of the day, the caller's ID, location, device, and demographic set. We can estimate the caller’s income, and call tracking software also gives us enough opportunity to study the intent of the customer using voice sentiment analysis. Recording, transcription, and sharing - as well as real-time analytics of reporting, are also available.

• Online call tracking software comes with specialized and generalized functionalities. Some of the most popular forms of call tracking software are as follows:     
• Dynamic call tracking: In this method, marketers control the criteria under which a number is shown to a potential lead. Based on a set of conditions, different sets of numbers are shown to users for them to interact with the brand.   It's an online-only method for call tracking.   There are two types of Dynamic Call tracking -    

• Channel-based tracking - Unique phone number assigned to a particular marketing channel on which a lead brought into the system. Collecting information based on user websites visited and the content user consumed.    

• Session-based tracking: The call tracking solution tracks a leads session on your website and associates a unique phone number to every session. This helps determine the exact location of the user on the page when he made a call.   The method helps users optimize their overall SEO strategy and landing pages.      

• Static number tracking: This form of call tracking entails a 'one number for one channel' philosophy. Call tracking software records the numbers or leads arriving   (including information about those leads) onto a particular phone number that is strictly associated with just one channel.    

• Call-back tracking: A popular variant of call tracking software, this system prompts users to input phone numbers into a form alongside vital information on specific websites. A particular phone number to call back users is set up. The intent is to interact with users and convert them to a qualified lead. This method is ONLY applicable to online marketing models.

Some of the best features of Call Tracking Software are as follows - 

• Call Recording -  This feature allows companies to better their sales process and customer interactions. The recording of calls is solely for business purposes. Once calls are recorded they can be analyzed for customer intent (Awareness, Consideration, Buying, Loyalty).  sentiment analysis, and other characteristics. 
• Call Routing - This feature ensures calls coming from marketing campaigns spread over different channels and geographies, are routed to a specific call center. For example, companies can ensure that calls coming in from a location in France are routed to centers where conversations are initiated in French only. Similarly, routing can be done on multiple factors, depending on the company objectives.  
• Caller Identification & Profile - Being able to develop a caller profile based on the device they are calling you from, caller number, locality, time of call, and other referential details is immensely helpful in condensing marketing efforts. The call tracking systems should have features to help you develop a caller profile. 
• Real-Time Analytics & Reporting - It’s important to figure out important metrics to help service customer needs, as well as observe campaign management, in real-time. Call tracking tools must be able to deliver data reporting and visual representation of important factors easily.  
• CRM Integration - It is important to find the best call tracking software that can integrate with CRM tools. This will allow sales personnel to use caller profiles from tracked numbers into their contacts for further communication and activities.  
• Campaign Management - The best call tracking apps have the ability to monitor campaigns from which specific phone numbers are getting caller traffic. The software must be able to portray a complete picture of the campaign - with several other metrics available to the user to optimize the marketing efforts in real-time.  
• Paid-search Attribution -  Wouldn’t you, as a marketing manager, want to know the touch-points in a paid marketing campaign that are yielding maximum leads. Though different attribution models, such as linear, time-decay, and position-based are often used, call management software must be able to help identify the right attribution model. 
• Keyword Tracking - Those terms often searched by users to land and interact with your brand, either or a paid campaign or an organic search one is important to help you identify avenues for revenue. Keyword research and analysis tools on inbound call tracking software will massively help scale up campaigns and offer improved targeting. 
• Dashboards - An intuitive dashboard will enable businesses to quickly access data on a screen from which they can make immediate decisions on campaigns that affect business revenues and profitability.
• Conversion Tracking - Call tracking platforms must be able to record the conversions of an inbound client, at various stages in the funnel, to a sale. 

Some advantages of call tracking solutions are as follows -

• Scalable over multiple systems 
• Campaign spending optimization 
• Determines accurate ROI on paid marketing campaigns
• True customer insights with data gathered on calls
• Intelligent reporting & analytics 
• Offers multi-tool integration to complete multiple marketing objectives
• Immediate feedback on sales initiatives and interactions
• Refinement of SEO and organic online traffic initiatives 
• Staff and call center employee management

The best call tracking software is easy to choose from amongst the clutter of solutions available.  There remain, however, a set of vital factors to consider before progressing to choose the call tracking system. They are as follows - 

• Price - Call tracking software must be affordable for businesses of any size and must not affect the outlay of budgets significantly. Choose call tracking systems only with essential features to reduce cost.  There are several free and open source call tracking software available in the market as well for you to get amazing service and functionality at minimal investment. 
• Customer Service - A bug-bear for many other software companies, one must make sure that call tracking tools have efficient and timely customer service protocols to benefit users in times of installation, after-sales service, upgrades, and instances of general doubt sessions. 
• Security - Call tracking solutions will contain a lot of user sensitive data. This is vital not just for company perspectives, but also from a user standpoint as privacy violations, identity theft, etc., all could happen under the ambit of the call tracker app deploying company. Besides this, important company information may be at risk of a breach. Therefore, it makes absolute sense to only buy software that promises absolute security. 
• Features - Can you afford to forgo a couple of features for the sake of your business? It’s important to choose the software that has the RIGHT feature portfolio for your business. Without essential features, call tracker investments may go to waste.
• Type - A choice has to be made between Dynamic Call tracking solutions or Static call center tracking software. They have their advantages and limitations. It’s especially important to know the best type of software you need before considering a purchase.  

There exist multiple tiers of prices for call tracking software and other services.  

Bitrix24, VICIdial, and ORekaGPL are call center tracking software that is easy to download and ready to use on client systems.  

Ringba, a good call tracking tool, offers its basic package to users free of cost. Call tracking systems such as DemandForce and Call View 360 offer Free Demos of their software, while they stipulate that a final price on the paid version of their software will be taken once they understand business requirements.  

Call tracking platforms such as Call Tracker price their offerings as low as $4 per month. CloudTalk and Nimbata have call tracking services priced between $10 and $15 per YEAR. 

CallPlease, TrackDrive, CallHippo, and ClixTell are call tracking software priced between $9 and $19 per month. Midrange versions of the call tracking solutions WhatCoverts, novocall, & My Call Cloud charge between $30 and $69 per month. 

Online call tracking software such as Analytic Call Tracking, Ruler Analytics, and MarketingCloudFX put a premium on their products and services, charging between $99 and $299 per month. 

LEADSpedia is a complete performance marketing and call tracker app that charges $1000 per month. 

GoodFirms' has created an exceptional list of Call Tracking Software. The powerhouse resource has vital documented aspects of call tracking apps that can ultimately play a big role in helping users finalize their choice. 

This Buyer's Guide represents information such as average cost, features, alongside benefits of call tracking tools. Information on other variants of call tracking services based on pricing - free and open source call tracking software, premium call tracking systems, freemium, call tracker software, etc., can be found on the platform as well.    

GoodFirms has compiled a detailed software directory, for users to get information on various types of software. Do give it a read as well.