Let closed-loop marketing be your guide.

One of the things I love about the real estate industry is that it’s all about marketing–the four Ps are fantastically relevant in this trade. And still, just like every other industry in the world, there’s plenty of room to improve; no one has it completely nailed.

(If you aren’t in real estate, don’t click away just yet–I am talking about marketing in general, not just real estate. You’ll see.)

I learned about some of the biggest marketing challenges in the real estate business on a recent trip to New York City for Inman Connect, a conference focused on real estate technology. Throughout the conference, I also learned that the marketing challenges faced by brokers aren’t unique to real estate–they’re issues that every industry must tackle.

But the biggest of them all? Knowing which ads drive leads.

Across all industries, the power to know which ads drive leads is critical to marketing success; in many cases, it actually sets the budget. After all, if you can’t prove where your leads came from, you won’t be able to claim a piece of the (budget) pie for future lead generation efforts.

If knowing the source of your leads is so important, every smart marketer must practice it already, right? Surprisingly, people don’t. The simple reason why not is that most marketers don’t think they really need to. Here are a few objections I commonly hear:

• “Of course I know where my leads come from!”
• “I know exactly where my leads come from because my reps record every lead that comes in.”
• “I know where my leads come from because my customers tell me where they found me.”

But reliable reps and helpful customers notwithstanding, if you don’t track where your leads came from, you don’t really know. Would the people insisting, “I don’t need to track my leads” feel the same way if they knew the costs of ignoring a lead source?

A big cost is insight. It’s business intelligence. After all, if you don’t know where your leads come from, how will you know which ad and marketing efforts are actually working? How can you stem wasteful ad spend on ineffective campaigns until you see which ones are and are not driving business your way? Without tracking efforts in place, you’ll never know that the majority of your leads who call your business start online (and you won’t know which keywords drove them to your business).

If you already track your leads, you’re one step ahead of the competition. I’m guessing that most of you out there are tracking online leads from email campaigns, download forms, web site visits, and the like. But what about those leads that read your email and then call you? Or, those leads that search you out online and then call to talk to a rep? These voice-based leads are an essential part of the entire marketing loop, and you don’t want to neglect them. Now that you see how crucial it is to track your leads—from wherever them come—be diligent about capturing the entire picture. Online. Offline. Web-based. Voice-based. Everything.

So the next time someone asks if you track your leads, you can say with confidence (and accuracy): “I know where all my leads come from.”

Some other initials that are easily confused: EM, MA, and VBMA.

Email marketing. Marketing automation. Voice-based marketing automation.

To make sure you’re using the best tools for your business, it’s crucial to understand first that email marketing and marketing automation are different, and second, how they are different. Lastly, it’s important to understand how voice interactions fit in to the whole picture; it’s an overlooked part of the process, but it’s the linchpin to the entire cycle.

The difference between EM and MA

Marketing Automation Software Guide’s Lauren Carlson shares a helpful breakdown of email marketing vs marketing automation. As she points out, “the two are not synonymous and are designed for different types of buyers.”

Her chart on the differences between EM and MA, and summary, below:

From the feature list comparison, you can see that while there is functional parity in some areas, marketing automation is far more sophisticated. While email marketing systems are designed to track interactions related to email campaigns, marketing automation systems track the chain of interactions across multiple channels and can then make intelligent decisions based on the buyer’s behaviors.

-Lauren Carlson, Software Guide

Why voice-based marketing automation is essential

While they have their differences, what email marketing and marketing automation share is that they both capture online activity. At some point, though, prospects’ activity moves offline–maybe in the form of a television ad or a phone call. These interactions are significant, but are also harder to measure. Voice-based marketing automation, meanwhile, captures everything. The whole shebang: lead response, lead capture, lead scoring, lead nurturing, and analytics. With voice-based marketing automation, you can see both online activity–like which PPC ads are attracting leads–and offline activity–like which pieces of direct mail are drawing a response.

And with a phone call being a major part in the process for most buyers, measuring voice becomes even more important. In fact, one study shows 43 percent of all ecommerce transactions that begin with a web search end with a telephone call.

So, now that you know the difference between email marketing, marketing automation and how voice-based marketing automation fits in, you can make smarter software choices, and tell all your friends, too. To do that of course, you need your voice.

To read Lauren’s original post, check out the Marketing Automation Software Guide blog.

To learn more about voice-based marketing automation, download our ebook!

In fact, research shows that leads convert 22 times more often when you make contact within the first five minutes.

While traditional marketing automation platforms help you capture, nurture and score leads, at some point in the process you may actually want to get on the phone and speak with a prospect to close a deal.

To help you connect with leads while they are still on your website, today we’re introducing our first voice-based marketing automation integration with HubSpot.

