We spoke with 7 marketing leaders about call conversions. What we discovered was eye-opening. Leaders from Esurance, Expedia, LendingTree, Goddard School, LegalZoom, and more shared with us the unexpected impact call conversions have had on their business.

1. Learnings About
CALL CONVERSIONS
(From Talking to 7 Marketing Leaders)

2. “Clicks and impressions, despite a sexier image and a
decade of media adoration, aren’t as highly valued by
many businesses as a ringing phone.”
—Analyst firm BIA/Kelsey

3. Have you given thought to the phone call
conversions from your marketing?

4. Not much?

5. Not much?
That’s okay.

6. Phone calls rarely get the media
coverage that online conversions
and in-store visits do.

7. They can be easy for CMOs to overlook or ignore.
Phone calls rarely get the media
coverage that online conversions
and in-store visits do.

8. Phone calls rarely get the media
coverage that online conversions
and in-store visits do.
(And can cost you big time.)

9. We wanted to know
what top marketers
thought.

10. So we spoke with
7 marketing leaders
about call conversions.

11. Here’s what they
had to say:

12. #1
Mobile advertising drives call conversions.

13. As the vast majority of mobile traffic is coming
from smartphones, calls are an important
conversion path.
People research our products online, and while
many convert in digital channels, quite a number
of them convert by phone.
1. Mobile advertising drives call conversions.
ALAN GELLMAN
CMO @ Esurance
2 3 4 5 6 7

14. More mobile
ad spend
growing call
conversions.
=

15. There will be
nearly 130
billion calls to
US businesses
next year.

16. That number
will grow to
162 billion calls
by 2019.

17. Calls from the Healthgrades website to our
call center convert to appointments and
patients at a very high rate.
When someone calls, you know they are a
qualified consumer.
21. Mobile advertising drives call conversions. 3 4 5 6 7
MAYUR GUPTA
Former EVP, Head of Marketing
@ Healthgrades

18. #2
Many purchases won’t happen without
a phone conversation.

19. 1 2. Many purchases won’t happen without a phone conversation. 3 4 5 6 7
It is important for our customers to
have someone they can speak with
during the purchase process as our
products are complicated.
LAURA GOLDBERG
CMO @ LegalZoom

20. 1 2. Many purchases won’t happen without a phone conversation. 3 4 5 6 7
Making education decisions for your child
is very personal – it’s not a quick decision
or something made lightly.
It’s why phone calls are a frequent part of
the customer journey.PAUL KOULOGEORGE
CMO @ Goddard Schools

21. 40% of insurance
purchases happen over
the phone.

22. 35% of hotel
bookings are made
via phone call.

23. 25% of auto shoppers
first contact dealerships
by calling.

25. 1 2. Many purchases won’t happen without a phone conversation. 3 4 5 6 7
In the mortgage business, very few people go all
the way through the application process without
some kind of phone contact.
That could be an inbound or outbound call, but
the majority of our volume is inbound.RICH SMITH
Recent CMO @ ditech Mortgage

26. #3
Calls happen throughout the
customer journey.

27. 1 3. Calls happen throughout the customer journey. 4 5 6 7
There is a portion of our consumers
who are just more comfortable picking
up the phone, and these callers often
have high-purchasing intent.
JOHN CHALLIS
Senior Director of Performance
Marketing @ Lending Tree
2

28. Customers want to speak with a real
person during each phase of the
decision-making process.

29. Especially at
the time of
purchase.

30. 1 3. Calls happen throughout the customer journey. 4 5 6 7
For Expedia, being able to give our hotel
clients access over the phone to a marketing
support expert is an extremely important
function to on-boarding new partners.
BRIAN SCHWARTZ
VP Global Partner Marketing
@ Expedia
2

31. #4
Connecting conversions to marketing
is a top priority.

32. 1 4. Connecting conversions to marketing is a top priority.3 5 6 7
Ultimately, multi-touch attribution has to look
across channels to see the true impact of
offline and digital campaigns.
We are getting smarter by adding calls to the
multi-touch attribution picture to see the true
impact of offline and digital campaigns.
2
ALAN GELLMAN
CMO @ Esurance

33. 1 4. Connecting conversions to marketing is a top priority.3 5 6 7
Having someone available for customers to
speak with at every point of their purchase
journey is important.
The challenge is to track those interactions, to
see where customers convert and to make sure
we are nurturing these leads appropriately.
2
LAURA GOLDBERG
CMO @ LegalZoom

34. 1 4. Connecting conversions to marketing is a top priority.3 5 6 7
Whether a patient converts online or by
calling, attributing an appointment or new
patient back to our marketing efforts is
the backbone of our analytics.
2
MAYUR GUPTA
Former EVP, Head of Marketing
@ Healthgrades

35. #5
Click-to-call is mission-critical to
engaging today’s consumers.

