If you’ve recently implemented a new dental marketing campaign or are at least considering it, then you’ve probably come across the term ‘call tracking system’. Phone call tracking is in effect an essential part of any dental marketing campaign and moreover, it’s quick and easy to implement too.
But what exactly is it?
Call tracking is a piece of simple technology that allows you to track the source of each new client who makes an enquiry or pays a visit. This is done by assigning a set of unique telephone numbers to a particular marketing campaign.
So why is this important?
A marketing campaign for a dental practice typically consists of a variety of digital and traditional marketing elements. This could be through
- Optimising your dental website,
- Pay Per Click (PPC) or Facebook advertising, and/or…
- Good old-fashioned mail drops.
Now imagine if you had the same contact number for every marketing campaign…
There would simply be no way of knowing which type of dental marketing campaign the person used to make a call of pay a visit – and therefore – which specific campaign is delivering the desired results and which ones aren’t.
By having access to phone call tracking it allows you to analyse the call data and invest more cash into the elements of your campaign that do work and less (zero) into the parts that don’t. Ultimately, a call tracking system ensures that you spend money in the right places thus increasing your return on your investment (ROI).
How Phone Call Tracking Helps?
Whether you’ve owned a dental practice for 20 years or you are getting ready to open your first clinic, you’ll want to cast your net far and wide when it comes to advertising and marketing to see what bites
Unless you are in the fortunate position to own a large chain of dental practices, having multiple marketing channels across many digital and traditional platforms simply isn’t sustainable in the long term. It becomes far too easy to burn through a load of cash without seeing any beneficial results. This is where a good call tracking system can help.
By assigning a unique telephone number to each marketing strategy, it’s very easy to analyse what source that lead came from using call data technology.
Utilising The Telephone As A Marketing Tool – Is It Still Relevant Today?
In a world where everything appears to be carried out online, you might be forgiven for thinking that the humble telephone is a little antiquated.
On the contrary, because today’s smartphones make the experience of searching and calling a company a seamless transition, the vast majority of local businesses including healthcare professionals obtain the majority of their leads via the telephone.
How Exactly Does a Call Tracking System Work?
If your marketing message’s call to action is to book an appointment or consultation, modern software allows you to assign an individual a number to an individual campaign. This might include a …
- PPC campaign,
- Your dental website
- TV or local radio advertising or
- Printed ads.
One advantage is that all tracking numbers are connected or diverted back into your main line, so your team won’t need to manage 3 or 4 different phone lines. Then after a specified period of time, call tracking software crunches the numbers in the form of a report from each call relating to a particular marketing campaign.
Call tracking – What Does the Call Data Cover?
Most phone call tracking reports will give you access to the following data.
- Marketing method used to make the call
- Name of the caller (if available)
- Tracking numbers or number that was called
- Date and time of the call
- The location of the caller and,
- The number of calls collected over a certain period.
As you can imagine, this information is like gold dust to any marketing department and moreover, if your dental website is set up correctly, it’s entirely possible to track all calls in Google Analytics.
Call Tracking System For Dental Practices – The Steps To Take
Step 1 – Assigning Numbers
Each time you set up a marketing campaign you should receive a unique telephone number. These numbers are then forwarded to your main business line.
When it comes to placing numbers on your dental website, you may benefit from something known as dynamic number insertion (DNI).
As the name suggests, when DNI is implemented, the number will automatically change on your website depending upon the source of the traffic. So, if someone finds your dental website from carrying out an organic search, then the number that they see on your site will be different from say a visitor visiting your site from a PPC or Facebook ads campaign.
Step 2 – Integration
The next step is to ensure that your phone call tracking is fully integrated into your CRM such as Google Analytics where possible.
Step 3 – Call tracking
When a call is made, the tracking numbers are recorded and captured by the call tracking software.
Step 4 – Analysis and adjustment
Call data allows you to analyse which marketing campaign the lead (call) came from. This allows you to then reallocate some of your marketing budget/spend to those channels that are proven to work.
Step 5 – Rinse and repeat
Once the tracking numbers have shown which marketing campaigns are successful, it’s simply a case of refining and repeating the process .
Other Benefits Of Phone Call Tracking
Aside from being able to identify where your leads have come from, tracking numbers offer a whole host of other benefits. They include:
- Improved Customer Service – Being able to listen in on calls gives you the opportunity to see just how your team handles potential new patients. Are they doing everything they can to ensure the caller turns into a new patient? If not, then it becomes easier to highlight where improvements can be made and then to implement new or improved strategies to ensure best results.
- Increased lead generation – Every missed call could mean a lost patient to a dental practice. Since call tracking records all calls, it becomes easier to follow up on patient leads that may otherwise have fallen through the cracks.
If you’d like to find out how a quality call tracking system can benefit your dental business or you would like to chat about how you can get more patients through your door, contact the team at Mediboost.
We’re one of Australia’s top rated patient growth agencies for dental and medical businesses, so book your 45-minute strategy call with us on 1300 163 058 today.
Note: The call tracking software we use has the option to record the calls. If that option is activated, we always add a message to inform clients and patients in advance that their call is recorded.
