"Is iPhone’s Voice Control the Sound of Things to Come?"
Yes, and not just mobile devices, voice control (voice search, voice portals) will be prolific. There is a convergence of technology, cost, and usage. Microphones and speakers are cheap, bandwidth is easy and voice applications are up to the task. There will be voice control at retail ("tell me the specs of the new Sony flat screen"); voice portals built into vending machines; at tourist attractions - everywhere that a kiosk with a touch screen is cost prohibitive or otherwise inaccessible.
From GigaOM: "Apparently, Apple believes that speech recognition is the sound of things to come for mobile devices and applications. Apple’s attention is a welcome development, and will undoubtedly accelerate the shift that began with the success of Goog411, Vlingo and other speech-enabled mobile apps. Despite the fact that mobile devices are well-suited for speech recognition — they do, after all, have microphones already built in — no OEM or operator to date has delivered a speech solution that is easy to use, much less promoted the feature to users as a key distinction. Apple is changing that, and other device makers and mobile operators that fail to keep up will be left behind in the competition for users who value simpler, more intuitive UIs."
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
The Rise of Proactive Customer Care
Great review of voice applications driving customer benefit:
"With the emergence of the proactive customer care market, IVRs are providing additional strategic benefits, as they are making major contributions to revenue generation and are helping to provide an outstanding customer experience".
Presented By: Donna Fluss, DMG Consulting LLC
"With the emergence of the proactive customer care market, IVRs are providing additional strategic benefits, as they are making major contributions to revenue generation and are helping to provide an outstanding customer experience".
Presented By: Donna Fluss, DMG Consulting LLC
Monday, June 8, 2009
Improved Customer Service will Drive Mobile Local Search
Over at Screenwerk Greg Sterling just asked “Will Local Market Ultimately Reject PFP/PPC”
Calls are a difficult deliverable for many SMBs. As Greg previously wrote when FastCall411 launched, consumers expect immediate availability when hiring a local merchant.
Problem is merchants don’t always answer their phones or are not available and don’t want to be billed for leads they can not fulfill. In this case not only is the call not billable when the plumber “is under the sink” and not available when the consumer needs them, but the consumer has not been able to make a decision in hiring a plumber.
Until we can better match consumer demand with merchant supply – PPCall pricing will be discounted and margins for calls will be lower than clicks.
We must look beyond call tracking as merely a means to prove ROI. Voice applications can help improve the consumer experience by matching ready to buy consumers dynamically with ready to sell merchants. For PPCall to work, the focus must be on merchants who best serve their consumers, rather than the highest bid for calls.
For example, knowing a consumer is looking for a 2001 Honda Civic (based on the call), TryAnother - our call routing application - offers a redirection to a 2nd seller if the first car is sold, or if the caller wants to keep shopping after the first call. The consumer can also review the interaction with the seller right from within the call. These types of voice applications will help fix PPCall leakage, SMB churn and, in my opinion, will drive mobile local search.
So I respectfully I disagree with Greg’s statement regarding PPCall:
I believe there is significant opportunity for innovation in analyzing the interaction between calling consumers and merchants. As I written here before, I also suspect that Google with the relaunch of Google Voice, and Skype are headed in this direction.
Calls are a difficult deliverable for many SMBs. As Greg previously wrote when FastCall411 launched, consumers expect immediate availability when hiring a local merchant.
Problem is merchants don’t always answer their phones or are not available and don’t want to be billed for leads they can not fulfill. In this case not only is the call not billable when the plumber “is under the sink” and not available when the consumer needs them, but the consumer has not been able to make a decision in hiring a plumber.
Until we can better match consumer demand with merchant supply – PPCall pricing will be discounted and margins for calls will be lower than clicks.
We must look beyond call tracking as merely a means to prove ROI. Voice applications can help improve the consumer experience by matching ready to buy consumers dynamically with ready to sell merchants. For PPCall to work, the focus must be on merchants who best serve their consumers, rather than the highest bid for calls.
For example, knowing a consumer is looking for a 2001 Honda Civic (based on the call), TryAnother - our call routing application - offers a redirection to a 2nd seller if the first car is sold, or if the caller wants to keep shopping after the first call. The consumer can also review the interaction with the seller right from within the call. These types of voice applications will help fix PPCall leakage, SMB churn and, in my opinion, will drive mobile local search.
