Category: Sales

Category for “Sales”

How to Make Your Sales & Marketing Teams 💖 Your CRM

Posted on February 8, 2021 by - Marketing, Sales

How to make your sales and marketing love your CRM

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, it’s time to think about your relationship… with your CRM. For most businesses, things can be a little rocky. Complex processes, inconsistent data, and busy sales and marketing teams can quickly relegate a CRM to the back burner.

All is not lost, however. You can rekindle the love between your sales and marketing teams and your CRM. Here’s how.

💘 Make it easier to access accurate data

Love for team workTrust is the foundation of any healthy relationship. Your sales and marketing teams want to believe that their CRM is giving them the right information on leads and customers, but if your platform has provided inaccurate, duplicated, and confusing data in the past, that trust will need to be rebuilt.

You can take time cleaning up the data in your CRM by deleting duplicates and ensuring that team members enter data in a consistent manner.

However, the best way to restore confidence in your CRM is to use a platform that automatically imports real-time data on every contact.

Here at GoCRM, our system integrates with hundreds of platforms and imports all relevant data into a central database. That means that with less effort your teams enjoy access to accurate, updated information they can rely on.

No more manual updates. No more juggling data spread across multiple apps. Your team won’t even have to write down the information gathered in their phone conversations. GoCRM’s cloud-based VOIP system will record and import phone calls, too.

Give your team the gift of an accurate CRM (that doesn’t require constant manual updates, no less!) and watch their love for their CRM blossom anew.

💘 Make it easier to use that data

In order to help your sales and marketing teams fall in love with your CRM, you’re going to need to speak their love languages: Analytics and Results.

Your marketing team uses information about how people respond to each campaign to determine which campaigns are most profitable and effective for each target audience. Your sales team uses data to tailor messages and strategies to each lead so they move smoothly through the sales funnel to a conversion.

If their CRM can make it easy to access and use that data, then they’re going to feel the love. How can you ensure that your CRM provides relevant marketing and sales analytics?

Find a CRM that automatically tracks data for every lead. The GoCRM platform is capable of analyzing everything from the origin of a lead to the actions they take with your business to the relative effect each interaction had on their decision to convert.

Using dynamic number insertion that assigns a different phone number to each marketing campaign, GoCRM can even track the origins of leads who call your business instead of contacting you online.

With real-time analytics at their fingertips, your sales and marketing teams can easily track all the important metrics that tell them

  • How each marketing campaign worked
  • How effective each sales interaction was
  • How each target audience responds best
  • How to get the most out of every marketing dollar
  • How to approach communications with each lead
  • How to close more sales
  • Which efforts had the biggest ROI
  • And more

💘 Demonstrate the CRM’s usefulness

Love for dataYour sales and marketing teams may not love the idea of a customer relationship management software, but they will love seeing what it can do for them.

Convince your teams to fall in love with your CRM by showing them how the CRM can transform their work.

With the right CRM, you can help your teams accomplish some of the following tasks:

  • Increase leads
  • Increase sales
  • Boost ROI
  • Shorten time to lead
  • Reduce time to conversion
  • Improve marketing efficiency
  • Save money and time
  • Streamline business processes
  • And More

Let your team start imagining what’s possible with an accurate, comprehensive, and intelligent CRM, and watch them fall in love.

💘 Reduce manual tasks with automation

Work smarter, not harder, with a CRM that uses automation to save your sales and marketing teams time and effort.

With GoCRM, you access automated workflows, email drip campaigns, data imports from hundreds of apps, phone call recordings, and more.

Use these automated features to connect with and nurture more leads with less effort. For example, create an automated on-boarding process for new clients or a workflow that targets cold leads.

Nurture leads by automatically providing resources, or trigger an automated email every time a lead submits an online form.

When your sales and marketing teams see your CRM putting as much effort into the relationship as they are, they’ll begin to appreciate everything the platform can do for them.

💘 Provide ample training

Training loveA team that doesn’t know how to use the CRM will never truly love their CRM. With busy schedules, your sales and marketing staff won’t want to take the time to figure out a confusing platform.

Make it easier for them to use your CRM with ample training (and an intuitive platform). That means you’ll want to choose a CRM that offers the following features for getting to know the platform:

  • Multiple training sessions
  • Integration with your current processes and best practices
  • Gradual introduction of relevant features
  • Ongoing support for questions and problems

Don’t forget to choose a CRM that offers a free demo and/or a free trial. Having the chance to take the CRM out on a few dates before committing can ensure that the platform you choose is the one for you.

💘 Provide incentives for using the CRM

If your sales and marketing teams aren’t ready to commit to your CRM quite yet, you may need to woo them with more than just the platform’s coolest features.

Offering incentives for using the CRM can be an easy way to encourage engagement with your platform until your teams can start seeing exactly how much of a difference the right CRM can make in their day-to-day work.

Choose an incentive that will truly motivate your teams. Try offering vacation days, bonuses, or a team meal for consistent use of the CRM.

