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white paper
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
white paper
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing 2
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (877) 976-3414 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Table of Contents
3 Introduction
4 VBMA for Sales: Close More Business with a Cost-Effective Virtual Call Center
11 VBMA for Support: Provide Superior Phone Support from Anywhere
15 VBMA for Marketing: Prove and Improve ROI with Call Tracking and More
23 Connect and Align Marketing, Sales, and Support
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
The size and structure of SaaS (software-as-a-service)
and technology companies today can vary widely, ranging
anywhere from a two-man startup to a Fortune 500
company. But most have the following three things in
common:
• Theirsalesteamreliesonphoneconversationstoclosebusiness
• Theirsupportteamassistscustomersoverthephone
• Theirmarketingteamwantstodriveinboundphoneleads
to sales reps
Because SaaS and tech companies rely heavily on the
phone to generate revenue and support customers, many
are implementing voice-based marketing automation
(VBMA) technology to maximize the value of those phone
conversations. VBMA is a type of cloud-based software
used by sales, support, and marketing teams, and a
growing number of SaaS and tech companies are using it to
solve pressing challenges.
This white paper explains how sales, support, and
marketing teams at SaaS and tech companies use voice-
based marketing automation to solve these and other
challenges.
For sales:
• Howtoimplementacost-effectivecallcenterthatfitsyour sales team structure and works the way they need
• Howtoensurenophoneleadsaremissed
• Howtoroutecallstotherightsalesagent,eveniftheyare working from home or away from the office
• Howtogetwebleadsonthephonefastertoimprove
conversion rates
For support:
• Howtomakesureeverysupportcallisaddressedquicklyand correctly
• Howtoimplementaprofessionalcallcenterthatenablesagents to field calls from anywhere
• Howtousephonesurveystomeasurecustomer
satisfaction without tying up agent resources
For marketing:
• Howtounderstandwhatadsandmarketingcampaignsgenerate inbound sales calls – and which don’t
• Howtoallocateadvertisingbudgettoprogramsthatreally drive leads and revenue
• Howtoincludephoneleaddatainmarketingreportstoexecs to more accurately reflect campaign ROI
• Howtofilterandscoreinboundcallsautomaticallybeforepassing to sales
Introduction
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (877) 976-3414 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
3
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
SaaS and tech sales teams are structured in many different
ways, depending on the size of the sales team, what they
sell, and their rules of engagement. For example:
• Someteamsarestrictlyinsidesales,whererepsgatherina physical office location to make and receive calls
• Othershaveoutsidesalesagentsthatspendtheirtimeinthe field, travelling to meet customers and close business
• Somehavetelemarketingagentsthatfieldandevaluateall incoming call
• Othershaverepsthatworkeitherfull-timeorpart-timefrom home
• Andmanyaresomehybridcombinationofthemall
To further complicate matters, SaaS and tech sales teams
are constantly changing their structure to meet demands
for growth, to sell new products, and to accommodate
downsizing,mergers,andacquisitions.Plus,theyassign
leads based on a wide range of criteria – including by
geographic territory, product line, size of the account, and
even time of day – which is also subject to change.
For SaaS and tech sales teams that rely heavily on phone
conversations to close business, these factors can make
call routing a challenge. Many SaaS and tech companies are
finding that traditional on-premise call centers can’t meet
their needs. Instead, they are using voice-based marketing
automation to deploy cost-effective virtual call centers
that are fast to implement and easy to modify to meet new
requirements.
On-Premise Call Centers vs. VBMA Virtual Call Centers
Traditionally, call center solutions were all hosted on-
premise. A business would have to purchase the call
centerequipment,deployitattheirownoffice,and
maintain it throughout its lifecycle. That meant high setup,
maintenance, and hardware costs, as well as lengthy
deployment and update times. You would need to hire
programmers skilled in development and maintenance to
keep things running and make improvements. Plus you
would force your sales agents to be physically present in the
office to handle calls.
VBMA for Sales: Close More Business with a Cost-Effective Virtual Call Center
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (877) 976-3414 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
4
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
VBMA’s virtual call center technology changed all that.
