So What is Call Tracking Exactly?
It doesn’t matter whether you’ve owned a dental practice for several decades or have just opened your doors, you’ll want to try multiple marketing channels to see which is the best fit for you and your potential patients.
However, continuing to run multiple marketing campaigns in the long-term can be a risky and costly strategy. Besides, unless you’re a large dental group, you probably don’t have the financial clout to sustain this. The challenge, therefore, lies in working out which marketing campaigns bring in results and which ones don’t. This is where call tracking can help.
As the name suggests, call tracking allows you and your team to track the source of each and every lead that comes into your clinic and is done using call tracking software. Call tracking works by allocating a unique tracking number to each marketing strategy or campaign. Whether this is a Google ad marketing campaign, a targeted home page on your website, postcard/flyer distribution, or a promotional landing page, each will have its own designated phone (tracking) number that readers receiving the information can call.
So Why Call Tracking? Isn’t the Telephone a Bit ‘Old School’?
In a time when online marketing is everywhere, never underestimate the power of the telephone as a marketing tool. For most healthcare professionals including dentists, the vast majority of leads still come via the humble telephone. Take smartphones, for instance, they have the capability to create a speedy and seamless experience for the user. The process of searching for a quality dentist and calling them to book an appointment can now be done quickly, on one small device.
Moreover, while digital analytics have been used for years to measure online marketing data, measuring results for offline marketing has proven more difficult. In fact, even now with all the technology, we have at our disposal, strategies such as flyer drops, local radio, and even good old phone calls are virtually impossible to measure exactly. Yet, these are offline marketing activities that are still as effective.
With call tracking, it allows you to measure the entire scope of your marketing efforts, whether they are on or offline.
So How Does Call Tracking Work?
A unique telephone number (tracking ID) is assigned to every live marketing campaign. This may be print ads, postcards, PPC campaigns or social media. Any calls that you receive via the various call tracking ID’s, will be diverted back through your main contact number. This avoids the confusion of having one solitary phone number across all of your marketing campaigns.
So, let’s say that a potential dental patient has seen your website online and wants to book an appointment. A process known as Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) will track and change the number when the visitor lands on the site according to the appropriate traffic source.
Likewise, if you’re tracking leads from offline marketing activities, each campaign should have its own designated call tracking ID (phone number) usually in the form of a call to action. So, even when the call tracking number is diverted back through your main line, you’ll be able to tell at a glance, what marketing effort caused your lead to make that call.
So How Come?
After a given period of time, call tracking software automatically compiles all of the information from the various phone calls and reports it back to you. This means that you can see at a glance which campaign gives the greater ROI. Ultimately, call tracking allows you to invest more cash into those marketing campaigns that work and less (zero) into those that don’t.
But that’s not all…
While it’s great to have a series of marketing campaigns that bring in a steady stream of enquiries (leads), the reality is that the success or failure of your efforts will live or die with your team. In other words, it’s down to your team to close those leads and turn them into new dental patients.
The trouble is that as a busy dentist, it probably isn’t feasible to continually check in with your front office team to ensure that they’re hitting their new patient targets. Besides, they probably wouldn’t thank you for doing so (think micro-management ?). Thankfully call tracking has the solution…
Call tracking software doesn’t only give you access to the results of each of your marketing campaigns, it also enables you to see your employees’ success at a glance. It allows you to see which times of the day the most phone calls are made but also, who in your team is most successful at qualifying leads.
In addition, some call tracking programs (like the one that we recommend here at Mediboost) allow you to playback phone conversations between your team and potential patients to see what they are doing (or not) to turn those phone leads into bona fide dental patients.
What Are The Main Benefits Of Call Tracking?
As you can see, call tracking has a number of advantages that dentists can benefit from. These include:
- An insight into the success or failure of marketing campaigns – At a glance, Call tracking highlights areas where your marketing is and isn’t working. This way you know exactly where to invest to see a good return and inevitably, minimise cash wastage on marketing campaigns that don’t work for you.
- Improved customer service – Call tracking highlights areas where you could be providing better customer service for your dental patients. You can also fine-tune scripts so that your team can better turn those casual enquirers into scheduled bookings.
- Increased chance of lead generation – In business (and dentistry is no exception) every missed call is a missed opportunity. Since call tracking monitors phone calls, it enables you to follow up on potential patient leads that might not have been ready to commit at an earlier date.
In essence, call tracking allows you to streamline your marketing efforts, improve your overall customer service, and maximise your conversion rates. If you would like to find out more about call tracking or about how dental marketing can help you to get more dental patients through your doors, contact the team at Mediboost.
We’re a dedicated healthcare marketing agency who understand your industry. Make the call at 1300 163 058 and experience dental marketing campaigns that work today!