Don’t forget: When your team experiences success and milestones thanks to the CRM, make sure to celebrate those achievements. Recognizing the impact your CRM is having can make your team excited about continuing the relationship.

💘 Choose the right CRM

Falling in love with a CRM means finding the platform that is right for you. Take a few CRMs out on a first date and only go deeper with the platforms that click during the demo or the first conversation.

Most importantly, look for a CRM that meets your business needs and can be customized to your business practices.

GoCRM might just be the match made in heaven you are looking for. By offering you and your sales and marketing teams the support they need to work smarter, not harder, GoCRM makes it easy to enhance lead management, from lead generation, lead nurturing, and lead conversions.

💡 Takeaways

If you are looking to reignite love for your CRM, then consider choosing GoCRM. Contact us today to get a free demo and start the process of helping your sales and marketing teams love your CRM again.

Small Business Call Tracking

Posted on September 7, 2020 by - Marketing, Sales

Business call tracking: how it works

What Is Call Tracking And How Does It Work?

When a customer calls your business, you need to know how they learned about you. Business call tracking provides this answer. This marketing tactic gives you an accurate way to track phone calls from both online and offline marketing efforts for a very reasonable cost.

What Is Call Tracking In Business?

Call tracking in business is the practice of linking specific phone numbers to specific online and offline marketing campaigns. When a customer calls your business using one of these numbers, you can easily identify which campaign drove the customer to call you.

In addition, by using call tracking technology, sales and marketing teams can enjoy a 360-degree view of the phone call and the lead behind it. They can track information such as how the call went, how the lead responded, and whether a conversion ever took place.

What Is Dynamic Number Insertion?

Dynamic number insertion is the practice of assigning a unique number to each campaign you wish to track. Potential customers who call that unique number are forwarded to your primary number. Your call tracking technology logs which unique number the caller is using to reach you, so you can easily link them to a specific marketing effort.Dynamic number insertion in action

For example, you may assign one number to your social media campaign, and one to your billboard campaign. When a prospect sees your billboard and calls the number, the call tracking technology logs the billboard number as the one that was called. The same process would apply every time someone called the number you included in your social media campaign.

You can use DNI to assign a separate number to every online marketing campaign or advertisement you create. However, DNI works best when you limit your numbers to two online numbers (One for your website and one for your other online efforts) and other unique numbers for each of your offline advertisements.

How Does Business Call Tracking Work?

How dynamic number insertion works

Call tracking works by using dynamic number insertion to assign a unique number to each of your desired campaigns, whether online or offline. That technology then creates an entry in your dashboard every time someone uses one of those numbers to call your business.

In concert with robust customer relationship management, call tracking paints a complete picture of every phone call that comes from your marketing efforts. Integrate call tracking with your CRM to evaluate the quality of the call, record follow ups, and track interactions and conversions to take the next best steps to turn your phone leads into paying customers.

Why Is Call Tracking Important In Business?

Call tracking in business is important because, even in a digital age, phone calls generate leads and sales. As a result, businesses need to understand exactly how phone calls are contributing to their bottom line. Call tracking provides this information by developing a picture of who called from each campaign and what those phone calls (And, by extension, those campaigns) did for the business.

Mobile searches lead to phone calls 61 percent of the time. About 65 percent of Fortune 500 companies consider phone calls to be their highest quality lead generators. Yet, phone calls are not trackable using traditional online analytics. Without call tracking, phone calls generated by your online and offline campaigns do not count in your total numbers.

Call tracking fills in this missing information so you can accurately evaluate your campaigns, follow up with potential leads, and focus your marketing and sales efforts on those campaigns and leads that matter most.

Call tracking even allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of your sales strategies and the quality of your sales calls. As a result, call tracking leads to (1 Improved ROI (2 More conversions and (3 Better customer service.

Call tracking is not the same as recording phone calls (Though you may choose to do that as well). It simply records the phone number that the prospect calls in order to track marketing campaigns and sales strategies. As a result, call tracking is a legal practice that does not infringe on the privacy of your customers.

If you do choose to record phone calls as part of your call tracking process, you may need to follow certain steps to inform the caller that their call is being recorded. Before implementing call tracking or recording, be sure to check with a legal professional about the intricacies of doing so in your state and your situation.

Can Small Businesses Implement Call Tracking?

Call tracking is a valuable tool for small businesses who want an easy and inexpensive way to track their marketing campaigns and include phone calls in their analytics. Call tracking is simple to install, because it does not require advanced hardware or infrastructure, and it is cost-effective, fitting into almost any small business budget. In addition, call tracking can even save small businesses time and money by allowing them to focus their resources on the marketing and sales strategies that work best.

How Much Does Call Tracking For Business Cost?

Call tracking for business is relatively inexpensive. GoCRM, for example, only costs $39 a month per user for a full suite of CRM tools and integrations. You can then add dynamic number insertion to your monthly package for only $45 a month. Other CRM call tracking platforms range between $25-$125 per user per month.

