Mobile phones are increasingly being used to make regular phone calls again, according to a New York Times article this week. Why is this good news for small and large businesses, and how can you capitalize on this trend?

While mobile phones and smartphones were long used for everything but making calls, something has changed in recent months. At least, that’s what Jenna Wortham, a technology journalist at The New York Times, writes. In the article, she describes how her friends increasingly use their phones to make calls instead of chatting, texting, or sending SMS messages. And Wortham’s friends aren’t alone. The number of voice calls in the U.S. has increased by more than 14% over the past year. In the Netherlands, we also see a rise in the number of call minutes per mobile phone user.

For businesses, especially service number owners, this is good news. A study conducted earlier this year by market research firm BIA/Kelsey found that over 66% of small and medium-sized business owners believe phone calls generate the best leads.

This raises the question of how to best convert the increasing number of mobile callers and call minutes into paying customers. The answer becomes clear when we look at how mobile phones are used.

Every year, Google conducts a large-scale study on mobile phone usage in various countries, including the Netherlands. According to the Our Mobile Planet study, 81% of Dutch smartphone users use their phones to search for local information. This means they look for businesses and services nearby. This isn’t an occasional activity; 13% of users say they perform one or more local searches daily, while 41% search at least once a week.

These searches often lead to action. One-third of these users say they contacted a business they found, while a quarter say the search led to a purchase.

According to BIA/Kelsey’s research, 57% of all mobile searches result in a visit, call, or even a purchase. In comparison, only 7% of desktop users achieve the same result.

Both studies show that by leveraging local searches and targeted advertising, businesses can significantly increase the number of calls and conversions they achieve.

Towards More Conversions

The first step towards those extra conversions is ensuring your business ranks high in local search results. More than optimizing your website for search engines, you should focus on advertising through systems like Adwords.

We’ve previously discussed how Call Extensions in Adwords can lead to more callers. By using this option, callers can directly call your business with one click from your ad. This removes the most significant conversion barrier.

Additionally, using call statistics plays a major role in successfully increasing the number of conversions. By comparing the locations and times of calls that led to conversions with your ad settings, you can advertise more effectively.

Finally, you’ll need to ensure the quality of calls is constantly improving. By using Call Recording, you can listen to and analyze past calls. This way, you can find valuable answers to why certain calls led to conversions and others didn’t.

Start Today

As a Belfabriek customer, you have access to an unmatched package of extra features. These include highly detailed call statistics via your online control panel Mijn Belfabriek and the option to receive regular, automatic email reports of statistics. Call Recording is easy to enable from the Number Settings page in Mijn Belfabriek. You can choose between two subscription types, both of which allow you to record an unlimited number of calls and call minutes.

Want to learn more or not yet a Belfabriek customer? Contact our customer service via our toll-free number 0800-BELFABRIEK.