36. 1 5. Click-to-call is mission-critical to engaging today’s consumers.3 4 6 7
Click-to-call is very effective for us.
It’s a great user experience: you can do a search
on your phone for a mortgage and either click
the number in the ad or on the mobile landing
page and it immediately connects you.
2
RICH SMITH
Recent CMO @ ditech Mortgage

37. Make it easy for consumers to
call your business.

38. Marketers are optimizing their digital ads
and websites with click-to-call.

39. 1 5. Click-to-call is mission-critical to engaging today’s consumers.3 4 6 7
Our consumer is the millennial mom, and
smartphones are her primary way to
communicate.
We’ve seen click-to-call engagement go up
dramatically in the past year – around 200%.
2
PAUL KOULOGEORGE
CMO @ Goddard Schools

40. #6
It’s essential to capture call data for
accurate optimization.

41. 1 6. It’s essential to capture call data for accurate optimization.3 4 5 7
We measure which channels drive not only
the most calls, but the most customers.
That data helps us make marketing
optimization decisions.
2
JOHN CHALLIS
Senior Director of Performance
Marketing @ Lending Tree

42. The marketing
source that drove
the call.
The caller’s path
through your
website.
Data on who the
caller is and when
they called.
Data
marketers
capture at
the time of
a call.

43. 1 6. It’s essential to capture call data for accurate optimization.3 4 5 7
We use call data from campaigns to
anticipate peak call volume times and
ensure our call center is properly staffed
to handle the influx in calls.
2
RICH SMITH
Recent CMO @ ditech Mortgage

44. #7
Integrating your call data is
a must-have.

45. 1 7. Integrating your call data is a must-have.3 4 5 6
Whether they purchase online or over the
phone, we tie policies back to our marketing
mix and spend to know what’s working using
the alphabet soup that is martech: DMP, MTA,
CRM, and so on.
2
ALAN GELLMAN
CMO @ Esurance

46. 1 7. Integrating your call data is a must-have.3 4 5 6
We use all of the tools found in a modern
marketing stack.
They are all interconnected and include call
conversion data.
2
LAURA GOLDBERG
CMO @ LegalZoom

47. BONUS
They use call data to improve the
caller experience.

48. BONUS: They use call data to improve the caller experience.
When a customer calls, we know who
they are and the marketing campaign
they are calling from.
We pool all information together to start
the lead for the loan specialist, so when
they start the call they have it available.RICH SMITH
Recent CMO @ ditech Mortgage

49. BONUS: They use call data to improve the caller experience.
We do quality assurance on all calls and analyze
conversations to ensure they are on-brand.
The insights allow us to consistently improve
how we serve our customers.
LAURA GOLDBERG
CMO @ LegalZoom

50. BONUS: They use call data to improve the caller experience.
We constantly analyze calls, mine data, and
go through conversations to make sure we
are best servicing our hotel customers.
BRIAN SCHWARTZ
VP Global Partner Marketing
@ Expedia

51. TO RECAP

52. Our conversations with 7 marketing
leaders reinforced the importance
of call conversions.

53. #1
Mobile
advertising drives
call conversions.
#2
Many purchases
won’t happen
without a phone
conversation.
#3
Calls happen
throughout the
customer
journey.
#4
Connecting
conversions to
marketing is a
top priority.
#5
Click-to-call is
mission-critical
to engage today’s
consumers.
#6
It’s essential to
capture call data
for accurate
optimization.
#7
Integrating your
call data is a
must-have.
BONUS
They use call
data to improve
the caller
experience.

54. We’ll leave you with this:

55. “We’re now in a world where digital ad spending will
routinely be evaluated (and optimized) on the basis of
online-to-offline impact.”
—Search Engine Land, September 26, 2016

56. And download the complete
guide to get 5 essential marketing
strategies for call conversions!
CLICK HERE!

57. Embrace the conversation.

58. Embrace the conversation.