VBMA makes it easy for SaaS and tech companies of every
size to cost-effectively deploy a professional call center in
little time. Because it is a cloud-based solution, you don’t
need to purchase and install expensive hardware. In fact,
you don’t need any programmer assistance at all. Your call
center can be up and running in minutes, and changes can
be made on the fly by sales personnel without any technical
background.
VBMA virtual call centers are extremely flexible, so your
agents can work from home, the road, or any office location
using any phone or device they wish while still operating
seamlessly as one team.
To learn more about the benefits of virtual call centers, you
can visit the Ifbyphone web site and download the white
paper “How Sales Teams Use Integrated Virtual Call
Centers to Close More Business”.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (877) 976-3414 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
5
Category On-Premise VBMA
Hardware Installed at your
office
No special hardware
to install or phone
equipmentto
purchase
Cost to Deploy Expensive Inexpensive - you pay
for what you use
Time to Deploy Weeks or months Hours
Difficulty of Updating Very-requires
programmers
None - updates are
installed automatically
Flexibility Changes can take
weeksandrequire
extensive coding
Changes can be made
on the fly by anyone
from anywhere
Supports Agents at
Home or Travelling
No Yes
Works with Any
Device
No Yes, including
landlines, mobile, and
softphones
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
VBMA virtual call centers have advanced call routing
technology that enables your business to route calls based
on your own customizable rules. Rules can be easily set
up and updated on the fly as needed. Call routing options
include:
• Route by schedule: Create custom routing based on your office hours, the time zones of your customers, weekends, holidays, and more.
• Route by agent: Ensure that your best performing sales reps receive the most calls by routing a certain percentage to specific agents.
• Route by geography: If your business has multiple locations or assigns leads based on territory, set up incoming phone calls to be routed based on the caller’s location.
• Route by number: Screen incoming calls and set up customroutingandqueuingrulesforspecificphonenumbers.
• Route by product interest or marketing source: Because VBMA can tell which product, ad, marketing campaign, or other source a person is calling about or from (more on this later), you can set up rules to route those calls to the best place based on that source.
You can also minimize the risk of important calls going
unanswered by using VBMA to implement conditional and
selective call routing. Forward incoming calls to different
types of phones or devices (cell phone, work phone, home
phone, Skype, etc.) and agents based on various schedules,
including:
• Simultaneous ringing: Ring an agent’s home, work, and cell phone simultaneously to ensure that the call is answered, whether the agent is working from home or travelling.
• Specific ring order: Ring agent phones in a specific order, such as work phone first, cell phone second, home phone third, etc.
• Multi-agent ringing: Ring several agent phone numbers at the same time; the first agent who answers gets the call, even if they are working from home.
• Office schedule: Forward calls to various agents based on your office schedule.
Automatically Route Calls to the Right Sales Agent Wherever They Are
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (877) 976-3414 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
6
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
Use an IVR as Your Auto-Attendant
IVR stands for interactive voice response. It is a telephone
technology that people interact with using their voice or
phonekeypadtoanswerquestionsoracquiredata.Voice-
based marketing automation makes it easy for salespeople
to build and modify your own IVRs in minutes without
having to hire or wait for help from a programmer.
Sales teams use IVR as auto-attendants that help manage
call volume. IVRs answer incoming calls with professionally
recorded greetings and route callers using interactive phone
menus. Auto-attendants can replace live receptionists,
helping your business cut costs and increase efficiency
while giving your callers around-the-clock service. They can
also be used to screen and score callers, passing only those
thatqualifytoasalesrep(moreonthislater).
Control Your Call Queuing Experience
When callers are placed on hold, you want full control
over their experience. VBMA lets you select the music or
promotional messages they hear, the maximum amount
of time they’ll have to wait, the number of callers in your
queue,andmuchmore.Youcanalsosetuppriorityqueuing
to speed VIP customers to the front of the line.
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (877) 976-3414 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
7
10 Questions to Ask Any Virtual Call Center Provider
1. Can I customize the on-hold experience?
2. Can my agents receive calls at any location
on any type of phone? Even softphones and
Skype?