Other CRMs also allow you to integrate call tracking with their platforms, for an additional cost. Consider the integration costs of these CRM softwares:

Salesforce: Up to $25 per month, per user

Close.com: Will provide call recording at its business level of $123.25 a month, but does not provide dynamic number insertion.

Freshworks.com: Allows you to buy, mask, and port numbers. Its costs range from free (plus $1 a month for each number you buy) for startups to $99 a month per user plus $1 a month for each number you buy for enterprises.

What Are The Pros And Cons of Call Tracking For Business?

Call tracking can increase ROI and improve customer experience. Taking the right steps can help businesses reap these benefits while avoiding downsides such as technical difficulties and potential confusion among consumers.

Some of the pros of call tracking include: marketing attribution, fewer lost leads, time saving, more control over sales and marketing and its affordability even for small businesses. Some of the cons include: lack of SEO friendliness, potential for customer confusion and technical difficulty when implementing.

Let’s look at the pros and cons in detail:

Pros

Cons

✅ Marketing Attribution

Call tracking makes it easy to attribute every lead to a specific marketing effort and to analyze the effectiveness of each campaign, even those that do not benefit from traditional online analytics.

❌ Lack of SEO friendliness

If you use too many unique numbers to track your online marketing efforts, you risk running afoul of Google, who may penalize your website for what it considers to be gray SEO techniques. Communicate clearly with Google’s search bots by limiting your online numbers to two and by avoiding the use of call tracking in your directory listings.

✅ Fewer Lost Leads

Call tracking cuts down on the number of leads that fall through the cracks by ensuring that every lead is logged and tracked. Call tracking also ensures that leads earned through phone calls instead of digital means are recognized.

❌ Customer Confusion

If customers see different numbers for your business in different locations, they may be confused about which one is your “real” number.

✅ Save Time

Call tracking saves time by improving the efficiency of marketing campaigns and by automatically identifying the origin and progress of phone calls. That means that your sales and marketing teams can target their efforts on growing impactful campaigns and processes.

❌ Technical Difficulty

If your call tracking technology does not work correctly, or if you do not understand how to use it, you may not reap the full benefits available through this strategy. You can prevent these problems by choosing a reliable business, like GoCRM to provide training and support to ensure the smoothest use possible of your call tracking technology.

✅ More Control

Call tracking improves the control you have over your sales and marketing efforts by delivering actionable information to your fingertips.

✅ Affordable

Call tracking can be implemented for a very low cost. As a result, even small businesses can afford to track their marketing performance.

The pros that call tracking offers are important in driving increased ROI and in crafting more effective marketing campaigns and sales approaches. Call tracking does have a few potential downsides that you need to be aware of. However, savvy use of the right call tracking technology can help you to avoid many of these problems.

How Can You Implement Call Tracking?

Perhaps the easiest way to implement call tracking is through a robust CRM that includes dynamic number insertion and call tracking in its services. This way, you enjoy total integration and reliable training and support from the get-go.

GoCRM provides dynamic number insertion and call tracking that seamlessly integrates with the rest of the platform. As a result, call tracking becomes one tool in an entire suite of tools designed to help you track, engage with, and convert leads at every stage of the sales funnel.

Top 5 Ways CRM Empowers Sales Teams

Posted on July 20, 2020 by - Sales

illustration of group of people celebrating and holding up trophy

A motivated and empowered sales team is a force to be reckoned with. Creating an environment where your sales team can thrive involves a combination of smart management, talented team members, and the right tools.

Among those tools should be a great CRM. In fact, effective sales teams use a CRM 81% more often than do teams that are less successful. This tool does more than offer real-time insights into leads and customers. The right CRM for sales teams empowers your sales team in five incredible ways.

Visualization of top 5 ways a CRM empowers sales teams

1. Streamlines employee onboarding

The more time you have to spend onboarding new team members, the less time you, and they, have to spend actually closing deals. Improving CRM use compliance among your sales team also means that you have to effectively train team members in using the platform from the first moment they join your team.

Enter a CRM software for teams. More than just a way to connect with customers, the right platform makes it easier to get new employees up and running with your sales team.

While it will not entirely replace your traditional onboarding process, such as in-class training and mentoring by seasoned team members, it can assist the process in the following ways:

• Ease of Use

An intuitive user interface is important for your entire sales team, but doubly so for new members. You need them to start using your CRM right away so they can start entering data, nurturing leads, closing sales, and communicating with team members.

A CRM that delivers an intuitive user interface and seamless integration (or replacement) with the phone, email, calendars, and more is less frustrating to use and faster to learn. That ease of use translates into new team members who feel empowered to perform from day 1.

• Self-Teaching Features

Small sales teams may not have much time to spend walking new employees through processes and technologies.

