Customer success is the business methodology of ensuring customers achieve their desired outcomes while using your product or service. Customer Success is relationship-focused client management, that aligns client and vendor metrics and goals for mutually beneficial business outcomes.   The importance of managing customer success Customer success management transforms your customer relationship through strategic and…

URL tracking parameters, also known as tracking codes or tracking tags, are tools that record the origin of a click. When someone clicks on a link in one of your ads, emails, or other marketing efforts, these little snippets of computer language, which are attached to the ends of URLs, capture all sorts of valuable…

If you’re in marketing, it’s likely you’re tracking leads using forms on your website. But if your ads, emails, or landing pages include a phone number, you may be missing out on credit for leads that come in through a call (or text). Depending on your industry, callers can be the most motivated leads. Call…

Product positioning is developing a strategy to market a product or service to its target audience. Effective positioning highlights product benefits and attributes with messaging that clearly states your product’s value over your competitors. The strategy and process of positioning a product involves with identifying the problem(s) you’re solving through your product features, conducting market…

Product life cycle is a term used to describe the stages of creation, growth, and retirement that any product goes through as it makes it way to and through the hands of its users. The traditional stages are a product life cycle are development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. The product life cycle lives mainly…

The buyer’s journey has never been more complex. With new technologies are drastically revolutionizing the way we market and purchase products, it’s no longer as simple as a customer walking into your store and buying something they need. Nowadays, consumers are inundated with ads on their phones, laptops, TVs, and, of course, billboards. More choice…

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is the total value in revenue a customer represents to a company over the entirety of their business relationship or customer life cycle. It is one of the most important metrics to track for overall business performance. The importance of measuring CLV Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) can be one of the…

Time-decay attribution is a multi-touch attribution model that gives some credit to all the channels that led to your customer converting, with that amount of credit being less (decaying) the further back in time the channel was interacted with. The assumption here is that the first advertising channel your customer interacted with merely planted the…

Defining and identifying marketing qualified leads (MQLs) is the catalyst for all marketing efforts. In this piece, we’ll explore what an MQL is, how they can be qualified, the relationship between MQLs and SQLs (sales-qualified leads), and how MQLs can help show return on investment (ROI). What is a marketing-qualified lead? A marketing-qualified lead is…

More than 60% of Google’s search engine traffic came from mobile devices through the first six months of 2019, as more and more consumers moved their online purchasing journeys from desktop to mobile. For small business owners and digital marketers, call-only ads and call extensions are effective ways to capitalize on this trend, improve mobile…

A heatmap is a data visualization tool that displays user data captured on a website in the form of color density maps to convey user behavior and traffic patterns. The more intense the color values of certain areas, the more traffic that location of a page has received.   Benefits of using a heat map…

A featured snippet provides a summarized answer to a users search query at the top of the Google search engine results page (SERP), right above position 1. These answers are scraped from other sites content that best satisfies the user’s search. Also referred to as position zero, the featured snippet answer is contained in a…

Most paths to purchase are not a straight line. There are lots of ways for customers to discover your brand, engage with it, and move further down the sales funnel. That’s why attribution models have become a necessary tool for marketers looking for data to improve their campaigns. What is attribution modeling? Attribution modeling is…

Latent semantic indexing (LSI) is a complex system used by search engines to analyze the relationships between terms and concepts on a page in an effort to provide the most accurate and relevant search results.   The importance of latent semantic indexing for search Latent semantic indexing uses natural language processing (NLP) to help a…

Information Architecture, often written as IA, is the organization of information into a hierarchy to make it easier to use. IA gives structure to information including content organization, site structure and navigating hierarchy in website redesigns. The importance of Information Architecture to the user’s experience The term ‘Information Architecture’ dates from 1975 and is attributed…

Lead generation is a marketing strategy that aims to generate interest in a product or service from prospective customers and turn them into qualified leads ready to make a purchase.   The importance of lead generation Lead generation is a critical marketing strategy for sustainable long-term business growth as it not only works to generate…

A sales funnel, also known as a purchase funnel, is a consumer-based marketing model designed to replicate a potential customers journey through the stages of the buying process for any product or service. The typical stages of the sales process include: Awareness Interest Decision Action   The importance of the sales funnel process A sales…

