<span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s plain to see that we’re all in on inbound call leads.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">I’ll explain why. When we listen to our heart, our mind and the huge database of call data from thousands of clients, it’s clear that companies who open up their telephone lines as a touchpoint have a competitive advantage over those who don’t.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">In fact, the day I’m writing this article we observe the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. It was this day in 2007 that marked a change in tides and evoked a revolution in technology.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">No longer were users confined to desktop workspaces, they could carry their computers everywhere.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">With this increased access, came increased usage.
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<img class="aligncenter wp-image-2613" src="https://www.ruleranalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/9-Ways-To-Improve-Your-Inbound-Call-Conversion-Rate-www.ruleranalytics.com_.png" alt="9 Ways To Improve Your Inbound Call Conversion Rate - www.ruleranalytics.com" width="700" height="515" />

<span style="font-weight: 400;">
Nowadays, people use their phones to search for business, things to buy and research. The mobile phone is a device built with phone calls in mind.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s no surprise that people choose to connect with a business through this medium.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 24px; font-color: #45474d; font-family: proxima_nova_alt_rgbold;">The Power of Phone Calls</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Google found that 70% of mobile phone owners use click-to-call to contact businesses - this number is expected to increase in the upcoming future. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">BIA/Kelsey says ‘</span><a href="http://www.biakelsey.com/research-data/current-research/phone-calls-are-the-new-click-the-true-smb-marketing-opportunity/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">phone calls are the new click</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">’ and estimates that </span><a href="http://www2.biakelsey.com/Research-and-Analysis/Coverage-Areas/Mobile/insight-report-phonecalls-smartphone-era.asp"><span style="font-weight: 400;">73 billion</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> calls will be made to businesses next year.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Phew, that’s A LOT of minutes..</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">When a lead contacts us at Ruler Analytics, we use our own dedicated software to tell our CRM how that person got in touch with us, whether it be over the phone or by filling out a form online. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">We found out that those who called us, converted into customers at 3x the rate of those who filled out a form online AND took an average of 3 days less - that’s 25% quicker!</span>

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<span style="font-size: 24px; font-color: #45474d; font-family: proxima_nova_alt_rgbold;">The Great Disconnect</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Despite these figures, there’s a disconnect between the actions of marketers. Some businesses <a href="https://www.ruleranalytics.com/blog/phone-call-tracking/9-ways-small-business-can-benefit-call-tracking/">don’t even display a phone number</a> on their website.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Most don’t know which marketing campaigns are responsible for driving the growth of inbound phone calls.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">And that’s completely fine, if you’re trying to achieve:</span>
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Stunted growth rates</span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">An avoidance of speaking over the phone</span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Not knowing the true ROI of your marketing activities</span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Having no idea where your leads are coming from</span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Slow, stagnating or declining growth</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">But for those of us who don’t want to sabotage the success of our business, both encouraging and optimising inbound phone calls is a bucket of potential.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Whilst call tracking software like Ruler Analytics will help measure where your phone calls are coming from, it’s only when you begin putting tactics into place to increase your conversion rates that you’ll begin reaping the rewards. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">With that in mind, here are a few simple tips which we found helped improve our growth - which you can easily try yourself.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">By implementing these steps into your marketing strategy you too can help encourage website visitors make that all important phone call to your business.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-color: #45474d; font-family: proxima_nova_alt_rgbold;">1. Display Local Phone Numbers</span>

People like things they’re familiar with. It’s the same psychological phenomenon that is so powerful it even makes some prisoners miss prison.

When I grew up and left for University, I learnt there’s nothing more familiar than the number you dial to engage with your parents landline.

You don’t take our word for it? The results of this experiment speak for themselves.

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<img class="aligncenter wp-image-2614" src="https://www.ruleranalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/9-Ways-To-Improve-Your-Inbound-Call-Conversion-Rate-www.ruleranalytics.com_-1.png" alt="9 Ways To Improve Your Inbound Call Conversion Rate - www.ruleranalytics.com" width="700" height="309" />

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A local phone number will also make your business seem more trustworthy. When you serve up a generic 0800 number the visitor will assume that they’re in for one of the most frustrating experiences ever..

<span style="font-weight: 400;">..an automated touch type message followed by an awkward conversation with a call centre employee.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A local phone number signifies that your business operates locally.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-color: #45474d; font-family: proxima_nova_alt_rgbold;">2. Give a Callback Request Option</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">People don’t call your business just because there’s a phone number visible, </span><b>they call your business because they prefer a more humanised experience. </b>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Who can blame them? Businesspeople receive and send an </span><a href="https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2014/02/email-vs-phone-calls-business.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">average of 115 emails a day</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. And the vast majority of them are perceived as spam.</span>

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<img class="aligncenter wp-image-2616" src="https://www.ruleranalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/9-Ways-To-Improve-Your-Inbound-Call-Conversion-Rate-www.ruleranalytics.com_-2.png" alt="9 Ways To Improve Your Inbound Call Conversion Rate - www.ruleranalytics.com" width="701" height="467" />

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Allowing individuals access to request a call back is a win-win situation for both parties. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Not only can your visitors gain from a personalised experience over the phone, it gives you time to understand the market in which your lead is calling you from. Allowing you to tailor a pragmatic approach, which in turn will help secure a growth in conversions. </span>

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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-color: #45474d; font-family: proxima_nova_alt_rgbold;">4. Make your CTA a Phone Number</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">This can have a significant influence on your conversion rate if you can segment and deliver a different webpage to mobile and desktop users. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Making your main call-to-action a phone number means it is the main focal point of your website.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Click to call is undeniably more popular for mobile users, however the jury is still out for desktop, so it’s better to test how your audience responds to it.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Bonus points if you can make your CTA:</span>
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Clean and contrasting colour</span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">A distinct button text (e.g., “Get free access”)</span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Have white space surrounding them</span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rectangular (sometimes rounded) shape</span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Complementary border</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Sourced from </span><a href="http://neilpatel.com/blog/click-here-16-hacks-thatll-get-your-call-to-action-buttons-clicked/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Neil Patel</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span>

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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-color: #45474d; font-family: proxima_nova_alt_rgbold;">5. Include the Number in a Site-Wide Sticky Header</span>

You’re probably familiar with the sticky header. It’s when you’re on a website, and you scroll down but a section of the website ‘sticks’ to the top.