3. Can I set up schedules based on my individual
agents?
4. How can my agents receive caller information
before answering?
5. Can I access call reports and records online?
6. Does your service offer call recording and
transcription?
7. Are there any setup fees or contracts?
8. Am I able to transfer callers to another agent,
department, or IVR?
9. Do you charge per-agent or per-seat fees?
10. Does it integrate with applications like
Salesforce.com and Zendesk?
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (xxx) xxx-xxxx | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
8
Integrate Your Call Center with Your CRM System
VBMA virtual call centers can integrate with CRM systems
like Salesforce.com. For sales leads, this means that every
incoming call gets logged automatically in your CRM either
as a new lead or as part of an existing record, along with
data on the caller and the marketing source that lead them
to call:
• Have customer information at sales’ fingertips
before every call: When a call comes in from an
existing customer or prospect, VBMA instantly triggers
a screen-pop with information on the lead, contact, and
organization (see Figure 1). No time is wasted searching
for the correct CRM record.
• Boost agent productivity and reduce input errors:
When a new lead calls, VBMA creates a lead record in
your CRM and auto-populates the contact number, lead
source, and other information. This keeps your agents
productiveandimprovesthequalityofyourdata.
• Never miss a phone lead: If a call from a new lead
goes unanswered, VBMA creates a new lead record for
you with an open case to ensure proper follow up. If the
number is associated with an existing CRM contact, a
new case is automatically added to the record.
Figure 1. Agent panels arm sales reps with valuable data on incoming callers.
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (xxx) xxx-xxxx | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
9
Convert Web Form Leads into Instant Sales Calls
Ask yourself: When a lead fills out one of your web forms,
how long will it take for a sales rep to respond and get the
lead on the phone? Research shows that a sale is 22 times
more likely to happen when you make contact within the
first five minutes. Waiting even ten minutes dramatically
decreases your chances of converting that lead to a sale.
VBMA has tools that make it easy for any web form lead
– including Google PPC – to talk to the right sales rep
right away. Using VBMA, you can generate immediate
connectionsfromanyonlineform,includingRequesta
Demo forms, Contact Us forms, or the forms on any of your
Google PPC landing pages.
Here’showitworks:
1. Whenever a lead completes a web page form and clicks
submit, VBMA immediately calls your sales rep and
“whispers” the lead’s information in their ear. This can
include the name of the form that was downloaded, the
lead’s name, and their phone number.
2. If the rep decides to accept the call, VBMA will
automatically call the lead and connect both parties
over the phone.
It can be a very effective strategy for improving the number
of Google PPC leads and other web form leads that convert
to opportunities and revenue.
Arm Sales with Valuable Caller Data Using Agent Panels
The more information sales agents have upfront about
inbound callers, the more successful the call will be. So
VBMA provides a web-based agent panel that displays on
each sakes rep’s computer screen (see Figure 1).
Before taking a call, the sales rep can see who is calling
and what ad, marketing campaign, search term, or other
source led them to call. If the caller has a record in your
CRM system, the panel provides one-click access to that
record. If not, that same click can create a new record with
pre-populated data.
This panel can display on any computer, no matter if the rep
is working in your office or at home. If an agent is working
from home using their cell phone and wants to transfer
a caller to someone in another location, the agent panel
makes it easy.
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (xxx) xxx-xxxx | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
10
Monitor Call Center Activity with Real-Time and Historical Call ReportsMonitoring sales agent call activity is easy using VBMA’s
web-based real-time and historical reports.
• Howmanydideachagenthandleinagiventime?
• Howlongdidcallslast?
• What was the average time a lead waited to speak with an agent?
• Howmanyhoursadaydoeseachagentspendonincoming calls, outbound calls, and break?
• What time do agents first log in and last log out?
All this data is at your fingertips, no matter where each
agent is working, so you can centrally manage your call
center from anywhere.
Record and Transcribe Sales Calls Voice-based marketing automation can also record and
transcribe every sales call for future review. Call recordings
and transcription can provide a wealth of information from
your leads and customers for marketing and sales to mine.