So I respectfully I disagree with Greg’s statement regarding PPCall:
But there’s another (radical) performance scenario in the mix too: YP publishers simply selling calls derived from whatever source (print, online, mobile). This product is being tested right now in certain markets. That makes the traffic sources more of a black box and the publisher manages the delivery of leads or calls from any/all of them. It also means that under certain circumstances “organic” calls can potentially be counted as well (ethical caveats here). This has the advantage of no required education and no analytics to understand, pay attention to or optimize against.
I believe there is significant opportunity for innovation in analyzing the interaction between calling consumers and merchants. As I written here before, I also suspect that Google with the relaunch of Google Voice, and Skype are headed in this direction.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Yellow Pages: How to Increase Leads 1000%
Telmetrics released very interesting results of a *tracking URL* study they conducted from November 2008 to April 2009 with 1200 print Yellow Pages ads. Telmetrics is a long time vendor in the call measurement space. Though several entrants crowded the call tracking market a few years ago - namely VoiceStar, eStara, Ingenio, CallSource, StandardCall and others – Telmetrics has remained independent and reemerged as the leader in the space. I commend the innovation in offering Yellow Page publishers another tool to prove ROI to their local advertisers.
The Telmetrics press release states "Tracking unique URL activity and call measurement reflects a 78 percent increase in leads driven by print Yellow Pages."
I asked Bill Dinan, the new CEO, if leads delivered to the advertiser increased 78% or just the total tracked leads vs tracked calls alone. I assume the leads were previously delivered, just not tracked with a unique URL. The difference is semantic, however. A lead not tracked is basically a lead not delivered in the eyes of the advertiser.
It’s interesting to think about lead quality in this scenario. Is a phone lead 10 or 15 seconds? What constitutes a web lead in a URL tracking study? Do the analytics eliminate referral (search) traffic and only report leads resulting from the print ads? Is a unique web user a lead (impressions)? Or is a web result a lead (email, call, printed coupon)? Without these definitions its hard to make a "call vs web lead" analysis apples to apples.
The Yellow Pages industry needs to fix their leaking bucket, but I am not sure URL tracking is scalable. It’s an interesting offer for a few existing advertisers, and can be used to extrapolate estimates of online leads referred by the print ads. Offering existing call tracking advertisers URL tracking provides deeper reporting to a smaller group of advertisers. Alternatively, and far more effective in my opinion, Yellow Pages publishers, such as AT&T, RHD and Idearc could provide lead reporting to far more advertisers.
If and when the Yellow Pages industry gets serious about saving itself, they will need to prove ROI to many more advertisers. Call tracking usage will have to increase at a multiple of 10X (at a minimum) and either the vendors (such as Telmetrics) or the publishers themselves will need to innovate to insure that quality leads are delivered to merchants and that consumer benefit increases.
Call tracking and voice applications can improve the consumer experience and better match the consumer demand with merchant supply. Publishers will need to embrace voice applications to realize the many benefits of integrating this technology into mobile local search.
If a publisher were increase call tracking usage 10X, they could report that lead delivery increased nearly 1000%.
That’s a headline.
The Telmetrics press release states "Tracking unique URL activity and call measurement reflects a 78 percent increase in leads driven by print Yellow Pages."
I asked Bill Dinan, the new CEO, if leads delivered to the advertiser increased 78% or just the total tracked leads vs tracked calls alone. I assume the leads were previously delivered, just not tracked with a unique URL. The difference is semantic, however. A lead not tracked is basically a lead not delivered in the eyes of the advertiser.
It’s interesting to think about lead quality in this scenario. Is a phone lead 10 or 15 seconds? What constitutes a web lead in a URL tracking study? Do the analytics eliminate referral (search) traffic and only report leads resulting from the print ads? Is a unique web user a lead (impressions)? Or is a web result a lead (email, call, printed coupon)? Without these definitions its hard to make a "call vs web lead" analysis apples to apples.
The Yellow Pages industry needs to fix their leaking bucket, but I am not sure URL tracking is scalable. It’s an interesting offer for a few existing advertisers, and can be used to extrapolate estimates of online leads referred by the print ads. Offering existing call tracking advertisers URL tracking provides deeper reporting to a smaller group of advertisers. Alternatively, and far more effective in my opinion, Yellow Pages publishers, such as AT&T, RHD and Idearc could provide lead reporting to far more advertisers.