This is primarily used for navigation - but remember, not all people want to communicate in the same way.

With a sticky header, your number will always be visible, should that visitor decide they’d rather call you.

In this study by <a href="https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/09/sticky-menus-are-quicker-to-navigate/">Smashing Magazine</a>, 40 participants were asked to use a website that had a sticky header installed. Later, they were asked about their experience.

Six out of the 40 participants were indifferent. However, the other 34 that did have an impression said they found the sticky navigation easier and faster to use.

Not bad eh?

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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-color: #45474d; font-family: proxima_nova_alt_rgbold;">6. Show That You’re Available</span>

Since the beginning of time, it feels like shops have displayed signs like this in their window:

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<img class="aligncenter wp-image-2618" src="https://www.ruleranalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/9-Ways-To-Improve-Your-Inbound-Call-Conversion-Rate-www.ruleranalytics.com_-3.png" alt="9 Ways To Improve Your Inbound Call Conversion Rate - www.ruleranalytics.com" width="701" height="328" />

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Do you know why? Because they make people come into their shops and BUY THINGS!</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Display the times that your call handlers are available, or even better, have a availability icon next to your phone number to overcome any objections one may have about calling the number.</span>

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<img class="aligncenter wp-image-2619" src="https://www.ruleranalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/9-Ways-To-Improve-Your-Inbound-Call-Conversion-Rate-www.ruleranalytics.com_.jpg" alt="9 Ways To Improve Your Inbound Call Conversion Rate - www.ruleranalytics.com" width="656" height="265" />

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<i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Bonus points if it’s green and flashes.</span></i>

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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-color: #45474d; font-family: proxima_nova_alt_rgbold;">7 and 8. Enable AdWords Click to Call and Call Extensions Features</span>

Until now, all of the suggestions we’ve made have been focussed on the landing page, but that’s not the only place you can display numbers.

If you’re a business on the internet, there’s a <a href="https://www.ruleranalytics.com/blog/ppc/get-more-from-your-ppc-campaigns/">good chance you’re using AdWords</a> (if not, why not?!). But did you know that AdWords has two features that are tailor made for businesses switched on to inbound call leads?

When you enable call extensions, Google will display a phone number alongside your ad in the search engine results page (SERP).

Enabling them is easy! Simply head over to your AdWords account and:
<ul>
 	<li>Go to your Campaigns tab</li>
 	<li>…then the Ad extensions tab</li>
 	<li>Dropdown the View: Sitelinks extensions menu</li>
 	<li>And select Call extensions. There’s a red button below with the text + EXTENSION that will allow you to create your own.</li>
</ul>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Once you’re happy with your call extension, you have the option to give your mobile visitors the choice to click on the headline or to call you directly.</span>

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<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2621" src="https://www.ruleranalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/9-Ways-To-Improve-Your-Inbound-Call-Conversion-Rate-www.ruleranalytics.com_-4.png" alt="9 Ways To Improve Your Inbound Call Conversion Rate - www.ruleranalytics.com" width="615" height="437" />

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">If you choose the “just the phone number” option this is what your Google ads will resemble if an individual where to find your paid advertisement on a mobile device. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Both the headline and the call-to-action button will become a click-to-call feature. This will prevent the visitor from being directed to a landing page, leaving them with the only option to call you directly.</span>

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<img class="aligncenter wp-image-2627" src="https://www.ruleranalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/9-Ways-To-Improve-Your-Inbound-Call-Conversion-Rate1-www.ruleranalytics.com_.png" alt="9 Ways To Improve Your Inbound Call Conversion Rate - www.ruleranalytics.com" width="700" height="735" />

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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-color: #45474d; font-family: proxima_nova_alt_rgbold;">9. Use Phone Call Tracking</span>

Sadly, there are a handful of businesses out there who haven’t opted into call tracking yet.

In fact, shockingly 18% of small business last year admitted to not tracking ANYTHING!

Without <a href="https://www.ruleranalytics.com/call-tracking/">call tracking</a> how do you know how many call leads your PPC campaign generated last month? Or more importantly the return on investment?

YOU DON’T!

Some marketers are still measuring the performance of their marketing based on metrics such as, visits and page views.

I’m not saying this is a BAD thing, however there’s a great chance you’re underestimating your marketing channels, and realistically these types of metrics mean nothing if the leads aren’t coming in, right?

With call tracking you can assign a unique phone number to a particular marketing channel.

This allows you to track and record the amount of calls generated from a specific channel.

It provides you with instant access to the overall performance of a particular marketing source and allows you to <a href="https://www.ruleranalytics.com/blog/ppc/you-probably-arent-measuring-your-ppc-campaigns-properly/">calculate a more definite ROI</a>.

The bottom line is...

Call tracking is a key element if you want to profitably grow your business.

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<span style="font-size: 24px; font-color: #45474d; font-family: proxima_nova_alt_rgbold;">Conclusion</span>

I guarantee if you put these methods to practice you will see significant conversion growth in the upcoming future.

It was these techniques that helped us improve our own performance, so there is no reason why you can’t benefit from them yourself!

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