Transcript
Page 1: VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies

white paper

VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies: A Primer for Sales, Support, and Marketing

white paper

Page 2: VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies

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

Page 3: VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies

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

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Page 4: VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies

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

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Page 5: VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies

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

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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

Page 6: VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies

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

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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

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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?

Page 8: VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies

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

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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.

Page 9: VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies

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

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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.

Page 10: VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies

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

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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.”

Page 11: VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies

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

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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.

Page 12: VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies

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

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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.

Page 13: VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies

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

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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.

Page 14: VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies

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

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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”.

Page 15: VBMA for SaaS and Tech Companies

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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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.”

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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

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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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22

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

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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.


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