If and when the Yellow Pages industry gets serious about saving itself, they will need to prove ROI to many more advertisers. Call tracking usage will have to increase at a multiple of 10X (at a minimum) and either the vendors (such as Telmetrics) or the publishers themselves will need to innovate to insure that quality leads are delivered to merchants and that consumer benefit increases.
Call tracking and voice applications can improve the consumer experience and better match the consumer demand with merchant supply. Publishers will need to embrace voice applications to realize the many benefits of integrating this technology into mobile local search.
If a publisher were increase call tracking usage 10X, they could report that lead delivery increased nearly 1000%.
That’s a headline.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
AdQuant: Google’s Top 100 Search Advertisers
I just reviewed AdQuant’s reporting of Google’s top 100 search advertisers in April 2009 (by daily PPC ad spend):
* AOL represented nearly 5% of April PPC ad spend for Google (up significantly from March)
* Credit / credit repair / refi represented 43 of the top 100 at just under 20% of the PPC top 100 ad spend
* E-commerce represented 22 PPC advertisers and 24% of the top 100 daily PPC spend
* 19 travel-related PPC advertisers accounted for 21% of the top 100
* 18 insurance-related advertisers (14%)
* The remaining 20% were broadly search (Edmunds and GM.com were the only 2 automotive sites listed)
It is interesting that 43 credit / refi advertisers are still spending just under $1 million per day.
* AOL represented nearly 5% of April PPC ad spend for Google (up significantly from March)
* Credit / credit repair / refi represented 43 of the top 100 at just under 20% of the PPC top 100 ad spend
* E-commerce represented 22 PPC advertisers and 24% of the top 100 daily PPC spend
* 19 travel-related PPC advertisers accounted for 21% of the top 100
* 18 insurance-related advertisers (14%)
* The remaining 20% were broadly search (Edmunds and GM.com were the only 2 automotive sites listed)
It is interesting that 43 credit / refi advertisers are still spending just under $1 million per day.
Friday, April 24, 2009
InfoUSA verifying local listings. Has this business model lost its legs?
Mike Blumenthal writes a blog on Google Maps and Yahoo Local Search. This morning he blogged on a verification call received from InfoUSA, and commented that they didn’t collect very much data on the brief call (no hours of operation, business function, ect)
I am curious how merchants would feel if InfoUSA used an automated call, but asked more questions? Better or worse than a live a operator? In addition to the data InfoUSA didn’t collect on the call to Mike, its interesting that they don't seem to use the data from their call disposition logs. A disconnected number is most likely out-of-business, but what does a no answer, busy and/or IVR / voice mail tell us?
FastCall411 research indicates that to 87% of users *availability* is an important factor when choosing a local merchant. Answering the phone and responding to a consumer call is a measure of availability. Undoubtedly important data that InfoUSA is either not collecting, or not licensing to their clients.
Last , a company frequently in the mobile local search news, MerchantCircle, has verified a ton a local merchants using a very different approach to InfoUSA (and with a different biz model). The calls are automated, but the merchant has a chance to add as much details to a MerchantCircle page as they wish. I think MerchantCirlce has the better model as I can’t see the data aggregation companies like InfoUSA maintaining their model.
I am curious how merchants would feel if InfoUSA used an automated call, but asked more questions? Better or worse than a live a operator? In addition to the data InfoUSA didn’t collect on the call to Mike, its interesting that they don't seem to use the data from their call disposition logs. A disconnected number is most likely out-of-business, but what does a no answer, busy and/or IVR / voice mail tell us?
FastCall411 research indicates that to 87% of users *availability* is an important factor when choosing a local merchant. Answering the phone and responding to a consumer call is a measure of availability. Undoubtedly important data that InfoUSA is either not collecting, or not licensing to their clients.
Last , a company frequently in the mobile local search news, MerchantCircle, has verified a ton a local merchants using a very different approach to InfoUSA (and with a different biz model). The calls are automated, but the merchant has a chance to add as much details to a MerchantCircle page as they wish. I think MerchantCirlce has the better model as I can’t see the data aggregation companies like InfoUSA maintaining their model.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Is Time Running Out for Newspapers and Yellow Pages?