The best CRM for 10-person sales teams, or other small teams, is one that can help with self-teaching tools such as walkthroughs and video instruction built into the platform. These tools reduce the in-class instruction needed while quickly familiarizing team members with the CRM so they can start getting to work.

2. Centralizes customer data

Customers expect sales teams to possess and act upon their information. In fact, 84% of customers express frustration when a salesperson cannot immediately access their account. They feel even more frustrated when they receive duplicate communications from your sales team.

An empowered sales team is a team that has instant, easy access to all of the relevant information about every prospect. The best way to centralize your customer data? CRM software.

CRM for sales teams collects all the data you have on every customer in one interface, where any member of your team can quickly view it. Information your team can access through the right CRM includes the following:

  • Contact information
  • Account history
  • Customer communications
  • Industry and business
  • Hobbies
  • Preferences
  • Relationship Strength
  • And more

When your sales team can access the most up-to-date information in one location, they can avoid duplicate communications, seamlessly nurture a lead through the sales funnel, close more deals, deliver personalized information to customers, collaborate with other team members, and save time.

Perhaps even more importantly, they can keep customers happier. No more contacts slipping through the cracks. No more hunting around for information while on the line with a client. No more duplicate communications. Just efficient, streamlined, and productive work.

3. Automates processes

Manually entering customer information into a database is a surefire way to squelch employee morale, and productivity. Empower your sales team to accomplish more with CRM software that automates many of the repetitive tasks your employees currently accomplish manually.

A CRM for sales teams offers many ways to automate tasks your team used to have to do themselves. The best platforms allow you to customize which tasks are automated, and even to integrate those automated tasks with your current workflow.

Imagine how much more productive and motivated your sales team would be if they could let your CRM software do these tasks while they focused on the meaningful work of lead nurturing and deal closing:

• Customer Data Entry

Your CRM should pull in data from every important source automatically and organize it in one central location for easy access.

• Relationship Strength

Your system should help you stay top of mind and provide you insights of business that may slip away.

• Certain Standard Responses to Customer Inquiries

Dispense with manual boiler-plate responses to contact forms and basic inquiries.

• Task Assignment

Your CRM can automatically assign leads and tasks so everyone knows their responsibilities and no tasks are duplicated.

• Appointment Scheduling

With a phone or email integration, your CRM can automatically add appointments and follow-ups to the calendar.

4. Can be used anytime, anywhere

In today’s digital, and pandemic-influenced, world, teams increasingly work remotely. Scattered across towns, states, and even countries, sales people need a way to stay connected with each other and with their prospects.

The best CRM for international teams, and other teams working remotely, can be used anytime, anywhere. Consider these features that make mobile, remote work possible for even the most distant members of your sales force.

• Phone and Email Integration

With built-in phone and email integrations, your CRM can work with most major email providers and phone carriers. That means that your team members can make phone calls from any device, or create and send emails from any provider, and have it show up as coming from your business.

In addition, these integrations allow the CRM to automatically enter data and schedule appointments based on the conversations your team members are having. The result? Your team is empowered to work anywhere they are, anytime that is convenient, from any device they have access to.

• Centralized Data

Collaboration and communication among your team members is key to turning them into a powerful sales force. Even remote teams can achieve effortless collaboration with the right CRM, thanks to this software’s ability to centrally locate all data about a prospect.

If one team member makes a phone call in the morning, a team member who comes online in the afternoon can see that phone call, and the associated notes, right away. If a lead contacts your organization overnight, your CRM can qualify and assign that lead so that the appropriate team member can reach out in the morning.

CRM software for teams doesn’t just create streamlined communication with your prospects. It allows your entire team to operate as a unified whole.

5. Improves employee buy-in

In today’s world, you can no longer control a sales team with orders and metrics alone. A productive sales team is a motivated sales team. When you have buy-in from every team member, you do not need to control them; you simply need to support them with the right tools and training.

The right CRM software can help you create a motivated and powerhouse sales team by delivering tools that make their job easier, more efficient, and more productive.

Consider, for example, how much more focused your team would be if they could devote their time to qualified leads rather than sorting through hundreds of low score leads. Imagine how much more they can accomplish when they do not have to spend hours tracking down information on a prospect before a sales meeting.

💡Takeaways

With the right CRM for sales teams, you can improve their efficiency and their productivity by saving them time, putting relevant information at their fingertips, and making collaboration intuitive.

If your sales team objects to using a CRM, you might just be using the wrong one. The right CRM for your business will empower and motivate your sales team, not present a struggle as you try to encourage its use and face pushback from your team.

If you need a powerful, customizable, and unique CRM for your sales team, consider GoCRM. As the only CRM with a full-funnel approach, we offer the tools you need to improve productivity and efficiency combined with an easy to use interface that makes the platform a pleasure to use.

Discover how GoCRM empowers your sales team. Create a flexible and supportive environment with the right CRM.