Here’s how the Ifbyphone LeadResponder For HubSpot works:

First, you identify which web forms you want to trigger a phone call. Within the app, you simply select which reps should receive a call, choose when they should receive a call, and make sure you request the lead’s phone number in the form. By turning web form submission into immediate phone calls, you improve you chances of turning web form leads into customers.

To learn more about the improving lead response time, download our ebook How To Close More Qualified Inbound Marketing Leads, Faster: The Essential Guide To Improving Lead Response Time From Web Leads, read more about LeadResponder, or visit the HubSpot AppMarketplace and try our app.

It got me thinking: how do you measure the impact of a Super Bowl ad? How do you track if it actually generates leads into your business? Granted for many consumer products companies it’s more about building brand awareness than an immediate call to action, but the point remains. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, once said: “We believe the telephone is one of the best branding devices out there. We have the customer’s undivided attention for 5-10 minutes—compare that with a 30-second Super Bowl ad when the viewers are probably not paying full attention. If we get the interaction right, what we’ve found is that customers remember that for a very long time and tell their friends and family about us.”

What do you think? Is $4 million for 30 seconds with a huge audience worth it? Or would you rather have 10 minutes of a potential customer’s undivided attention?

Join Irv Shapiro, founder and CEO of Ifbyphone and two-time Inc. 500 winner, as he shares insights into how you can boost advertising ROI up to 400%, capture 30% more leads and negotiate better advertising rates using cold, hard data.

What will you learn?

• Projected US ad spending trends from 2011 – 2015
• What lead type is most valuable to most sales organizations?
• How to measure response rates with a call-to-action of “call us”
• Examples of how to demonstrate ROI, optimize ad spend & increase lead flow

This Webinar is ideal for business owners as well as marketing and advertising executives across all industries.

Sign-up now. You won’t want to miss this one.

Nelson-Hall was where I learned how to run a business; from designing book covers to operating a warehouse, from marketing new titles to processing invoices. Surprisingly, Nelson-Hall was where I learned about call tracking. My grandpa was doing call tracking to build customer relationships and track marketing in the 1970s.

Here is how it worked: all accounts more than 30 days past due were sent a letter signed by “Lee Arnold.” When a caller asked the receptionist to speak with Lee Arnold, the receptionist immediately transferred the caller (only five phone lines!) to my grandfather. “Hello,” my grandfather would say. “Lee Arnold isn’t in right now, but this is Pete Ferrara, the CEO. How can I help you?” The caller (even though he owed money) immediately felt important. After all, he was talking to the CEO. My grandpa would explain nicely to the caller what the payment terms were, explain how to remedy the past due balance, and, most of the time, get paid. The caller would be left with the memory that Nelson-Hall was a good place to do business. A relationship was formed, or strengthened.

It also worked for tracking ads: when Nelson-Hall released a new title, they did direct mail marketing to booksellers and professors. For one book, letters would be sent by “Shirley Jackson.” For another book, letters would be sent by “David Leonard.” When a prospect called to request a copy of the book or to make a purchase, the caller would ask for Shirley Jackson. The receptionist announcing the caller would say, “You have a call for Shirley Jackson.” Based on the name, my dad would know the caller was interested in Title A. When he took the call, he knew his direct mail had been received and his marketing worked. He was prepared to discuss the details of the exact book.

As you might have already guessed, the secret in this story is that Lee Arnold, Shirley Jackson, and David Leonard were fictitious. They were aliases and tracking codes. The receptionist knew which names went to my grandpa or my dad. Using this strategy, Nelson-Hall was able to build relationships and track marketing spend.

Maybe he didn’t know it as call tracking, but what my grandpa did was call tracking and ad tracking. And, (you might want to sit down for these next sentences) during this time, the Internet did not exist. There was no email. Obtaining a new phone number was expensive. Direct mail took weeks to be delivered. I got paper cuts on my tongue from licking envelopes! Even without the advantages of the Internet, email, and virtual numbers, my family still knew that tracking and measuring their efforts were important.

Today seems like light years from those stamp-licking days, but the core values are the same. Relationship building remains a corner stone of business. Tracking and measuring the effectiveness of programs is critical to success. Today we look to the Internet to supply our marketing, tracking, and relationship solutions. All the while, businesses have spent an enormous amount of effort ensuring they can measure everything on the web. As soon as somebody picks up the phone and makes a call, however, that prospect has gone off the map and we have lost all connection with them.

Businesses today have one advantage my grandpa didn’t: today’s call tracking technology is easy. It’s quick to set up, simple to use, and delivers tracking instantly, all at an affordable price point. Who knew 34 years later, I’d be writing about call tracking? I guess it goes to show you that technology might change, but business fundamentals stay the same.