As an early Tivo adopter, I shifted my television habits several years ago. I am now watching the current season of 24 on Hulu and I noticed that Idearc has been running ads for Super Guarantee.
Idearc, now the 2nd largest yellow pages publisher (US), launched Super Guarantee to offer consumers limited assurance against poor service delivered by Idearc advertisers. I assume that Idearc research indicated that consumers are wary of merchants and that the guarantee would help more consumers use their yellow pages – print and online. I applaud the focus on the consumer and think it’s a nice differentiator for Idearc. They’ve also picked up some good press off of the program.
But the program does beg the question: where’s the guarantee for the merchant? Idearc research (and experience) must similarly indicate that merchants want a return on their advertising investment. Also, I wonder if the program hints that merchants offer sub-par service and that consumers need Idearc to step in and police their interactions with advertisers. Sure, merchants want more consumer leads – and would prefer to have a guarantee on their ad spend – but does the program portray merchants negatively? Given this potential, why didn’t Idearc roll out a merchant focused program at the same time? Call it “Super Accountability”? It would balance the consumer guarantee and better serve the merchant.
The traditional media industry has been a buzz over Google CEO, Eric Schmidt’s keynote at the Newspaper Association of American Conference a few weeks ago. Like the yellow pages, the newspaper industry in under heavy attack. Schmidt argued that newspapers need to focus on an advertising-supported revenue models, quoting that Google generates 98% of its revenue from ad sales – that’s 98% of $5.51 billion in the first quarter of 2009. The majority of this revenue is from pay-for-performance text ads.
Idearc has a pay-for-performance program too, called Pay for Calls. Super Accountability could track advertising generated calls to merchants to in order to charge advertisers for demonstrated result. Tracking these calls can also help insure that quality of service (QOS) is met, and can cut off an advertiser if quality of service falls.
Controlling consumers’ phone calls to merchants could even be used to capture consumer reviews at the end of the calls. Redirecting calls from under performing merchants to higher performing advertisers creates a pipeline of new leads without printing new books or expanding the distribution of Superpages.com. All while driving additional benefit to the consumer.
Super Guarantee is a nice consumer benefit, but wont bring in (or save) ad revenue. Accountability will.
Just as Hulu and Tivo are radically changing the business model for ad-supported television broadcasters, newspapers and yellow page publishers need to find new business models. That means looking for opportunity within the threats. Transitioning advertisers to performance-based pricing serves not only advertisers and consumers (as with Super Guarantee), performance-pricing potentially delivers a lifeline to broadcasters under threat from Tivo, Hulu and others. Like Jack Bauer on 24, Idearc and other local media companies need to race against the clock to leverage their sales force to become a sales channel with the unique ability to reach the local merchant with performance-based advertising products. The benefit of this strategy is that newspapers and yellow pages can form partnerships to source leads from many sources including the episode of 24 I just watched.
Idearc, now the 2nd largest yellow pages publisher (US), launched Super Guarantee to offer consumers limited assurance against poor service delivered by Idearc advertisers. I assume that Idearc research indicated that consumers are wary of merchants and that the guarantee would help more consumers use their yellow pages – print and online. I applaud the focus on the consumer and think it’s a nice differentiator for Idearc. They’ve also picked up some good press off of the program.
But the program does beg the question: where’s the guarantee for the merchant? Idearc research (and experience) must similarly indicate that merchants want a return on their advertising investment. Also, I wonder if the program hints that merchants offer sub-par service and that consumers need Idearc to step in and police their interactions with advertisers. Sure, merchants want more consumer leads – and would prefer to have a guarantee on their ad spend – but does the program portray merchants negatively? Given this potential, why didn’t Idearc roll out a merchant focused program at the same time? Call it “Super Accountability”? It would balance the consumer guarantee and better serve the merchant.
The traditional media industry has been a buzz over Google CEO, Eric Schmidt’s keynote at the Newspaper Association of American Conference a few weeks ago. Like the yellow pages, the newspaper industry in under heavy attack. Schmidt argued that newspapers need to focus on an advertising-supported revenue models, quoting that Google generates 98% of its revenue from ad sales – that’s 98% of $5.51 billion in the first quarter of 2009. The majority of this revenue is from pay-for-performance text ads.