• What terminology do prospects use?
• Howdotheydescribetheirpainpoints?
• What are the sticking points sales have to overcome?
• What sales approaches work best to close deals?
Use this knowledge to educate sales reps on how best to
overcome barriers and close more deals.
Summary of VBMA Functionality for Sales
Virtual Call Center
• IVR auto-attendant
• Intelligent call routing
• Agent panel
• Manager dashboards
• Call recording and transcription
Voice Broadcasting
• Outbound IVR and prerecorded blasts
• SMS messaging
• Web-based reporting
CRM Integration
• Salesforce.com integration
• API integration for other CRM tools
Learn more about how sales teams use VBMA by downloading “The Definitive Guide to Voice-Based Marketing Automation.”
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (xxx) xxx-xxxx | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
11
VBMA for Support: Provide Superior Phone Support from Anywhere
Many SaaS and tech companies handle hundreds – even
thousands – of support calls each week. But even if you
only get a handful a day, each call is important. This is
especially true if you are charging your customers extra to
talk to a live agent over the phone. If your support team is
taking too long to respond, customers get frustrated, their
satisfaction level drops, and your churn rate goes up.
VBMA Virtual Call Centers Give Support Teams Flexibility for Less A cloud-based VBMA virtual call center makes just as much
sense for support teams as it does for sales. Smaller SaaS
and tech companies with a few support agents can still
provide customers a professional call center experience
– even if the agents work from home – giving callers the
impression your company is bigger than it is. And larger
tech companies with dozens – or even hundreds – of
support agents can cut costs while providing faster, more
efficient phone support using a VBMA virtual call center.
Some highlights:
• VBMA virtual call centers are inexpensive and easy to
get up and running. No IT help needed.
• You can use the phones you already have in your office,
athome,orinyourpocket.Noextraequipmenttobuy.
• Agents can field calls from anywhere, so it is very easy
to hire part-time or seasonal workers to staff your help
desk.
• As mentioned early, a wide range of automatic call
routing options are available to ensure no support calls
are missed no matter where your agents work.
• No matter where agents are, call activity can be
centrally monitored using real-time web-based reports,
same as for sales teams.
• And because VBMA virtual call centers are so easy to
configure and update, they have the flexibility to grow
with you as your company and support team evolves.
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (xxx) xxx-xxxx | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
12
To learn more about the benefits of deploying a VBMA
virtual call center for customer support, you can visit the
Ifbyphone web site and download the white paper “The
Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the
Cloud.”
Manage Call Volume and Enable Customer Self-Service with IVRs
Inbound IVR is nothing new for the call center – companies
have been setting up inbound IVRs as their virtual
receptionist for years. Rather than having a live agent
answer every phone call, the IVR picks up the phone and
routes the call to the correct person or department.
But IVRs have become increasingly more sophisticated.
Now they can be used to provide callers with information
and services they previously had to wait for a live agent to
receive, such as:
• Accountandbillinginfo
• Order renewals
• Order status updates
• Changes to contact information
• Password retrieval and updating
• Business hours and locations
Automating this functionality with an IVR enables your
customerstoservethemselvesquicklyandsavesyour
agents for more elaborate support calls. Plus, IVR can
also gather information from callers, including their name,
organization, and product/service they need help with up
front and route the call to an agent accordingly.
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (xxx) xxx-xxxx | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
13
Treat Your VIP Customers Like VIPs
Keeping VIP customers happy is extremely important to
any business. And the faster your support team is able to
respond to and resolve issues from VIPS, the more loyal
they will be will be. So if you receive a high volume of
support calls, you can use VBMA to set up custom rules
thatplaceVIPcustomersatthetopofthesupportqueue.
Thistypepriorityqueuingalsoenablesyoutogenerateextra
revenue by charging customers for different tiers of phone
support, with your most expensive tier enabling VIPs to skip
to the front of the line.