To learn more about call tracking, download our Call Tracking 101 Guide. And, register to join our call tracking webinar on February 1, 2012.

By the way, my sister and I still laugh about those fake employees. Thanks for the laughs and the lesson VPF and SAF.

Each year the calendar rolls over to January 1st, resolutions start to fly. For many of us, those resolutions center on improvement: looking better, feeling healthier, being more productive. At Ifbyphone, since our range of offerings has grown (with tools like MyLeadResponder or an enhanced SourceTrak™), we resolved some time ago to revamp our website.

Today, we’re excited to share the results of this transformation with you. We hope you find the clean new design appealing and the freshly organized structure quick and simple to navigate. Though we’ve changed the look and feel, we’ve kept all of the same great content and familiar information like Features, Industries and Pricing (as well as this blog).

Our redesigned website makes it easy to learn more about your favorite voice-based marketing automation tools and explore our newest applications. Whether you’re a call tracking user ready to improve your lead capture prowess with Google Analytics® or eager to quicken lead response times with MyLeadResponder, the new website puts tools, resources and support at your fingertips.

As the leader in voice-based marketing automation, we want our site to be as useful and innovative as the solutions we provide. We hope you’ll have a look around and enjoy what you see.

• 43% of internet search conversions happen over the phone¹
• 59% of online shoppers use voice regularly to inquire about products²
• 82% have wanted but have not been able to get help from a real person³
• 52% say it has affected their purchase decision to not buy a product³

Bottom line: people still want to talk every now and again.  Yes, we all start the research process online for just about everything these days.  That goes double for complicated purchases like insurance, software, real estate, or B2B services.  But there comes a time when we just want to have a conversation with a human being.  It’s at that point where being at the right place at the right time can supercharge your sales and marketing process.

Sources:

1. 1) Adinsight Brochure (2009)
2. 2) Oracle Cross-Channel Commerce Research Study (2011)
3. 3) IMShopping and Harris Interactive Survey (2009)

[How To] Top 4 Ways Your Business Can Use SMS

[Office Pictures] Official Pictures of Ifbyphone’s New Office: 300 West Adams

[Video] Halloween Survival Tips: 5 Phone Calls You Better Not Answer

[Top 10 Guide] Top 10 Resources For DIY Online Marketing Success

[Infographic] Marketing ROI? Our infographic illustrates the challenges

[Resource List] 20 Call Tracking Software Resources

[Recruiting] Your Opportunity to Join an Exciting Tech Startup In Chicago

[Webinar] How To Improve Advertising ROI

[Another Blog's Content] 8 Free Conversion Optimization Resources

[Don't Do List] Don’t Let These 3 Direct Marketing Mistakes Happen To You

[Survey Results] Ifbyphone 2011 State of Marketing Measurement Report

What would be my advice for your content marketing next year?

• Write a headline that includes a number (e.g. “Top 10″)
• Publish your content on other blogs
• Use a variety of media types to attract attention

Wait, before you go. Check out “Ifbyphone Classics – The Best of 2010” or download our Voice-Based Marketing Automation E-Book.

Fortunately, a simple hotline is all you need to ease the burden of post-holiday returns and exchanges. Automating information, interaction and reporting helps you stay on top of customer service demands even with a workforce that has scaled back to pre-seasonal help levels.

Here are a few ways to use a holiday hotline to save you time and money while keeping everyone’s spirits bright:

Offer answers to FAQs: Give customers answers to common questions without tying up your staff with phone duty. Customers can call to your hotline to learn about post-holiday store hours, return policies (e.g. must have a receipt present) or last acceptable date for returns. Once customers are on the line, connect them to the right person or department to complete the service experience.

Find stores by phone: If you have multiple locations, pair your hotline with a store finder can help customers quickly find the one nearest to them (which is especially useful if each location has different hours or return processing capabilities).

Create return reservations: Save your staff from overwhelming crowds and save your customers from endless lines by adding a reservation system to your hotline via IVR. Provide express service to customers who reserve a date and time to process their return.

Understand your returns: Left unchecked, returns–not to mention the overhead costs of processing them–can chip away at profits. A hotline linked to a customer survey can give insight into return and exchange trends and help you identify and address the chief reasons why merchandise comes back to the store.

Plan staffing needs:When customers call your hotline, track the call data from their surveys or menu choices to figure out how to most effectively staff your business. Shift employees to high-volume times of day or days of the week based on customer needs so that your business runs smoothly even during spikes.

Whether you print your hotline on customer receipts, informational cards or on your website, activate a holiday hotline today for a quick, cost-effective way to keep your customers happy and your business running smoothly.