  1. Do you need to streamline employee onboarding? We provide tutorials, walkthroughs, and support to teach your employees how to take full advantage of our platform’s features from day 1.
  2. Do you need to centralize customer data? GoCRM pulls in information from hundreds of sources, automatically, and organizes it according to your custom fields so you can always get the information you need at a glance.
  3. Do you need to automate processes? GoCRM will reduce your team’s workload and eliminate repetitive tasks while making sure no lead ever gets overlooked.
  4. Do you have a remote or mobile team? GoCRM allows for phone calls, text messages and emails to be sent from anywhere, at any time. As a recommended CRM for a small sales team with full Google apps integration, you can use any of the tools you want from any location.
  5. Do you want to improve employee buy-in? Motivate your team with a CRM the tools that make their job easier to accomplish while freeing them up to focus on the leads and the strategies that will deliver sales.

Empower your sales team with a powerful CRM, choose GoCRM. Request your demo and start closing more deals today.

SMS Marketing Automations For Real Estate

Posted on April 27, 2020 by - Marketing, Real Estate CRM, Sales

real estate sms marketing automation

Sales and marketing automation has led to synchronized actions from different departments and teams towards different goals and targets. It has streamlined customer connect and reduced turn-around times. In automated real estate processes, text marketing for realtors has emerged as a favorite business strategy. It is quick and easy. Many clients seem to prefer it to other promotions. For the real estate industry, a CRM with text messaging has bolstered reliability and performance.

We have listed 6 real estate text marketing scenarios with examples that can be implemented in your marketing communications strategy.

1. Reply instantly to leads with auto-responders

Online when the world sleeps? Offline when your client isn’t? Missing out on leads? Many real estate agents face this dilemma at one time or another. They fail to establish an immediate response to client queries. Even well-meaning clients who express an interest in a property at the dead of the night hope to be quickly taken in. But you have just fallen into a well-deserved nap. There’s trouble in river city tonight.

A delayed response from your end sends the signal that you are not sincere enough and the deal dies a premature death. Enter real estate text messaging. With suitably worded auto-responders you can now reply to client queries instantly, whether you’re napping, eating, cycling, snorkeling or showing another client around.

Auto-response real estate messages to clients can be formulated in any way you like. Example:

Hi {client name}, you expressed an interest in a property at {street address}. What time can we get in touch with you?

When these messages reach your client’s inbox the moment they click on a listing, they set the ball rolling. Auto-responders automate the first contact and close the leakage in the sales cycle. Learn how to auto reply a new lead with GoCRM.

2. Follow up with clients with reminders and updates

So, you’ve made the contact, scheduled an inspection and got busy with other customers to schedule more inspections. Your client, meanwhile, has promptly forgotten the date and has almost moved on. Get them back in the loop with follow up messages. Example:

Hi {client name}, check out these photos of the house that I want to show you tomorrow. Let me know what you think.

You might also want to try a follow-up text or email that gets sent automatically after a set period of time. Two weeks, a month or 90 days, whatever you feel is appropriate. CRM with texting features like follow-up message and reminders show your client that you are taking care of their interest at a more personal level. Learn how to automate lead re-engagement with GoCRM.

3. Stay connected with past clients

Texting is not meant for just prospective clients. All your new customers (and especially) your past clients deserve the courtesy of a call, text or email. A simple congratulatory message on buying their home can do wonders. You may also ask how they find the property. A little more engagement on the personal side is a good will gesture you had better take care of. Some examples below:

Hi {client name}, this is {agent name} from {real estate company name}. It’s been a while since we worked together on selling your home on {street address). How have you and your family been?

You can also use the opportunity and ask for referrals:

If you know of anyone considering selling or buying, feel free to share my information with them. I greatly appreciate the referral.

Send messages to get client feedback so you can build a formidable repository of glowing testimonials for your company and services. These will strengthen your online presence and highlight your brand’s reliability. It doesn’t take long for positive news to go viral, especially among the smartphone-dependant customer base. Learn how to automate lead re-engagement with GoCRM.

4. Get access to basic details and preferences from clients

Another way you can use real estate text message prospecting is by asking clients to provide you with basic information. For example, whether they wish to buy, sell or rent out property. These are the texts you should send every online lead. Apart from designing personalized plans for each of these queries, the information is useful for drawing up well-segmented lists of customers with different needs. Example below:

Hi {client name), thanks for your interest in {real estate company name}. Are you ready to sell or buy a home?

What’s even better is that you get a centralized database to access. With real estate text message marketing working in tandem with your business acumen, there is less room for mistakes. All your scattered data – client names, phone numbers, emails, responses, schedules – is consolidated at one place, ready at your disposal. There’s no need to run from mobile to desktop. Learn how to automate customer on-boarding with GoCRM.

5. Follow up after an Open House

Follow-up messages are usually sent after a site visit or an open house. They are also the go-to communication for checking out if clients are still interested in your listing. A simple follow up may read as follows:

Hi {client name}, thanks for joining us for the Open House at {street address}. Leave a message if you have any questions!

