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. 

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?

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.” 

It’s a mistake to see the mobile Web as just a “smaller” version of the desktop Web. That mobile Web is really a whole new animal with completely different dynamics. Nothing makes that clearer than this post, Get Clickthrough Rates Through the Roof, by Mike Baker, CEO of Nokia mobile Web marketing subsidiary Enpocket. Baker reports that mobile Web clickthrough rates average 2-6 percent — and gives one example where CTR was an exceptional 8 percent.

The reason? An “engaging” user experience, Baker says. An experience that’s connected to what you’re doing right now. 

Think about that. If you’re surfing the Web on your phone, chances are you’re looking for something specific and entertaining — you’re not doing research for your term paper on your phone, right?

Perhaps you’re looking at Daily Show clips or listening to music. Or maybe you want to find a restaurant or a store. It doesn’t take a marketing genius to figure out that someone searching for “Chinese food” on a mobile phone has a higher-than-average probability of clicking on an ad for a nearby Chinese restaurant. To make that experience even more engaging, put a click-to-call in the ad so making reservations and getting directions are as easy as rolling downhill. 

In a recent post, Mike Moran at Small Business Answers says that the dynamics of the Web favor small businesses. Not only because the Web levels the playing field, but also because small businesses don’t have the time, money or resources to get tied up in the analysis paralysis that plagues big companies. 

Clay Oliver at E-Commerce Times has a post on how “get social” with your market by building communities around your products at social media sites like Facebook.