Improve Support and Agent Productivity with Help Desk Integration
If your support team uses a help desk system like
Zendesk, you can integrate it with voice-based marketing
automation’s virtual call center technology to improve
support team efficiency. The benefits of this integration
includes:
• Turn voice messages into support tickets: When a customer leaves a voicemail, your agents will automatically receive an email with both the transcribed text message as well as the recorded file. The system will automatically open a support ticket for the caller in your help desk system, eliminating manual work and saving your agents time.
• Acknowledge support requests 24/7: No matter when a caller leaves a voice message, they will automatically receive an email acknowledging receipt of their ticket.
• Manage calls and tickets on one platform: Many help desk systems like Zendesk don’t include a phone component. By integrating them with VBMA, agents can simply sign in to their help desk account and they are automatically logged in to the call center. They can then make and receive calls without leaving the help desk
system.
Figure 2. Example of post-support customer satisfaction IVR survey built using Ifbyphone.
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (xxx) xxx-xxxx | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
14
Measure Customer Satisfaction with Automated Phone Surveys
Phone surveys are an invaluable tool for measuring
customer service. Phone surveys provide feedback from
customers on how your support agents are performing—
are they timely, professional, and knowledgeable? Were
they able to solve the customer’s problem in a satisfactory
way? This data enables support teams to make changes to
improve customer retention and loyalty.
VBMA makes it easy for your support team to build their
own inbound and outbound automated phone surveys using
IVR technology (see Figure 2). You can:
• TransfercallerstoaquickIVRsurveytoprovide
immediate feedback after speaking to an agent, while
the transaction remains fresh in the customers’ minds.
• For times when a customer’s satisfaction with the help
you provided can’t be immediately gauged, you can use
VBMA to send an outbound IVR that automatically calls
customers after a certain period of time and ask them
questions.
• You can also provide a toll-free hotline on receipts or
invoices encouraging people to call and take a phone
survey.
All IVR responses are accessible from real-time web-based
reports, and that data can be integrated with the customer’s
record in your CRM system.
Summary of VBMA Functionality for Support
Virtual Call Center
• IVR auto-attendant
• Intelligent call routing
• Call forwarding
• Agent panel
• Manager dashboards
• IVR phone surveys
Analytics
• CRM integration
• Call recording and transcription
Help Desk Integration
• Zendesk integration
• API integration for other help desk tools
Learn more about how support teams use VBMA by downloading “The Definitive Guide to Voice-Based Marketing Automation”.
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (xxx) xxx-xxxx | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
15
ForSaaSandtechmarketingteams,drivingqualityleads
for the sales team to close is one of your most important
responsibilities. To understand campaign success and fix
programs that aren’t working, you need to track every lead
back to its source and through to revenue.
Most marketers can do this for web leads (like web form
downloads) using a combination of marketing automation or
email reporting tools, Google Analytics and AdWords, and
aCRMsystem.However,yourads,marketingcampaigns,
content, and web pages also generate phone leads, and
trackingthoseinboundcallsbacktotheirsourcerequires
voice-based marketing automation.
Why Marketing Teams Use VBMA to Track Phone Leads
VBMA comes with call tracking technology you can use
to attribute inbound calls to the proper marketing source.
Using VBMA you can track phone leads (and the pipeline
and revenue they generate) back to specific online, offline,
and mobile ads, keyword searches, direct mail and email,
social media sites, content, or any other source.
You no longer have to guess which campaigns and content
are really driving sales calls. Instead, you get a complete,
detailed understanding of which programs are generating
phone leads and how those leads are impacting pipeline
and revenue. You can then use call tracking data to pinpoint
which activities are working – and which aren’t – and
make improvements. By reinvesting only in marketing that
generates leads and revenue, you can grow your business
without increasing your spend. Plus you are able to prove
to your executive team how your work is impacting the
business’s bottom line.
How Call Tracking Works in General
VBMA’s call tracking technology gives you clean trackable
phone numbers (local, toll-free, or vanity) that you can
insert in your marketing material. When someone calls that
number, VBMA knows exactly what source they’re calling
from and captures that source information with the lead
information. If that lead goes on to become an opportunity
or a customer, you can tie those events back to the original
source, so you can understand and prove how your
marketing is impacting lead generation and sales.