Sales prospecting is the process of identifying potential new customers and proactively reaching out to them with cold calls, emails, and social messaging in an effort to convert them into paying customers. For most businesses, this is typically done by representatives of the sales team. Why businesses should use outbound marketing, not just inbound Inbound…

Lead tracking is the process of determining the source of leads, actively monitoring where leads are in the sales and marketing funnel, and pursuing the appropriate actions to move the lead to the next stage and close the sale. Jules Tompkins and Carolyn Lyden contributed to this post. Why do sales and marketing need lead…

Conversation analytics is the evaluation of voice data from phone calls between two or more people in order to gain insights on customer behavior. By recording and transcribing call data, marketers can better understand and target leads. How does conversation analytics work? Conversation analytics requires several moving parts in order to turn conversation into data.…

What is Google Ads call tracking? Google Ads call tracking is a type of conversion tracking that shows you how many prospective customers called your business after seeing or clicking one of your PPC placements. How does Google Ads call tracking work? Google Ads call tracking has two main functions: Tracking calls that are made…

What is multi-touch attribution? Multi-touch attribution is the process of tracking and assigning fractional credit to marketing touchpoints along the path to conversion. Unlike multi-channel reporting, multi-touch attribution reporting is not limited to reporting on a single dimension and can encompass several dimensions, such as channel (e.g. source, medium, campaign), content (e.g. landing pages, offer…

Internal linking is the use of hyperlinks that target and lead to other sites within the same domain, as a way to drive visitors from one page to another. Why is internal linking important to your site? As usual, all roads lead back to SEO. Links have been and continue to be ranking factors in…

Research what each agency offers and compare that to your needs Don’t opt for the best price, opt for the best value Determine if the agency’s work matches your industry and niche Figure out if the company is open to change and new technologies Get references and word of mouth recommendations Communicate early, openly, and…

A virtual phone number is a number that isn’t associated with any specific phone line, and is used to route calls to the proper receiver. These calls can then be rerouted to a phone line, app, site, or voicemail inbox. A virtual phone number works in the same way as a mall directory or guest…

HIPAA, which stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, is a US law which establishes privacy standards that protect patients’ medical records and other health information provided to health plans, doctors, hospitals and other health care providers. What is PHI? Protected Health Information (PHI) under HIPAA Privacy Rule provides federal protections…

Geo-routing (geographical routing) is an algorithmic tool that routes phone calls to a set destination based on the geographical location of the caller. With geo-reouting, callers are automatically routed according to the area code provided through caller ID, by manually entering the zip code of where they are located. Benefits of Geo-routing for Franchises With more…

White labeling is a legal protocol that allows one product or service to be sold and rebranded under another company’s brand. The term “white labeling” is used based on the manual process whiting out something previously written to write over again. Learn more about white labeling CallRail. Marketing pros and cons of white labeling White…

Round Robin is a call tracking software feature dedicated to distributing incoming calls within a set group of numbers. An incoming call forwards to the correct phone number –– the next available agent, the best agent for the call, or the correct mailbox. How does Round Robin benefit marketers using call tracking? For sales and…

What is Call Monitoring? Call monitoring is the process of listening to live or previously recorded calls in order to audit the performance of call representatives, improve sales or marketing efforts, score the call for leads, and/or develop sales or support strategies. Who Uses Call Monitoring? We’ve all probably heard the automated message when we’ve…

A first time caller is someone who has never called your business before. In call tracking, these new callers can represent an important segment of people for which sales and marketing teams can tailor information and strategies to ensure a good caller experience. Why are first time callers important? For some businesses, it’s important to…

Image optimization involves making your website images useful to both visitors and search engines. This includes techniques like reducing file sizes without sacrificing quality in order to increase site speed, or providing alt text for screen readers and search engines to identify what an image is about. Learn more about CallRail’s recommended SEO best practices……

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a communication protocol used in VolP networks. SIP routing, also known as SIP trunking, allows users to make phone calls that bypass traditional telephone system. How SIP routing works Massive amounts of data are sent across worldwide networks in real-time; SIP routing leverages these transmissions to allow user to establish…