The difficult task of getting them to finally visit the site is done. What next? Drawing them even closer. You already have their phone numbers. Drop a text thanking them. It is often useful to ask about their experience or answer further queries. Composing the right message here is important since it can direct the sales flow. Learn how to create segments with GoCRM.

6. Keep it social with birthday messages and holiday greetings

You can’t go wrong with a warm greeting. Everyone likes to feel cherished, especially on their big, happy birthdays. Go ahead and drop the message, for example:

Happy Birthday {client name}, from all of us at {real estate company name}.

A nice happy birthday realtor greeting keeps things cordial and creates a positive impact.

Extend a holiday hug with a season’s greetings. Holidays are the times when families get together and a text at the right moment can trigger lead generation. Learn how to automate anniversary reminders with GoCRM.

💡Takeaways

Real estate messages to clients is the new kid on the block. Home builders are queuing up for this automated service to stay in touch with prospective customers at all times. The need for pen and paper documentation has practically been eliminated.

Through text message marketing service real estate promotions carry a high degree of transparency. Not all customers would want to connect via texts and texting is certainly not meant to be the sole marketing plan. But it remains the quickest and the most personal. Reach out if you want to take advantage of automated text marketing for your real estate business.

Ready to start with sales and marketing automation? Start your GoCRM Free trial to optimize your sales funnel and start closing more real estate sales today.

Business Call Tracking Benefits

Posted on April 20, 2020 by - Marketing, Sales

Group of people connected via flying logo icons and mobile device

5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Call Tracking Software

With more light shed on the value of calls in generating leads, converting them, and maintaining excellent customer service, call tracking became very essential to understand how to utilize this powerful channel to close more deals and boost ROI of your marketing efforts. Let’s look at call tracking and learn some of its benefits, specifically for sales and marketing.

In the past, calls were more of a “black hole” in the marketing world, very powerful, but very mysterious. The only thing business owners were able to automatically measure about these calls was the number of calls they were receiving and the geographical location of each. Businesses had to rely on manual processes such as customer surveys, sampling, or call tracing in order to tell which were their lead sources.

Now, call tracking helps marketers understand everything about phone calls; where it originated, how it got handled, when was it last contacted, did the lead convert or not, where things stopped, etc.

What is Call Tracking in 2020?

Call tracking in 2020 is both a process and a technology (software) to enable the correct association of business calls to each lead source. It is used by sales and marketing departments to measure and improve performance-based campaigns in channels such as Google Ads, Facebook Paid & organic, Google My Business, Direct Mail, Billboard, Email, Landing Pages, Etc.

How Does Call Tracking Software Work?

Every ad, webpage, or landing page gets assigned a unique virtual phone number. When the phone call takes place, every interaction (from the first contact to conversion) can be tracked by the business. Each call is recorded and key data metrics can be stored and analyzed for follow up. Finally, they can also be shared to a CRM system to ensure all leads are properly followed up, even after conversion.

Why Business Needs Call Tracking Software?

The value of having a call tracking system in place is that businesses can use data to allocate resources more intelligently, instead of relying on hunches, ever-changing trends or unreliable customer surveys. By being able to tell the source of each lead, business owners, as well as sales and marketing teams can allocate more resources to the best performing channels. They can also remove some others that are not as profitable.

When coupled with a CRM (such as GoCRM), Call Tracking enables you to follow up on leads in whichever stage they are on the sales and marketing funnel.

The importance of being able to tell the origin of each lead is crucial. Let’s look at 5 reasons why your business needs call tracking.

1. Boost ROI of your Different Marketing Channels

You most probably have invested in many marketing channels and you pay quite a fortune on marketing. With call tracking, you can understand which channels originate more calls, and from these calls which channel gets your business excellent and converting prospects. So it is both the number of leads and the quality of leads coming from each channel.

Why is this important?

  1. To enhance the top marketing channels, say the web page most visited and with the most calls, or the social media, or a third party website where you have a PPC ad and so on.
  2. To eliminate campaigns and marketing sources that came out with poor results so you save unworthy spending or put it on your winning horses.

2. Improve SEO/SEM & Website Experience

Similar to the first point, by understanding the web pages and third-part-sources that most calls are coming from., you will understand how you are found by the search engines and what keywords used by customers most to find you and from there you can build an excellent SEO and SEM strategy to drive more leads the same way.

Contact us if you want to learn some clever ways to use Google My Business with Call Tracking for your business.

You can also improve the website experience based on the call tracking data by adding a call-to-action button and improving the user experience with the different web pages.

3. Increase Conversions

Studies found that phone calls have 30-50% conversion rate. With such high-potential prospects, you need to understand as much information as possible about this lead to increase the conversion rate to even more. Such information can be the web page the lead was on, which consequently helps you understand their needs and concerns and where to take it from to close the lead. If they called from and ad, you will be able to understand which selling point to use in your pitch and focus on.

