The modern mobile device is less a really smart phone and more of an all-in-one communication device. It’s almost hard to believe that just a decade ago, people weren’t walking around with devices that are constantly connected to the internet, GPS enabled, takes HD video, runs computer programs and made phone calls. These features make mobile devices excellent marketing platforms for business, since there are so many ways to connect with customers. A recent study has shown that marketers can greatly increase their conversion rate with certain demographics by including click-to-call options in their online content.
Marchex recently released their 2015 Click to Call Commerce Mobile Performance Report which showed using click-to-call on a mobile site could generate a lot of in-store traffic and revenue for businesses. For example, the study finds that consumers who “click-to-call” directly from a mobile advertisement are four times more likely to purchase a product or service than a consumer who interacts with an online ad.
To understand how often consumers purchase products from click-to-call advertisements, Marchex analyzed aggregated and anonymized data from 24 million consumer-to-business mobile phone calls to businesses that use certain Marchex products.
“Our data shows that for many types of purchases, millennials prefer to contact a business directly by phone, and then are following through with purchases,” said John Busby, SVP of Consumer Insights for the Marchex Institute, the data and insights arm of Marchex, according to media reports.
The researchers found that up to a quarter of the calls in some industries led to some sort of business lead. The study analyzed more than a dozen industries and found that 5 to 25 percent of phone calls from mobile ads convert into sales, appointments or reservations. Similarly, Millennials are the most likely to “click-to-call” of any age group, and should be the target of mobile click-to-call campaigns.
The report also notes some of the challenges business owners face when they use click-to-call features. Just as a business with an email address on their website will receive spam messages, business owners have to deal with robocalls. Business owners also need to make sure that calls get answered. According to the report, an astonishing 20 percent of calls to a business from ads go unanswered. This can result in a lot of lost revenue since in-store retail sales still outpace ecommerce sales for many industries.
“Although e-commerce is a major force in consumer spending, it accounts for just 7% of retail spending and less than 2% of total consumer expenditures,” said Michael Boland, Chief Analyst and VP, Content at BIA/Kelsey, a research and advisory firm, according to a press release. “The other 98% are increasingly influenced by smartphones and a phone call is often the bridge from the mobile world to the offline world for dozens of industries, including financial services, insurance, home services, health care and personal care.”
The ability of click-to-call to increase in-store sales was also noted by the researchers, who expect 2015 to be a big year for click-to-call generated revenue. According to the paper, consumers are forecasted to spend more than $1 trillion in click-to-call commerce this year. Just to put that figure into perspective, that’s more than three times the size of retail e-commerce.
This research clearly shows the benefit of having click-to-call features on a mobile site. For more more information on how business owners can improve their mobile marketing, read this article on more consumers are using mobile devices to purchase physical goods.