How would you encourage phone calls rather than email enquiries?

[CommT]

Just that really - we're getting on average around 80% online enquiries, and 15% calls. Calls convert better so would prefer calls. What steps would you put in place to increase calls?

Ours is a lead generation site - we're a mortgage broker.

So far we have a click to call button on the quote page which loads on mobile devices and doesn't display when the call centre is shut.

We get traffic from organic and PPC.

I'm trying to come up with a bit of a plan to address this.

Thanks,

Amelia

[CommT]

we don't do the hard sell

If I read that on your website, I would be a lot more likely to call.  This is why I would be an email person.  I want to avoid this.

Would you believe it though??? I wonder how many people would... I guess its worth testing!!! I'll talk to the team and see what they think. Thank you!

Unless we know the customer's financial history we can't offer fair and reasonable advice

If you tell me this before you start asking I am will be more comfortable about providing it.  You probably do this now.

hmmm... I honestly don't know. The sales teams do build a rapport with the customer over the phone, which helps I think. I'd need to see their 'script' (they don't have scripts as such, more like checklist to ensure they cover the regulatory/legal requirements) to know for sure.

Thanks again for the input - I always look forward to your advice.

[EGOL]

we don't do the hard sell

If I read that on your website, I would be a lot more likely to call.  This is why I would be an email person.  I want to avoid this.

Unless we know the customer's financial history we can't offer fair and reasonable advice

If you tell me this before you start asking I am will be more comfortable about providing it.  You probably do this now.

[CommT]

Hi Egol

With regards to Financial services companies asking for personal information - we need that in order to offer advice. Unless we know the customer's financial history we can't offer fair and reasonable advice - and to suggest a mortgage product without knowing this would be irresponsible.

As for if you just want to ask a few questions - again, it depends on how detailed the answers need to be - 'can you get me a mortgage?' is one question which seems simple enough, but has a different answer depending on who's asking it!

We provide BTL mortgages (for landlords), which aren't usually regulated, but our company is regulated so we still comply with regulations because that's the right thing to do. It means that we have to provide personalised advice, which means asking questions!

So, yes I get what you're saying but the questions are there for a reason. However, I think you raise a really valid point about pushy sales. Our sales team aren't pushy (it could be argued they're not pushy enough....), but the questions they ask are necessary.

Thank you, you have given me food for thought. I just need to find a way of showing that we don't do the hard sell...

[CommT]

We had live chat previously - it didn't really work for us to be honest. Hardly anyone ever used it. That was two years ago.

I get what you're saying about hating calling - I hate calling too, but we get better conversion from calls so my personal preference is irrelevant really! I do think though that someone who makes a call rather than fills in the contact form may be more committed and therefore that's the reason calls are better.

We have to speak to the customer over the phone anyway in order to advise them, so a phone call is inevitable.

[EGOL]

I agree, especially with financial products.   I worry that they are going to want lots of personal information from me when I am only calling to ask a few questions.  Then they hit the hard sell.

So, if you can convey that you are not hard sell people and that you only ask personal information when the person is ready to give it then I might see that as a refreshing change and take a chance calling.

[EcommerceSite]

Personally I hate calling, I will always choose to send an email or do live chat. Have you taken a look at live chat?

[CommT]

Hi Patrick,

I can't A/B test the page for calls as we're not currently using call tracking (and TBH I don't think we'll be allowed the budget for that). We do have separate numbers for different channels (PPC, SEO, Referral websites etc) but it starts to get complicated to then add another layer, which is the only way I can think this could work. Perhaps I'm missing something though?

Our site is fully responsive and Click to call is already utilised. I have recently introduced a click to call button on the quote pages... I am thinking of widening this to other landing pages too.

I wish I could use phone tracking - I think that way we could optimise our PPC campaign for calls rather than online forms - it seems to me that as we've optimised for more online enquiries (our current only conversion tracked by Adwords) we've lost calls (but gained overall in terms of lead volume). I think though that the budget will not be released for this - I tried around 2 years ago and was unsuccessful. Though it may be worth another crack...

Thanks for your tips!

[CommT]

Thank you Tony,

Unfortunately we have to be really careful about making promises because of our industry regulator.  I can't even put 'We can help' - It would have to be 'We may be able to help' - which loses punch! This is a real problem for us (but also our competitors) and one that frustrates the hell out of me!

I really like your phone icon idea - that's something I will recommend to the team.

Thank you again for these tips.

[CommT]

Thank you Alick - yes we are doing this already... Not with any great success TBH. The problem we have is the main PPC campaign cannibalises the (newer) mobile one. Though we're still at very early stages of it and I'm sure improvements can be made!

As for meta descriptions, I try to fit the phone number in there if I can, and have done so since we launched the site. I haven't been using a separate phone number for this (as opposed to our usual 'SEO' number I mean) so it's not tracked. I therefore, don't know how effective it is.

Great tips, thank you!

Amelia

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

I definitely recommend using some A/B testing with trying different CTAs to call. Utilize those that work best for different pages.

I would also make sure that your mobile experience is great and that you utilize click to call on your site. No one likes filling out forms on mobile, they want to call if interested. Make sure they have that option.

Google also allows you to add phone numbers to your ads - make sure you look into that!

Look into call tracking options as well to see what channels are performing the best for calls.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

[Tony-Dimmock]

Hey Amelia,

With CTA's, try using emotive words rather than standard words. For example:

• "Save ££££ - Call Us Now" (or "Save $$$$ - Call Us Now")
• "Paying Too Much? Call Us Now"
• "Deserve Better? Call Us Now"
• "Need Guidance? Call Us Now"
• "We Can Help - Call Us Now"

Also, don't just have the "click to call" button on the Quote page, add the button to every page so wherever a visitor is on their journey through your site, they can call you.

Make sure:

• Your CTA's stand out from the rest of the webpage
• You use boxes or circles, with a small telephone icon (for visual effect) - plain text CTA's can get lost in the page aesthetics
• They're above-the-fold - preferably positioned top right
• You split test different emotive CTA's, review results, then repeat until a successful formula is found

With Meta Titles, Desc's etc - again, use emotive words and end all messaging with "Call Us Now!" (against competitors who just fill their titles or descriptions with keywords, yours will stand out..)

Hope this helps! Good luck

[Alick300]

Hi Amelia,

If you are running PPC campaign on Google Adwords you should try Call-only Campaign launched by Google in Feb 15.

Call-only campaigns allow you to focus on getting more people to click-to-call you straight from your ads.

In case of organic you can define CTA in meta title / meta description & on website as well.

Thanks