VBMA for Marketing: Prove and Improve ROI with Call Tracking and More
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (xxx) xxx-xxxx | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
16
Why Phone Leads MatterNotallleadsarecreatedequal.Justaskanysales
manager which types of leads they prefer (see Figure 4).
While web form leads, research reports, and interactive
online tools are excellent vehicles for generating leads,
those prospects are often just beginning their research.
Inbound phone leads are different. Someone who calls
you is often further along the buying processand ready to
engage in a serious discussion with a sales rep.
It’s why inbound phone leads are the most valuable to
sales, and the leads marketers most need to generate and
track.
Figure 4. Larger percentage of SMBs rate telephone leads as “excellent” or “good” – more than any other lead type1.
How Call Tracking Works for Offline Ads, Content Marketing, and Email
For offline advertising (such as print ads, direct mail
campaigns, TV or radio spots, billboards, or trade show
materials), content marketing (like eBooks, webinars,
brochures, and videos) or email blasts, call tracking is a
fairlybasicconcept.Yousimplyinsertauniquenumberin
each of your marketing materials, attribute those numbers
in the VBMA software to their respective source, tell VBMA
where to route the call (more on that later), and you’re off.
VBMA can then generate real-time reports on the calls each
source generates (see Figure 4).
For more information on the value of call tracking for
content marketing, visit the Ifbyphone web site and
download the white paper: “Marketer’s Guide to Proving
(and Improving) Content Marketing ROI”.
How Call Tracking Works for Online and Mobile Sources
For online and mobile sources such as Google SEO or PPC
ads that send people to a web page, call tracking works by
usingatechniquecalleddynamicnumberinsertion(DNI).
DNIautomaticallydisplaysauniquecalltrackingphone
number on your web pages based on the referral source.
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (xxx) xxx-xxxx | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
17
Here’sasimplesummaryofhowitworks:
1. First, you should include a phone number prominently
on your web pages with a “call us now” call to action.
2. YouthenreplacethatphonenumberintheHMTLwith
asmallsnippetofcalltrackingJavaScriptcodeyouget
from VBMA.
3. Thecodethenautomaticallydisplaysauniquephone
number on your web pages for each visitor based on
how they got there (i.e., Google or Bing keyword search,
PPC ad, banner ad, referring web site, social media
post, etc.).
4. When the visitor calls the number, the phone lead is
attributed in VBMA to the right referral source.
5. Finally, you can generate reports using VBMA on how
online and mobile activity is generating calls. And like
marketing automation tools, you can integrate call
tracking software with your CRM system to follow each
phone lead from the source through the salescycle to
revenue (more on this later).
For more information on call tracking for Google SEO and
PPC, visit the Ifbyphone web site and download the white
paper: “Marketer’s Guide to Call Tracking for Google
SEO and PPC”.
Beacon Technologies Sees Over 400% Higher ROI with Call Tracking
Beacon Technologies is a web technology and marketing agency. Beacon uses Ifbyphone as the critical link between online marketing spend and offline phone call conversions.
For one client, Beacon used unique phone numbers from Ifbyphone to track call activity from sites like Lawyers.com, FindLaw.com, Google Local, and social media outlets. They now understood which channels were working and adjusted spending accordingly. The end result was a significant increase in ROI.
“A lot of companies don’t just get leads that take place on the web. Consumers often pick up the phone and call,” said Brad Henry, Director of Web Marketing at Beacon. “It’s important to know where that lead originated, particularly if the web is involved, in order to optimize marketing initiatives moving forward.”
VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (xxx) xxx-xxxx | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
18
Generate Detailed Web-Based Reports to Analyze Call Sources
VBMA enables you to configure, schedule, and generate
your own real-time and historical web-based reports on
phone leads (see Figure 4).
You can configure the data any way you want to create
meaningful reports on which ads, campaigns, content,
social media sites, and search keywords are driving inbound
calls. You can also access rich data on each call’s duration
and time of day, the caller’s geography, how long they spent
on hold, the call activity of your sales agents, and much
more.
