This post is sponsored by CallRail. The opinions in this article belong to the sponsor.
Many industries were severely impacted by the pandemic, with marketing and ad agencies being among the most affected.
CallRail, a platform for tracking and analyzing marketing data from phone calls and web forms, analyzed monthly call volume and duration data in 2020. The results showed a 29% reduction in call volume in the marketing and advertising industry. Only the travel and hospitality sector experienced a larger decrease, with a 39% drop.
A recent report by CallRail, examining data from over 100 million calls across small businesses, including marketing and ad agencies, found a 26% decline in total customer call volume from late February to mid-April, as many businesses were temporarily shut down.
As businesses reopen and consumers resume their usual activities, call data continues to provide new insights for marketing agencies, aiding them in getting back on track.
What Call Data Reveals for Marketing
Marketing budgets are often the first to be reduced during economic downturns, and this pandemic has been no different. At the beginning of the lockdowns, 76% of experts anticipated cuts in marketing budgets.
Many businesses halted their marketing budgets, affecting marketing agencies significantly. Arthur Sadoun, CEO of Publicis, remarked that the rate of decline in March was unprecedented.
CallRail’s data indicates a drop in call volume and a 12% decrease in call duration during the spring lockdown for the advertising and marketing sector. These downturns significantly impacted marketing agencies, with 66% reporting a revenue decrease due to COVID-19.
As businesses reopened, call duration returned to pre-pandemic levels. By July, the average call duration in the industry was back to 2.6 minutes, having previously dropped to 2.3 minutes. It continued to increase, reaching 2.9 minutes by the end of August, an 11% rise from pre-pandemic levels.
Allison Reinart, Senior Marketing Partner at Cardinal Digital Marketing, explained, "Businesses are striving to survive and rebound." She noted the recent rise in call volume for the marketing and advertising industry. Many businesses, having slowed or closed operations, are now working to resume full operations. Consequently, marketing activity has increased across many sectors.
What Should Agencies Do Next?
Post-lockdown, there has been a 79% increase in call volume in the advertising and marketing industry, suggesting that companies are eager to re-engage with their customers. Research shows that during crises, brand loyalty dwindles for 85% of consumers, with some adopting new brands. This underscores the need for companies that reduced or halted marketing efforts to restart those initiatives.
Marketing agencies play a crucial role in helping businesses retain or regain customers. Agencies with technological skills and tools for creating cohesive campaigns across various channels will have a competitive edge. Over half of companies engage with customers through eight or more channels. While predicting the future is challenging, maintaining an integrated, consistent customer experience remains vital.
With limited in-person interactions, online platforms are vital for customer engagement. Phone calls serve as the next best thing to face-to-face communication. A comprehensive marketing strategy should include social media, advertising, content marketing, local SEO, and offline campaigns to be effective beyond the pandemic.
Align Clients’ Marketing Efforts
CallRail’s data indicates a desire from both customers and businesses to reengage in marketing. It also highlights the significance of phone calls in the new normal of contactless transactions. Agencies equipped to help businesses in this environment will recover more successfully than those unprepared.
Omnichannel approaches that blend online and offline interactions offer a consistent customer experience and enable better marketing decisions based on data. CallRail provides real-time call stats to evaluate campaign effectiveness, both online and offline. Incorporating phone engagement into integrated strategies is essential, as calls remain vital when face-to-face interactions are challenging.
Marketing agencies are pivotal in ensuring effective integrated marketing. They can enhance client outcomes by examining data insights comprehensively. Consistency across all environments and real-time improvements are paramount for quality customer experiences. The CallRail platform optimizes marketing, boosting ROI on PPC, SEO, and offline campaigns, illustrating the importance of data analysis across all client engagement channels.
For more insights on COVID-19’s business impacts, download CallRail’s complete report, "100M phone calls show how SMBs are adapting in a pandemic."
Image Credits
Featured Image: CallRail. Used with permission.
