The PhoneBoy Blog had a piece about Ifbyphone today. They highlighted the “smart” functionality of the Ifbyphone platform, which allows customers to route people based on specific needs they state when answering questions. Voice Broadcast was also mentioned as a savvy way to keep in touch with warm leads.
Read the blog article here.
The integration of Jajah’s network into the Yahoo Messenger platform signals a continuation of the movement of telephone transport from traditional PSTN networks to open VOIP transport. These new voice and data networks allow the user to bring their own device and access the world of telephony from new and exciting places.
Many of you may still remember when the telephone company provided all of your phones. The latest VOIP initiatives just continue the transition from telephone company owned devices to a device of your choice, by providing a device agnostic transport medium. Most telephone users now have access to open VOIP transport alternatives that are changing the pricing of transport. As transport costs continue to fall telephone users will obtain a new freedom in how that utilize telephone minutes. In a world of transport costs that are no longer a factor, users will want powerful applications that maximize the utility of these voice and data highways.
Let’s break this down a bit with an example. Why have railroads failed in America and prospered in the rest of the world? The American highways were much too good, gas prices where too low, and the price of an automobile was a reasonable percentage of the typical Americans income. This lead to the creation of the largest automobile companies in the world. (These same companies are now failing because of a combination of historical mistakes and changes to the relationships between transport costs and personal income.)
The new VOIP networks are the highways of telephony. The traditional telephone companies are the railroads. Telephone Application Platforms such as Ifbyphone are the new automobile manufacturers. The Ifbyphone Telephone Application Platform delivers applications over low cost VOIP networks, affordable by any business, that leverage the power of low cost telephone communications in any business, at any location, any time of the day.
A link to the Information Week article on the Jaja Yahoo deal follows:
As previously mentioned in this space, we recently announced our PhoneMashup initiative aimed at getting developers involved with our product. Every day we’re getting more developers signing up and doing interesting things with our services.
We want to make sure we’re providing the best support we can to our developer friends. So to that end, you will be seeing a lot more content. You’ll see more blog posts here related to developer issues. And we will regularly be posting new sample applications to the files section, as well as writing about them in the forums.
Finally, we’re on Twitter. You can follow us by going here. If you have any questions, feel free to ask us a question by using @ifbyphone. We’ll be monitoring the account regularly. You can also follow me (Khyle) too.
PS: If you don’t know what Twitter is, it’s a social networking tool similar to Instant Messaging. Their FAQ should help, and Jennifer Laycock wrote a great series about it as well.
Click here to talk to me.
Just like your mother used to tell you: You only have one chance to make a first impression and first impressions count. On the Web, that first impression is your landing page.
Yet more often than not, businesses neglect that all-important first impression even as they spend ever-increasing amounts of time and money on PPC advertising, keyword bidding and Web analytics. And that neglect is costing companies big time, according to Web marketing guru Tim Ash who’s written several recent columns on the subject at SearchEngineWatch.com.
Here’s what he has to say in Your Baby’s Ugly - Why You Need Landing Page Optimization Now
“…landing pages typically range from barely acceptable to horrible. They are often at direct cross-purposes with the desired conversion action and stated goals of the business.”
I’ll leave it to Ash to give you the nitty-gritty about optimizing your landing page – not surprisingly, he’s written a book about it.
In the meantime, you might want to check out Optimize and Prophesize blogger Jonathan Mendez’ basic rules for making the right first impression with your landing page. These include a clear and direct statement of your value proposition, a persuasive call to action, and – the one that caught my attention – a Large Red Button
“Tell your brand team to go to hell and throw your styleguide out the window. Red buttons can by themselves raise your conversion rate…most times in our testing if color matters it is red that wins. Also, don’t skimp on button size. Make users notice where the button is…”
This is a perfect fit for click-to-call. But don’t neglect the text that goes with it. Mendez suggests a “soft” call to action like ‘Get a free quote’ — instead of ‘Schedule an appointment’ - because it feels easier and less like a commitment. Even if that visitor doesn’t buy today, by making a connection you can start building a relationship.
What a Difference a Click-to-Call Makes
Click-to-call on retail checkout pages can help you keep down cart abandon rates. But in online retailing, click-to-call isn’t just for websites. I recently had an experience illustrating the difference a click-to-call can make in an email. In this case, the absence of one meant a lost sale.
I had placed an online order using a PayPal “pseudo” credit card, but neglected to move the money into my PayPal account. The transaction didn’t go through and the retailer emailed, asking me to call.
First I mis-read the number and dialed wrong. Then the phone rang. Pretty soon I had to leave for a meeting and the message went into my “sometime” folder. Now it’s three weeks later and I probably won’t bother.
Now, if that email had a click-to-call, it would have been easy to connect right then and there, while I was still interested. And that retailer’s sales would have been $67 higher.