Track Revenue from Phone Leads with CRM Integration
Voice-based marketing automation is designed to be a
standalone platform. But it also integrates easily with
CRM systems like Salesforce.com, giving SaaS and tech
companies additional value. All call tracking data is passed
to your CRM, so you can generate reports detailing how
each marketing source is driving phone leads, opportunities,
and revenue, and include that data with your web leads,
trade show leads, and other leads as part of your overall
marketing reports (see Figure 5).
Figure 4. Generate reports that track phone leads to their source.
Figure 5. Include phone call data in your Salesforce.com dashboards and reports.
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Include Call Tracking Data in Google Analytics and Universal Analytics Many SaaS and tech companies use Google Analytics to
better understand activity on their web site. In 2013 Google
took their analytics platform to the next level with the
release of Universal Analytics, which gives businesses the
ability to view not just web activity, but also data on offline
interactions, mobile app traffic, and other sources – all in the
same interface.
With VBMA you can integrate your call tracking data with
both Google Analytics and Universal Analytics and add the
critical phone data piece to Google’s marketing analytics
puzzle. Google Analytics users can view and analyze call
data alongside web traffic data to better understand how
web visitors and callers find your business and better
measure campaign ROI. Universal Analytics users can
take it a step further by viewing rich, context-specific
call tracking data alongside your other online and offline
marketing analytics, so you can:
• See which ads, search keywords, or social media platforms are driving web visits and phone calls to your business
• Compare web visits and phone calls from organic vs. paid search on one screen
• See which of your web pages or videos a person viewed before and after calling you
• See which of your content they downloaded or items they purchased before and after calling you
• Access a color-coded heat map to see where people are calling you from (see Figure 6) – it’s great for retail, franchises, and other multi-location businesses
Figure 6. Integrate call data with Universal Analytics to see where visitors are calling from geographically.
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Accurately Track Google PPC ROI in Google AdWords Most Saas and tech companies advertise on Google. They
then use Google AdWords to see which keywords, PPC ads,
and landing pages are generating impressions, clicks, and
conversions.
But Google AdWords only tracks web form conversions.
It can’t tell you if someone came to your landing page,
then picked up the phone and called you. That means
your AdWords conversion data could be very misleading.
A landing page might be generating few form downloads
but a high number of inbound calls, which are leading to
opportunities and revenue. But if you can’t tie calls back to
landing pages, ads, and keyword searches, how will you
know? You might end up editing, or even deleting, a landing
page with a high ROI.
VBMA call tracking integrates with Google AdWords, so all
incoming phone calls from any type of Google paid search
ad (even mobile) will be properly captured and attributed as
conversions in Google AdWords. You can get a complete
understanding of what’s working and what isn’t to more
intelligently manage your campaigns.
Call Tracking Helps WiderFunnel Show a 42% Increase in Phone Calls for Client
WiderFunnel, a marketing optimization agency, was engaged by Saint Jude Retreats to increase phone leads from their web site, since phone inquiries were more likely to convert into sales.
To do it, WiderFunnel designed several web landing page variations optimized for phone call inquiries and used Ifbyphone to track calls from each page. The result: WiderFunnel measured a 42% increase in phone calls from their landing pages, demonstrating a significant boost in business for Saint Jude Retreats.
“Ifbyphone’s call tracking tools and customer support is second to none. Ifbyphone played an integral part in measuring the success of our landing page optimization efforts, and we couldn’t be any happier with the results,” said Daniel G. Hidalgo, Marketing
Director of Saint Jude Retreats.
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Qualify and Filter Inbound Calls with an IVR Chances are that not every inbound call you generate will
be ready to engage with a sales rep. Many might not be.
And you don’t want to waste your sales reps’ time by having
them field incoming calls from leads that aren’t sales-ready.
VBMA makes it easy to filter your inbound calls from any
source automatically using an IVR. The IVR can answer calls
andaskcallersthequestionsyoudetermineworkbestto
qualifythemforthatparticularcampaign.Forexample,if
you are using the BANT (budget, authority, need, timeline)
modeltoqualifyleads,youcanposethosequestionsto
learn if callers are really ready to go to sales.