Idearc has a pay-for-performance program too, called Pay for Calls. Super Accountability could track advertising generated calls to merchants to in order to charge advertisers for demonstrated result. Tracking these calls can also help insure that quality of service (QOS) is met, and can cut off an advertiser if quality of service falls.
Controlling consumers’ phone calls to merchants could even be used to capture consumer reviews at the end of the calls. Redirecting calls from under performing merchants to higher performing advertisers creates a pipeline of new leads without printing new books or expanding the distribution of Superpages.com. All while driving additional benefit to the consumer.
Super Guarantee is a nice consumer benefit, but wont bring in (or save) ad revenue. Accountability will.
Just as Hulu and Tivo are radically changing the business model for ad-supported television broadcasters, newspapers and yellow page publishers need to find new business models. That means looking for opportunity within the threats. Transitioning advertisers to performance-based pricing serves not only advertisers and consumers (as with Super Guarantee), performance-pricing potentially delivers a lifeline to broadcasters under threat from Tivo, Hulu and others. Like Jack Bauer on 24, Idearc and other local media companies need to race against the clock to leverage their sales force to become a sales channel with the unique ability to reach the local merchant with performance-based advertising products. The benefit of this strategy is that newspapers and yellow pages can form partnerships to source leads from many sources including the episode of 24 I just watched.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
How Voice Applications Will Improve Lead Generation
As a follow-up the Kelsey’s Marketplaces 2009 conference, my friend Peter Krasilovsky wrote “online leads for cars are broken.” I agree with Peter that auto shoppers will not complete a request for information form because they’ve been trained that the dealer will not follow-up. (The dealer in turn has been trained that the consumer web lead often has inaccurate and stale information). Supporting this argument, I have reviewed data indicating that voice leads (tracked phone calls) outnumber web leads about 9 to 1.
It’s interesting to compare this weakness in the “web lead” market to recent developments in voice applications. For example, Google’s relaunch GrandCentral (Google Voice), has a popular feature that uses voice recognition to transcribe voice mail to text. Google also leverages voice search in its Android, iPhone and now Blackberry mobile applications (you can say the search term using the mobile phone microphone for input.)
What do these developments have in common? Voice is a natural input and often superior to a text search. Occasionally when we need a specific part / size / brand at a local retailer or we are shopping for a service we call around to see if the part is in stock or if the service provider is available and does the type of work we need. Voice is a natural way to present this information (“Hi, I am looking for a (part) for a (thing) in size (xyz).
With voice recognition and transcription we can convert the input to text and search for the results. For example, we can search local retailers to satisfy the user’s request, and then present the request to the retailer as voice or text. Presenting the search query as a voice message in a phone call would be an efficient and quick way to deliver the lead to the merchant and satisfies the consumer (“press 1 if the thingy is in stock").
Is this where Google, and ergo the industry, is headed with voice input and voice recognition? It’s a compelling use case.
It’s interesting to compare this weakness in the “web lead” market to recent developments in voice applications. For example, Google’s relaunch GrandCentral (Google Voice), has a popular feature that uses voice recognition to transcribe voice mail to text. Google also leverages voice search in its Android, iPhone and now Blackberry mobile applications (you can say the search term using the mobile phone microphone for input.)
What do these developments have in common? Voice is a natural input and often superior to a text search. Occasionally when we need a specific part / size / brand at a local retailer or we are shopping for a service we call around to see if the part is in stock or if the service provider is available and does the type of work we need. Voice is a natural way to present this information (“Hi, I am looking for a (part) for a (thing) in size (xyz).
With voice recognition and transcription we can convert the input to text and search for the results. For example, we can search local retailers to satisfy the user’s request, and then present the request to the retailer as voice or text. Presenting the search query as a voice message in a phone call would be an efficient and quick way to deliver the lead to the merchant and satisfies the consumer (“press 1 if the thingy is in stock").
