How To Include Text Messaging in Your Inbound Call Tracking

Do you know one of the simplest ways your sales team can have a competitive advantage over your competitors? By prioritizing  using lead source attribution. Ruler Analytics reports that 53.3% of sales leaders do not understand marketing attribution. Also, 62% admit that they don't attribute revenue to inbound calls. While attribution is one of the trickiest challenges to solve in this digital age, not proactively addressing it can be a costly problem. On the flip side, accurate and efficient attribution presents a huge opportunity for sales teams. So how can you do it? One way is with call tracking and text messaging call tracking. It can give you that important competitive edge.

What is Inbound Call Tracking?

Inbound call tracking software credits incoming sales phone calls to the appropriate advertising or marketing sources. With this critical tool, your team can measure the ROI of your campaigns. It can also provide insight into the demographics, strengths, weaknesses, and pain points of those leads. 

Your tracked sources could come from local numbers on ads, contact forms on a website, and pay-per-click campaigns and keywords. Each source is tracked as a part of the customer’s record.

But call tracking automation doesn’t end there. Calls are also routed according to the customer's needs. You set up and customize these call flows so that the right team member receives and responds to each customer call in a way that moves the sales conversation forward.

It’s best practice for your team to respond to a lead within the channel the customer initially used to contact you, in addition to others as applicable. For example, web leads typically would get an instant email response and quick phone call, while phone leads would connect via phone.  

Adding the ability to receive and respond to text messages through your inbound call tracking system both creates another potential lead source, as well as adding another way for leads and customers  to interact with your team. In addition to those two benefits of  text messaging call tracking, here are three more. 

Three Benefits of Text Messaging Leads 

1. Rapid response: We've quoted this statistic repeatedly because it is compelling. Sales teams that respond to leads within 5 minutes are 100 times more likely to win the sale than those that respond within 30 minutes. If you don't connect with a lead within the first hour, you're unlikely to ever connect with them. When customers text, they expect an instant response. Statistics show that 82% of consumers keep SMS notifications switched on. They are expecting you to respond immediately. With texting capabilities tied to your automated call response system, you can do just that. 
2. Convenient channel of communication: How do you prefer to communicate with brands? The statistics show that most consumers prefer texting to other forms of communication, even when communicating with businesses. SMS text marketing has an impressive 98% open rate. Today, consumers are 4.5 times more likely to reply to a marketing text from a company than a marketing email. Even more importantly, 90% of sales leads would rather receive a text response than a phone call.
3. Leverage both personalized and automated messaging: Text messaging is preferred by consumers because the channel uses direct and brief messaging. The beauty of text messaging for brands is that it can be customized to create a positive customer experience and automated to cut down on human error and resources. This solves many of the common issues that overwhelmed sales teams encounter in maximizing their sales efforts.  As a result, texting is a win-win communication strategy for all. 

Combine SMS With Inbound Call Tracking

If you haven't used text to communicate with sales leads, it's relatively easy to start with inbound call-tracking software like Calldrip. And it can be a powerful addition to your sales team's toolbox.

People tend to answer texts faster than phone calls, moving the sales conversation forward and making them feel nurtured. Also, texting can become a backup method of connection if you miss a phone call from a lead. If you add automation to your texting call response software, a lead will never fall through the cracks. Every lead, prospect, and customer will receive a response. 

We've already shown that you will communicate with leads in their preferred channel with a text response. You meet them where they are, which creates an exceptional customer service experience. 

As contradictory as it seems, texting can spark a positive human connection, which is critical to successful sales. 80% of consumers want more human interaction in a brand's customer service. A customized and fast sales text messaging strategy can make a lead feel like your messages are coming from a real person and initiate that critical authentic human conversation. You will then have the opportunity to answer questions, affirm their interest, express your thanks, and move the sales conversation forward.

Supercharge your rapid lead response by incorporating automated text messaging into your inbound call-tracking process. SMS is a growing communication channel and should be an essential sales tool for your company. 

A Real World Example

To illustrate the power of an automated text messaging system, here’s an example from one of our clients. A local car dealer creates an ad campaign for social media and includes a unique tracking number in the ad. An interested car buyer sees the ad and calls the phone number to get more information. The call is routed to your sales team via Calldrip's inbound call tracking software, but unfortunately, everyone on your team is busy.

When the call isn't picked up, the system immediately and automatically sends a follow-up text message to the lead, letting them know that your team received their call and will be in touch shortly. The lead receives the text message on their phone and is assured you will call. The lead's call is  in a shared inbox for the next available team member to access as soon as they can. Or you can assign the lead to a certain team member. The team member will call the lead back as quickly as possible, or the prospect can respond to the text and continue the conversation via text. It's really that simple and that effective.

Calldrip's inbound call tracking with text messaging enables your team to start using this powerful communication channel quickly and easily. With automated options like lead-to-call or text choices, text message call tracking, and the ability to text a landline, Calldrip is the perfect tool to help your sales team convert more leads and measure your sales and marketing effectiveness. Click here for a demo.