Ifbyphone Blog

In a new post, mobile advertising guru Andrew Grill highlights U.K.-based Yell.com’s new mobile map-based “yellow pages” services.  The free-to-use (ad supported) service takes advantage of both browser and phone capabilities to offer a true Web 2.0/Voice 2.0 experience — for example, every number is click-to-call, and you can add contact info automatically to address books and send it to someone else as a text message.  Unfortunately for North Americans, Yell Group’s U.S. service — Yellowbook.com — doesn’t yet offer the service. 

Ifbyphone is looking forward to attending AdTech Chicago, which starts two weeks from today on August 5-6 at Navy Pier.

Our suite of telephone application services provides all of the tools needed to integrate telephony into your next campaign.

If you are at the show, we invite you to stop by booth 410, schedule a meeting with us, or attend a seminar on Tuesday August 5th at 3:00PM given by our CEO, Irv Shapiro.

Here is more information about the seminar:

Deliver Leads The Last Mile With Automated Telephone Applications

With the explosion of web marketing and promotion opportunities we often forget our goal is not more web site visitors, it is more sales. For many companies without shopping carts, web sites are little more than expensive Yellow Pages ads. Learn how automated telephone applications are able to deliver customers the last mile from your web site, advertisement or promotion. Discover through a review of case studies how companies of every size are improving lead qualification, driving sales conversions and reducing service delvery costs with automated telephone applications. Applications for inbound, outbound and web integration with full IVR capabilities will be covered.

Travel Go, the Travel Channel’s new mobile travel information service offers a wealth of destination information to any Internet-connected mobile phone. And what’s even better is that when you’re searching for a restaurant or entertainment while you’re on vacation, the service is designed so that “one click does it all” — from finding to calling for reservations. 

Chances are that belt-tightening is in your budget for the foreseeable future. That doesn’t leave much room for anything that can’t be justified in cold, hard numbers - including advertising. You have to demonstrate results for every dollar spent.

That’s why the advertising experts at Impact Branding and Strategic Marketing Solutions emphasize that each and every campaign must be measurable. Impact Media suggests:

“If you have the availability of an additional phone line, why not trial different telephone numbers targeting different adverts? When calling this number you know exactly where the enquiry has come from.”

Click-to-call is the perfect tool for gaining this visibility - and pinpointing the best investment for those hard-to-get advertising dollars.

That’s the message of Brand Rant blog author Sean Duffy in his post, “All advertising is now direct response.” Duffy’s message is that because people can go to your website anytime and anywhere, everywhere that you’re communicating your message — print, TV, radio, trade shows, speeches — is direct response. 

The logical extension is that website design should start with the rules of direct response advertising: AIDA — attention, interest, desire, action. Think about those Flash animations in this light. Take the advice of Eric Stoddard, author of the Stoddard Report blog:

“In direct response subtly fails. Your advertising will not likely win awards, but it should win customers and sales. Awards are won by ad agencies who do indirect response ads. When you develop your direct response program a failure to use AIDA guarantees a failed marketing program.”

And nothing’s more direct than a click-to-call. 

One of my college teachers had a whimsical way of getting students to think about what they were doing and why. Instead of simply asking them to solve a problem or accomplish a task, he asked us “how can you make it worse?” or “how can you ensure that this project will fail?”

This post at Direct Creative Blog reminded me of him: 5 ways to kill good copy with bad design. Although the post talks about printed pieces, what it has to say applies equally well — perhaps better — to online marketing. 

How not-to number four is: “Make your phone number or Web site address small…A big phone number screams “call me.” A prominent Web address says “visit this site now.” Setting these elements in tiny type and burying them in your copy where no one can see them instantly is foolish.” 

One way to make your phone number really telegraph “call me” is with a bright red click-to-call telephone icon. 

In a recent post, best-selling author and business guru Tim Ferriss (”The 4-Hour Work Week”) advises startups to return to basics to achieve consistent — and growing — profitability. Along with commonsense reminders about “what gets measured gets managed” and the 80/20 rule, Ferris says that “good advertising works the first time.” He highlights the importance of direct response advertising — instead of image advertising — that is fully trackable. “Cancel anything that cannot be justified with a trackable ROI,” says Ferris. 

Biz Chicks Rule has some good advice for small businesses looking to get the most bang for the marketing buck. Author Bridget Wright highlights the importance of building relationships with customers and making it easy for people to engage: “Good direct response advertising also makes it as convenient as possible for a prospect or customer to respond.” Can you say, Click-to-Call?

There is a great deal of value in allowing your users the ability to contact the right people, at the right time with the right information.  One of the great benefits of social media is that it allows you to get in contact with people who you are interested in.  I can go to Facebook and keep up with the lives of former classmates, current friends and even business associates.  I can go to Twitter and participate in conversations as disparate as SEO, fatherhood or the stunning sweep of the Cubs by the first place White Sox this past weekend.  There are a great deal of other social media sites that have found niches in keeping people connected.

Generally speaking, most of the communication that these sites facilitate is electronic.  Email, posting on message boards or walls, instant messaging.  For many types of conversations, those forms of communications work really well.  But there are certain conversations that do not lend themselves to email or IM or board posts.  There are certain conversations that really require a direct human-to-human call.

One of our partners is JumpForward, a social media site that specializes (among other things) in assisting athletes to get in contact with colleges that may be interested in recruiting them. Last week we announced the partnership, check out this video:

JumpForward is using our technology to allow athletes and coaches work together more effectively.  If you are involved in organized athletics of any kind, I’d highly recommend you spend a few minutes on thier site.

Without getting *too* philosophical, I think JumpForward is really at the cutting edge of communications.  It’s nice that I can go to my Facebook page and see that a friend loves WallE or hates the new ColdPlay album.  But I think there is untapped potential in hooking up people who need to talk to each other at the right time, in the right way.  I think that it’s a direction we’re headed, albeit slowly.

In the mean time, we’re happy to be at the forefront with JumpForward.

———-

Interested?  Click here and I’ll give you an immediate call back.

Mike Cooch outlines six basic essentials for a good website and delivers solid information on how to achieve it in this month’s Everon Technology Insider. Rule number six is: “Clear “conversion” path/instructions.”

It’s a sad commentary that ten years after the Internet revolution many websites are their own worst enemies when it comes to conversion. Conversions go down when the number of steps goes up. Click-to-call cuts those steps — especially when there are several choices. As someone once said: “Systems run best when they run downhill.”