Close the attribution gap: How CallRail and Constant Contact turn conversations into insights

presented by ConstantContact.com featured partner CallRail.

Email remains one of the most reliable channels in a marketer’s toolkit. More than 4.7 billion people use email worldwide, and on average, email marketing returns $36 for every $1 spent — a return few other channels can match. For these reasons, marketers rely heavily on digital marketing platforms like Constant Contact to create campaigns that foster customer relationships, nurture leads, and close sales.

But, there’s a problem.

When your marketing and outreach efforts are driving inbound phone calls and form submissions, it can be challenging to link those actions back to the email campaigns that sparked them in the first place. In other words, marketers can’t determine the true ROI of their email campaigns.

The attribution gap between emails and subsequent phone calls means marketers are unable to identify what works, limiting their ability to use data-driven insights to create more effective campaigns moving forward. Marketers end up operating in the dark – not really knowing what drives their prospects to take action.

Fortunately, the native CallRail integration with Constant Contact closes this attribution gap — allowing companies to directly link emails sent to inbound calls and texts.

What is the attribution gap between emails and phone calls?

Digital marketing platforms like Constant Contact are perfect for emailing customers en masse. However, they’re not end-to-end marketing attribution providers. When your emails drive offline conversions, standard campaign metrics reach their limit.

So if you’re not using a lead engagement platform like CallRail to link outbound emails to inbound calls and text messages, then you’re missing out on vital conversion information.

Imagine you email your audience about a brand-new service. A recipient opens the message, clicks through to your landing page, and likes what they see. Instead of filling out a form, they pick up the phone, call your team, and become a paying client.

Your campaign was a success—it inspired a prospect to convert. But without call tracking, there’s no way to prove that ROI. You know you’ve gained a new customer, but you can’t tell whether they came from that email, a search, a PPC ad, or a billboard across town. One of the most valuable actions your email generated—the phone call—goes completely uncounted.

This is where CallRail comes in. It works as follows.

CallRail uses a feature called dynamic number insertion (DNI) to track each caller to the exact marketing source that drove them to call. For example, someone who clicks through from your email campaign sees a different number on your landing page than someone who arrives via a PPC ad, so the moment the phone rings, you already know which campaign drove the call.

Picture this: a prospect calls a rep using a unique phone number in their email signature. Normally, a salesperson would use a single phone number across their business cards and emails — making it impossible to link a caller to the specific email they received. That’s where a call tracking provider like CallRail comes in handy.

Putting Your Call Attribution Insights into Action

Attributing inbound phone calls and text messages to outbound email campaigns is just the first step—the real value lies in what you do next. Once you know which efforts generate ROI and which don’t, you can then use these insights to fine-tune all future marketing campaigns.

Lets say an email campaign generates a flood of inbound phone calls. Great! Should you just rinse and repeat? Not necessarily. Knowing exactly which email drove those calls gives you the blueprint to make your next campaign perform even better. For instance, you might A/B test placing a clickable phone number directly inside your email body against sending recipients to a landing page. Or you might identify which pain points motivate prospects to pick up the phone, so you can lean into messaging that drives sales conversations.

Connecting call data directly to email metrics stops you from optimizing for surface level reporting and focuses your efforts on what actually drives high-intent conversations. Using those insights to launch tailored campaigns will ultimately close more business.

Leverage the Constant Contact x CallRail Integration to Close the Attribution Gap

Tracking open rates and click-through rates is just the first step to optimizing your email campaigns. To close the attribution gap and link sent emails directly to revenue, you need to track the inbound phone calls that those campaigns generate. 

CallRail provides this missing link with call tracking that pinpoints the exact marketing effort behind every incoming call. By assigning trackable phone numbers to your email campaigns and using dynamic number insertion on your website, CallRail reveals the source, campaign, and landing page that drove the lead before you even answer the phone. And when you aren’t able to answer the phone, CallRail’s Voice Assist steps in to handle the call for you, capturing every lead that would otherwise go to voicemail. The native integration then automatically pushes your attribution data directly into Constant Contact, giving your team a single source of truth to work from.

When you close the attribution gap between emails sent and phone calls received, you can determine the true ROI of your campaigns, and connect dollars spent to dollars earned. Stop guessing and gain complete visibility into your true marketing ROI with the CallRail x Constant Contact integration.

Constant Contact customers receive 18% off call tracking when you sign up for CallRail today! Offer valid for new CallRail customers.