Archive for December, 2009

Phone Call Tracking – Can Small to Medium Sized Businesses Afford It?

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Local small to medium sized businesses can’t afford not to do it! In a tough economy, paying a little extra for call tracking is a must to save money and make more of it.

How Does Phone Call Tracking Help Businesses Save and Make More Money?

A rule of thumb for marketing is: if you can’t measure it, don’t do it. Call tracking allows business owners to calculate a return-on-investment (ROI) for EVERY form of advertising they are paying for – even the internet! This is done by ordering toll-free or local unique tracking phone numbers and placing them in any traditional print advertising and by placing a dynamically changing number on their website. Every time any ad or form of internet marketing delivers a phone call, the call is recorded, traced back and can be seen in real-time detailed reports showing call volume. This allows business owners to know exactly how much money was delivered by each ad and form of internet marketing specifically. With this information, a true ROI can be captured. After ROIs are calculated, smart business owners then allocate marketing dollars into the best forms of advertising.

Aside from allocating money to what is actually driving relevant leads and canceling poor performing advertising, business owners need to do everything they can to close each lead that was paid for. This is called call-back-closing (CBC). If money has been spent to make the phone ring, then why not do everything to close that call? With call tracking/recording, business owners can call price shoppers back to see how their experience has been and then get another shot to close. Most callers will not object to having you call them back if you ask during the initial call, in fact, they will most likely appreciate the call back, because it shows these customers that businesses actually care about finding them what they need. In most cases, close ratios go up dramatically when customers are called back.

There are so many other benefits phone call tracking provides and this article lists only two of them, which are:

  • calculating a true ROI
  • CBC

Phone call tracking is not just a great tool for businesses, it’s a necessary and yet affordable tool to survive unprofitable advertising, find great advertising and save leads. Call tracking takes the guessing out of marketing. Are you tracking your advertising?

By www.OozleMedia.com

Blogging Can Make a Big Difference For Small Business Websites

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Clients are often surprised when we tell them that having a blog on their website will make a big difference with SEO.  There is an excellent article on search engine guide called
How a Little Blogging Can Make a Big Difference for the Small Business.    Blogs for small business offer various benefits including:

  • Blogs bring traffic
  • Blogs promote your knowledge
  • Blogs help people
  • Blogs create customer and brand loyalty
  • Blogs increase sales

My favorite stat about blogs is that websites with blogs receive 55% more traffic and receive 79% more inbound links than websites without blogs. Shouldn’t your website have a blog?

David Naylor
SEO Director