4. Enhance your CRM

Using a CRM system to integrate it with a call tracking software or even better using a CRM that offers call tracking all-in-one helps your business in many ways:

  1. It will save you so much time by automatically adding leads to your database, keeping a record of all past communication with this lead, recording the calls to review before making a follow up call and most importantly, by helping you understand where you stopped and what you can use next to finally close the deal.
  2. Assigning each lead to the right team member based on understanding the channel or the marketing campaign it came from and the time zone and location of each lead. The team member will also be able to go through past communications with the lead, if there is any, for best results.
  3. Team leader monitoring: With a CRM the sales team leader will be able to review each team member’s performance with their assigned leads and will be able to listen to calls to give real and to the point feedback on what can be improved.

5. Providing Excellent Customer Service

Call tracking value doesn’t stop with marketing and sales but continues to customer success. A CRM that records calls and track their source, and can segment calls based on certain attributes of the callers; helps businesses to provide excellent customer service on so many levels:

  1. Listening to recorded calls makes the customer service team able to identify the frequently asked questions, common concerns, and regular complaints and difficulties with the tool/service.
  2. Using all the above helps in building an excellent knowledge page and video tutorials handling all situations where customers got stuck.
  3. Recording calls is very important to improve the quality of the service provided with agents being regularly monitored and given productive feedback on their weaknesses and strengths in communicating with customers over the phone.
  4. Taking the recorded customer feedback and suggestions in considerations in your continuous efforts to improve and add more features/products.

 

💡Takeaways

Call tracking is a game-changing business strategy that helps you determine the real value of your marketing ROI, cut off wasted marketing expenses, convert more leads based on data-driven pitch, identify your excellent sales people and assign them the right leads and finally provide you with customer service insights needed to grow your business.

Ready to start with call tracking? GoCRM offers you call tracking, marketing automation and CRM all in one! Start your free trial now!

Business Texting 101: How and When to Use it

Posted on April 9, 2020 by - CRM 101, Marketing, Sales

Blog cover - How & When To Use it to Increase Conversion

How and When to Use Business Texting to Increase Sales & Conversions

Texting is now considered the most favored way of mobile communication, replacing calling and emailing among all age groups and genders. The open rate of texts is very high and it is also done very fast. Experts believe that 98% of all text messages are opened compared to only 22% of emails. On top of that, 9 out of 10 messages are read in just three minutes of delivery.

Mobile communication preferences by age & gender Chart

We have previously discussed why sales team should use texting.  Now we will discuss how and when to make the best use out of texting communication in business. Read on to find out how and when to use texting, as well as the best way to implement them in your sales process.

Business Texting Tips

How to Text Your Sales Prospects

While a CRM with texting feature will do the trick, you still need to follow certain rules for best results. Spam is spam and the last thing you want is to get your business considered as a spam and be totally ignored. 

Being a very personal way of communication, texting needs to be approached cautiously or you might lose all the benefits of this excellent communication method. 

So here is a list of business texting rules to keep in mind:

Ask for permission

The ideal way is to have approval from all your prospects to text them through your introductory call. Something simple like “would it be okay if I text you?”. Having your prospects expecting your text increases your chances in achieving the goal of your text.

Introduce Yourself

Whether you were successful in getting your prospect approval over a call or you never had the chance to get on a call with them, always introduce yourself and don’t assume that the prospect remembers you. Use something simple and clear like first name and your business name.

Be Brief

Texting is great because it’s short, the last thing you want is to have an email sent in form of a text. So keep your message short and interesting.

Be Professional

While texting normally includes lots of emojis, acronyms, and sloppy punctuation, it’s best to avoid these when texting your leads. Find your balance between a professional tone and a causal one. And adding a personal touch goes a long way!

Have actual value

So you wrote a short text with the right tone, but what is it that you are actually trying to say? Always have a clear goal and offer a value when texting your leads. You can either: Suggest a call time; Confirm a call time; Answer a question, or; Send a valuable resource.

Don’t be spammy

Too much of anything gives opposite results. Avoid mass generic messages without a clear purpose. When you send too many messages, your prospects will lose interest in actually opening them or going through them.

Consider the timing

If you have these text messages set in part of an automation workflow, always choose a suitable time. Avoid texting outside business hours and on weekends. Take the time zone of your leads into consideration. After all, you are looking for a reply or an action, and your chances will be really low if you text them at the wrong time.

When to Text Your Sales Prospects

GREAT! Now you are ready to start texting your leads and get sales numbers boosted! Here is WHEN to use texting in the sales process:

After the initial introductory call

As we have explained, at the end of your introductory call, ask for permission to text your leads. After the call send more information about what you have went through and some helpful links and resources. You can also ask to schedule to a demo or another call where another key staff member will be joining you.

To confirm a scheduled call/demo

Send a reminder of your call or demo and send a link of the platform you will be using.

To share relevant content

From time to time send your prospects some useful content that you have created on your blog or social profiles or some e-books or case studies that can offer them real value and direct them to your website.

