Marchex has acquired Telmetrics for roughly $13 million in cash plus incentives. One result of this action is to “move [the combined company’s] sales acceleration solutions into the text communications channel,” quoting chief administrative officer Ethan Caldwell. Yet, from Opus Research’s perspective, the purchase signals a acceleration of Marchex’s transformation from call tracking and attribution services to Conversational Marketing.

“Marketing is moving from a campaign-driven model to conversations,” per Caldwell, adding that “Marchex’s sales acceleration solutions overlap with enterprise marketing team goals.” Conversation analytics and machine learning are catalytic components in this transformation.

No Call Left Behind in the Age of Conversational Commerce

Voice and metadata from inbound phone calls are a rich resources to inform future conversations. There is no better indicator of customer intent than listening to them speak in their own words. Chat transcripts are an equally rich vein, which has grown in importance as the 18-34 cohort has stepped up use of messaging platforms, in addition to SMS. Today, this raw material is used primarily for lead tracking to inform advertising strategies and keyword purchases to support direct marketing and boost advertising ROI.

The new Marchex is correctly continuing to focus on measurable short-term goals for advertisers, but stepped up investment in Conversation Analytics positions the firm to offer insights, in real-time, to inform other actions that support new engagement models. In its quarterly earnings call, Marchex noted that the acquisition augments other investments, including the founding of MIND (Marchex Innovation Development) Lab to uncover ways for clients across a broad set of verticals to accelerate attainment of desired outcomes both for brands and for their customers.

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