How to use click-to-call buttons to maximise marketing effectiveness?

Don’t write off the humble telephone just yet, it’s still a powerful engagement and conversion tool. Google consumer research  found that 70% of mobile searchers use click-to-call buttons on websites and half find it extremely important to be able to call the business when they are about to make a purchase.

So click-to-call is useful beyond simple search buttons as it’s great for generating inbound calls, and is seen as most important for mobile users in the crucial purchase phase. In fact it can be useful for any device – whether smartphone, tablet, laptop or PC.

How often do customers browsing your ecommerce site have a question, and so drop off before buying? We all do it and it adds up to quite a headache for marketers. Reasons might be a little pre-purchase dissonance, or a technical product query, or a simple shipping question. Clearly some are just browsing and have no intention in buying (or at least not yet). Either way, helping customers then and there not only resolves questions quickly, but crucially means they don’t have to leave this channel and then perhaps forget about coming back to make the sale. Once you push someone off your website to the phone or email to try to get their answer…they may never come back. The bottom line is helping conversions within the same medium. That’s why click-to-call buttons are so effective.

Modern click-to-call buttons use WebRTC, like Amazon’s mayday button (which the company has been using for years!). The clever part is linking it with your telephone system PBX so calls are effectively free. When a visitor clicks a button it initiates a VoIP call using WebRTC – via the browser requiring no plugins or additional software – direct to the relevant sales team, where it is answered just like a regular call. In fact with CRM integration staff can be provided with a lot of useful information before they pick up, such as name and order history (and thus customer importance).

Click-to-call is not just an excellent marketing tool, but equally it’s powerful for customer service. Initiating calls through to the relevant contact team direct from the website speeds up the process and boosts customer satisfaction.

This modern take on VoIP calls is great for businesses of all sizes – entry costs are low for small businesses, and equally powerful benefits are on offer for larger enterprises.

Don’t forget these are people engaged with your brand and ready to order. It’s like in a busy high street shop if you have a question you ask an assistant - and how infuriating is it when you can’t find one - but imagine if they said, ‘Sorry you’ll have to email us or phone head office’?  Customer questions need to be answered there and then and people encouraged to buy, once you let them walk away they are often lost business.

It’s important to use click-to-call buttons on your website at the right time in the customer journey. Too early and you risk inundating your call centre with unqualified calls, too late and customers have solved it themselves or may be left frustrated.  Often buttons are positioned at the checkout stage or in the help section. Some marketers use them in a little more informed way, either based on actions or for specific user profiles – for example VIP customers that have previously ordered high value items or if a visitor abandons their basket they could then be shown a help button. Also quite a few companies use click-to-call buttons in their email signatures too.  Don’t forget this is all using existing resource available in the contact centre/sales team.

Many marketing operations and call centres uses 0800 or 0808 numbers to entice customers, or at least not penalise them, when getting in touch. But these absorbed costs mount up over the year. However using WebRTC click-to-call buttons eliminates these costs. Equally mobile consumers don’t need to worry whether these calls are charged or not as it’s a VoIP call over WebRTC which just uses some data – so free to consumers if using WiFi or as part of their data allowance.

How do marketers get started with click-to-call?

It’s easy to get started with click-to-call. All you need to do is embed a simple script in your website -easy work for your developers – and it can be up and running in minutes. What if you want to use multiple WebRTC call links though on your website? Then you would need a software-based solution which can generate multiple call links and all you need to do is paste these links into your website.

In Summary…

Click-to-call buttons are a modern take on inbound marketing calls and can also be used as a powerful customer service tool – and are highly cost-effective – all without leaving the browser. They can work alongside other communications channels such as live chat apps and call me back buttons to ensure all customer needs are catered for.

Marketing and CS directors should take note that such WebRTC implementations are the future and, when tied in with other communications channels (and integrated with other business systems), they can really make a big difference to satisfaction and conversion rates.