For Following up

After each phase if you start to feel you are going to lose the leads’ interest, you can send a warm follow up with a call to action asking for “another call, demo to other team members”, or you can follow up thanking them for downloading your e-book or checking your latest blog. You can use something similar to “thank you so much for downloading our e-book about Sales texting! Are you available for 5 mins at 3 or 4 today to discuss the how GoCRM can help you get started with texting?

To Send Promotions

If you have a marketing campaign running with discounts or offers you can text your leads list and urge them to subscribe now and benefit from it. If you have a referral program, texting can be a really affective way to announce it and bring in many affiliates. Check out other promotional text message examples.

When Reaching out to Cold leads

A prospect who lost interest and stopped replying to your emails and calls, might take the time to open one last text message. Make it interesting and showing real understanding of their needs. Avoid generic templates, like just checking-in and take time to invest on writing a personalized message with clear call to action.

For Relationship Building

With simple automation and segmentation you can use texting to wish your leads and customers happy birthdays, holidays or use it to go the extra mile and congratulate them in a new job they posted about on LinkedIn or a new fund the company received etc.

💡Takeaways

Texting is a very powerful tool, it is the most used form of communication on cell phones, more than calls, emails and even social media messages. With excellent open rate up to 98% and great speed, you can utilize this tool to increase conversion and close more deals. All you need to do to achieve excellent sales texting is to write the right text message to the right person at the right time.

Ready to start with business texting? Start your GoCRM Free trial to optimize your sales funnel and start closing more sales today.

Promotional or Transactional SMS – What’s Better For Brands?

Posted on September 13, 2019 by - Marketing, Sales

Transactional & Promotional Text Messages Comparison

Promotional Text Messages vs Transactional SMS Texting – What’s the difference and benefits for brands?

How can your business take advantage of modern text messaging tools? Brands, organizations or businesses send promotional text messages to their audiences to:

  • Drive sales or awareness about specific products, services or events; or,
  • Follow up or automate customer interactions.

As expected, there are important differences between promotional and transactional text messages. It’s crucial to understand these differences to execute better marketing campaigns.

What’s a promotional text message?

Example of a promotional text message

Promotional text messages are messages sent to promote, up-sell or advertise a product. Promotional text messages are pure marketing & sales messages. These messages abide by traditional phone call etiquette. Promotional messages limit to a 9 am/pm time frame.

Outside of adhering to opt-in procedures, promotional text messages are not solicited.

What’s a transactional text message?

Example of a transactional text message

Transactional text messages are messages sent to already registered customers/audience, namely to continue an interaction. These messages are not for promotional, sales or marketing purposes. Their goal is passing transactional information about an interaction, of a product or service your customers are already using.

Regardless of a customers’ DND (Do Not Disturb) status, transactional messages work 24/7. Disclosure of message frequency does not apply to transactional texting. Nonetheless, consumers should be made aware of how to unsubscribe from them.

Best practices for promotional texting

Heavy fines can incur if an organization starts sending promotional messages to users who have not provided consent. Thus it is important to understand the best practices of promotional text messages.

Promotional texting five best practices are:

  1. Your business can’t buy a list of consumer’s contact information.
  2. If a brand wants to send out promotional messages, the brand must first obtain permission from recipients.
  3. SMS opt-in text messages, web-based signup pages, or a physical signature are all valid permission formats.
  4. Recurring message programs must be disclosed to subscribers.
  5. How to unsubscribe from recurring message programs should be communicated to recipients.

Promotional vs Transactional messages examples

Here are some examples of how promotional vs transactional texting compares:

Comparison of promotional vs transactional text messages

Text message marketing stats

Still hesitant about the potential of text messaging in your marketing communication program? Here are five SMS marketing stats to get you enticed.

  • 75% of consumers agree to receive messages from brands (if they’ve opted-in).
  • 90% of text messages are read within 3 minutes.
  • SMS messages have a huge 98% open rate.
  • Text messages have over 200% higher response rates than email, phone or Facebook.
  • Consumers redeem coupons received via SMS 10x more than other forms.

Benefits of a robust text messaging marketing and communication program

The benefits of having a robust marketing communication program are immense. A professional text messaging service for your business can help you:

  • Send SMS text promotions to your entire customer base with a few clicks.
  • Shape your business by collecting critical feedback with mass surveys to customers.
  • Reliably and quickly communicate with your mobile workforce in the field.
  • Send alerts to your staff on important safety and security procedures or events.
  • Distribute discount vouchers or coupons to your customers directly on their mobiles.
  • Send transactional information such as text message notifications & alerts to all staff.
  • Send & attach menus, posters, flyers or other files in bulk to your customers and staff.

Manually texting your entire customer base is time-consuming and daunting. GoCRM can help you create marketing campaigns that include transactional and promotional messages. Not only will you be able to automate these features, but you will be able to track and follow-up accordingly. Learn a better way of doing business. Try GoCRM today!