Leadsthatscorehighenougharepassedautomatically
from the IVR directly to sales for an immediate conversation.
Others can hear a custom marketing message and be
given the option of leaving a voicemail for sales, or even be
passed to a second IVR.
Marketers can set up IVRs for different campaigns in
minutes, monitor real-time reports on their results, and make
changes on the fly when needed – all without involving IT.
Route Qualified Phone Leads in Various Ways
VBMA enables you to control not only which callers get
passed to sales, but also where and to whom they get
passed. Because VBMA can tell which ad, search keyword,
web page, content, marketing campaign, or other source
a person is calling from, you can route calls differently for
different sources.
Choose from a wide variety of call routing options, including:
• Toagentsinaspecificorderthatyouconfigure
• Toseveralagentssimultaneouslyonafirst-answerbasis
• Toagentsbasedontheirterritories,jobtitles,productspecialty, or skillset
• Toanindividualagent’sworkphone,cellphone,landline,Skype, etc. simultaneously or in any order
• Tospecificagentsorofficelocationsbasedonthecall’stime of day
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Record Sales Calls to Improve Your Marketing VBMA can also record every sales call. Call recordings
can provide a wealth of information from your leads and
prospects for you to mine.
• Whatterminologydoprospectsuse?
• Howdotheydescribetheirpainpoints?
• Arethereparticularbenefitsaboutyourproductsthatclose deals faster?
• Whatarethestickingpointssaleshavetoovercome?
Call recordings enable you to find out and use that data to
build more effective marketing campaigns.
Summary of VBMA Functionality for Marketing
Lead Tracking & Generation
• Call tracking
• Clean, trackable phone numbers provisioning
• Dynamic number insertion
• Web form calling
Call Scoring
• Inbound IVR
Analytics
• Call tracking reports
• Google AdWords, Google Analytics, & Universal Analytics integration
• Call recording and transcription
CRM Integration
• Salesforce.com integration
• API integration for other CRM tools
Learn more about how marketing teams use VBMA by downloading “The Definitive Guide to Voice-Based Marketing Automation”.
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You can see how VBMA helps marketing, sales, and
support individually. But by providing a common platform
for managing and optimizing phone interactions – and by
integrating with your CRM, help desk, and other systems
– VBMA also connects all three groups together and helps
keep them aligned:
• Marketing can pass lead source data to sales when they
get an inbound call and access CRM data and sales call
recordings to improve campaigns
• Sales can see the marketing source of every call before
answeringtoimproveconversationqualityandaccess
support call recordings to better manage accounts
• Support can access complete customers histories
(including answers to phone surveys) and sales call
recordings to improve service.
With VBMA, all groups not only work better, but they work
better together.
Connect and Align Marketing, Sales, and Support
Next Steps
Call Ifbyphone today at (XXX) XXX-XXXX to learn how Ifbyphone can help you grow your business. You can also request a demo of Ifbyphone’s VBMA solution at www.ifbyphone.com.
Sources:1. BIA/Kelsey report on Call-Based Ads, May 29, 2012
About Ifbyphone
Ifbyphone, the leader in voice-based marketing automation
(VBMA), connects, measures and optimizes sales and
service calls for businesses and organizations. Ifbyphone’s
VBMA solutions capture and manage phone leads and
information that often slip through the cracks of traditional
marketing automation and CRM software solutions.
The Ifbyphone product suite is a set of software-as-a-service
applications including call tracking, hosted IVR (interactive
voice response), call routing, virtual call center and voice
broadcasting. Organizations of all sizes in all industries use
Ifbyphone, including marketing agencies, lead generation,
e-commerce, direct response, financial services and
insurance, health care, retail and logistics, and SaaS and
technology. For more information, visit www.ifbyphone.com
www.ifbyphone.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ifbyphone
Facebook: http://facebook.com/ifbyphone
(XXX) XXX-XXXX
300 West Adams Street, 9th Floor
Chicago,IL60606
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. All rights reserved.