Good marketing is carefully tailored to its intended audience. That means there are big differences between marketing to a business (B2B marketing) and marketing to a customer (B2C marketing), including voice and tone, customer needs, and the overall buying cycle. Customer needs with B2B vs B2C marketing Businesses and individuals each have different needs to…

What is a call extension? A call extension is an ad extension in Google Ads (formerly AdWords) that will show your phone number alongside your ad and encourage prospects to call your directly. On mobile this can show up as a “click-to-call” button. How does a call extension work? One of many “ad extensions” you…

Call metadata is a general term for different types of data collected about phone calls, including time, duration, caller’s phone number, and call recipient’s phone number. Call metadata gives marketers helpful information about leads. How is call metadata collected? Call metadata is collected automatically, so there’s no way for a caller to alter the information…

What is a SWOT Analysis? A SWOT analysis is a process that individuals or organizations use to identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It’s commonly used in strategic planning, where it can help businesses identify their niche in a market. Why should a business do a SWOT analysis? Every business has its own strength and…

Link building is a crucial element in off-page search engine optimization (SEO). This guide will explain the basics of link building and tactics, to help you get the most from your call tracking software to improve your link building efforts. What is link building? Why are links important? Types of link building Types of link…

User experience (UX) is a person’s overall experience with a product such as a website or application, and is typically measured by the ease of use and quality that a product holds. Marketers aim to cultivate a positive user experience to increase customer loyalty to a brand. How is user experience measured? User experience can…

What is SEO? Search engine optimization (SEO) is the set of techniques and methodologies dedicated to improving online visibility for a website’s organic search rankings. All major search engines have primary search results and set algorithms to rank organic search results based on what’s most relevant to the user’s search query. SEO involves both on…

The marketing funnel is a visual model of the customer journey, beginning with awareness of your product or service and (ideally) ending with post-sale evangelism. It outlines the process of turning your leads into customers, breaking down each stage of their journey with your brand. The stages of the marketing funnel most commonly look like…

What is conversation intelligence? Conversation intelligence is often used to describe one’s aptitude for effective person-to-person communication. In marketing technology, conversation intelligence refers to insights on lead quality and call outcome gained through call analytics. Some forms of conversation intelligence include call recording, call transcriptions, and call scoring. All of these work in tandem to…

SEO (search engine optimization) is the optimization of websites in an effort to improve visibility in natural or organic search while SEM (search engine marketing) refers to paid search. SEM, also known as PPC (pay-per-click), is bidding on and paying for keywords to display ads rather than creating content targeted toward searchers in an effort…

What marketing KPIs should I be tracking? The best marketing KPIs depend on your business and industry. Some of the best potential KPIs to track include sales revenue and growth, cost per lead, customer acquisition cost, customer lifetime value, conversion rates, and more. Marketing KPIs — Key Performance Indicators — are the lifeblood of your…

How to measure email effectiveness Email effectiveness is a broad phrase to describe the way in which marketers define success for their email campaigns. Because “success” is in the eye of the marketer, this can mean various things. Most commonly, success is tied to the meeting of goals which is why it is so important…

Determining the return on investment (ROI) of your social media marketing efforts can seem like a daunting task. The internet is full of how-to guides and best practices promising results, but at the end of the day, how are you going to justify the time and money you’ve spent on social media marketing and reconcile…

Organic search, or unpaid search, is the technique in which search engines pull the most relevant matches for each user’s entered keywords from all of the indexed content within the internet and lists the results in order of relevance to the query rather than displaying advertisements. Organic vs Paid Search Organic search differs from paid…

Get Started with Google Analytics Any type of company–from a small business, a sprawling franchise system, or even a content focused site– must track the online metric associated with their digital presence. Google offers free resources like Google Analytic (GA) and Search Console to help businesses understand the metrics behind their marketing efforts and improve…

What is Data-Driven Marketing? Data-driven marketing is the practice of leveraging a data set to push a marketing strategy for a product, place, or service. The data used for this kind of advertising can range from market research for identifying a target audience, to sales and customer interaction data. Advancements in marketing technology over the…

What are Offline Call Conversions? Offline call conversions are phone leads originating from any campaign that is not displayed online. These include billboards, print ads, direct mail, advertisements over the radio or television, and more.   Benefits of Offline Marketing Present day marketing often revolves around online marketing, whether it’s paid or organic. However, the…