IfByPhone smart click-to-call could have done a lot more for that retailer, too, using information about where the call was initiated.
For example, the call could have been routed directly to an IVR application to revise the payment information. A customer service agent could be pre-briefed with my name, phone number and information about the problem. Or the business could route the call based on order value or purchasing history.
And after the fact, the retailer would be able to see exactly how much business was saved by click-to-calls coming from those customer emails.
Even where you can’t use a click-to-call – in a letter, for example – the same intelligent call routing and IVR features can be used with IfByPhone toll-free numbers to deliver efficient, personal service. It’s the kind of difference that keeps customers coming back time and time again.
We’ve not been shy of discussing the ways Ifbyphone’s smart analytics can help you know more about the way your business works and how customers interact with you and your web site. In an article posted to SmallBizTechnology, Ifbyphone is mentioned as one new company that finds a way to comfortably add a Web presence to your telephony needs. The use of Phone Mashups and the integration of the Web with the old-fashioned telephone can provide a healthy boost to any small or medium-sized business. Read more here on the blog about how Ifbyphone can work for you.
How many times have you picked up the phone today? And how many times did you click on “get more information” or “buy now” today? The answer to the first question is probably 10, 15, or 20 times the answer to the first.
Yet the online marketing universe is so busy studying abstruse statistics about clicks and creating the perfect algorithm for keyword distribution, we’ve overlooked the “old media” paradigm: the telephone.
You could say that click-to-call is the purloined letter of online marketing, hidden right in front of our noses as we search for ever more arcane silver bullets to turn traffic into sales.
Here’s how bad it is: On his Online Business blog, Thomson Chemmanor recently published a list of the top 20 website calls to action for increasing conversions. Click-to-call didn’t make the list. But it’s a big mistake to overlook one of the most familiar connections to customers – and the communications method they’re most likely to use.
Instead, businesses can make themselves more accessible and get better performance from their websites simply by adding well placed click-to-calls. It doesn’t require additional staff, a website redesign or a high-priced SEO agency.
All it takes is a little thought.
Imagine you went to a hair salon that was running a glitzy advertising campaign and the owner handed you a pair of scissors to cut your own hair. Ridiculous?
But that’s just the case with many business websites. They spare no cost or effort in creating trendy graphics and keyword advertising to attract visitors. But once customers find their way to the site they’re on their own.
It’s the familiar human tendency to strain out gnats and swallow camels.
A few days ago the UK-based Retail Bulletin took a look at luxury retail sites and found many lacking in exactly the personal attention that is one of high-end retailers’ central value propositions.
It’s not just high end retailers who miss the importance of the interaction with customers in their website designs. Few of the millions of business websites out there give it much more than a standard “contact us” link.
But when site visitors get to the point of clicking on that link, they probably want an answer now – I know I do. And instead of sending an email or navigating a voicemail menu, they’ll probably just drop it or click over to the competition – like I do.
Click-to-call keeps those visitors connected and engaged by bringing back the personal touch. Connecting the phone call is just the first step. A click-to-call can also provide a lot of information for delivering calls efficiently – instead of to voice menu purgatory.
For example, IfByPhone click-to-calls and 800 numbers can be routed based on the webpage and even the keyword customers are calling from. And before the call is connected, IfByPhone can ‘whisper’ information about it to the service representative, like: “You have a call about the Mothers Day promotion offer.”
Someone once said, “Systems work best when they roll down hill.” That goes for online business as well. When you make it effortless for customers to connect personally with you and get the help they need, conversions and return visits will snowball as well — instead of your search advertising budget.
Our CEO was the guest on the SquawkBox podcast hosted by Alec Saunders and Dan York.
It was a very informative interview about what we do, and how we think about the marketplace. Please check it out here.
Click here to talk to me.
Paying for quality Search Engine Optimization isn’t cheap. Keywords cost money, pay-per-clicks are expensive, and making your way to the top of organic search results can take quite a bit of time. There’s no disputing that these costs are worth it, because they give your business an online presence that is key in driving up sales and recognition. But once you’ve spent the bucks on SEO work, how do you know what’s effective in actually bringing in more sales and revenue? You might know what keywords bring people to your site but do you know what keywords bring paying customers there?
Ifbyphone has recently introduced Keyword and Referral Domain Tracking to work in conjunction with our Smart Click-to-Call feature. Now, Ifbyphone’s analytics will tell you what referral URL a web visitor came from before they entered in their number to call you via a click-to-call. If that URL was a page where they typed in keywords - a search engine like Yahoo! or Google - our analytics will track that keyword for you and tell you what it was and the telephone number, date, and time associated with it. The information is valuable because it lets you know where your best potential customers - the ones who want to speak with you - came from and how they found you.
The implementation process is simple; Ifbyphone will automatically generate the tracking code you need for you. More useful analytics are only a phone call away. Click here to speak to an Ifbyphone sales agent now.