Is this where Google, and ergo the industry, is headed with voice input and voice recognition? It’s a compelling use case.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Google Voice - Integrated into Search
For those of us who have been waiting (and wondering) what Google had in store for GrandCentral after the 2007 acquisition, the service has just been rebranded and significantly upgraded to Google Voice. Google Voice – which had been in beta since the acquisition and is still closed to new users - is a *smart number* with voicemail, conferencing, call control, call announce, etc (often called Voice 2.0.) Alerts are sent to SMS or email with voicemail files, notifications and more. Google Voice is also a softphone (aka click to talk), a web or mobile applications used to make free domestic outbound calls (similar to Skype and others). The Google Voice softphone optionally connects callers to Goog411 – Google’s directory assistance application.
Google Voice has a very cool, but not unique, call announce feature (AccessLine has had a call announce for several years). If your Google Voice *smart* phone number receives a call from a caller with a blocked caller ID, or a caller that is not in your address book, the caller must record an announcement. The called party (you) can accept or reject the call. You can also listen in on the voice mail (and interrupt to pick-up a call sent to voicemail).
I can see a few directions where Google may be headed with Google Voice. Using Goog411 or Google Voice, searchers can announce their interest when calling merchants in the Google search results (“I need a cab and want to pay by credit card.”) Google can then route this call to the merchant available to accept the call. Integrating Google Voice into the mobile local search results offers users a powerful new option to connect with and communicate with merchants. For example, a consumer searching for a plumber in San Jose may call a business listed in the Google search results (from the web, mobile or Goog411), if that business is not available (busy, no answer, on vacation) – Google Voice can offer the caller a connection to Goog411 without the caller hanging up on the first call. That would be a very convenient way for the caller to find what they are looking for and for Google to route the caller to a ready, willing and able advertiser.
There are also mobile features for Google Voice and I can see interesting applications for Android – the Google-backed mobile OS. I’ll leave that for another post.
Google Voice has a very cool, but not unique, call announce feature (AccessLine has had a call announce for several years). If your Google Voice *smart* phone number receives a call from a caller with a blocked caller ID, or a caller that is not in your address book, the caller must record an announcement. The called party (you) can accept or reject the call. You can also listen in on the voice mail (and interrupt to pick-up a call sent to voicemail).
I can see a few directions where Google may be headed with Google Voice. Using Goog411 or Google Voice, searchers can announce their interest when calling merchants in the Google search results (“I need a cab and want to pay by credit card.”) Google can then route this call to the merchant available to accept the call. Integrating Google Voice into the mobile local search results offers users a powerful new option to connect with and communicate with merchants. For example, a consumer searching for a plumber in San Jose may call a business listed in the Google search results (from the web, mobile or Goog411), if that business is not available (busy, no answer, on vacation) – Google Voice can offer the caller a connection to Goog411 without the caller hanging up on the first call. That would be a very convenient way for the caller to find what they are looking for and for Google to route the caller to a ready, willing and able advertiser.
There are also mobile features for Google Voice and I can see interesting applications for Android – the Google-backed mobile OS. I’ll leave that for another post.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Call Tracking Could Save the Yellow Pages
The other day for Search Engine Land Chris Smith wrote “What Could Save the Yellow Pages? 10 ideas.”
His idea #5 is to add tracking phone numbers to every single YP ad, and let advertisers see the results. Naturally, I think this is a great idea.
I take Chris's thought further. By assigning tracking numbers to all print advertisements publishers could answer 8 of the remaining 9 ideas to save the yellow pages and here’s how: (
[Chris's idea: my thought]
1. Stop distributing books to people who no longer use them: Call tracking data would identify heavy usage households as well as non-users. The data would also reveal true service areas based on calling partners. This is great data to up-sell neighboring directories.
2. Reduce environmental impact: Distributing books based on household usage would lead to a lighter environmental impact (smaller, less frequent directories to non / light-users?).
3. Better, more dependable industry usage statistics: The call tracking data would be rock solid, empirical and does not relying on surveys.
4. Improve PR: The call tracking results would lead to improved public relations for the reasons stated above (better advertising results, lighter environmental impact.)
5. **Add tracking phone numbers to every single YP ad, and let advertisers see the results.**
6. Drop the cost of print advertising: The call tracking usage data would lead to performance pricing. Some prices will fall, and others may increase, but will be ROI-based. Consumers will receive a secondary benefit as the call tracking data will identify which business are more responsive to the calling consumer. This data acts as a base for consumer reviews. Tracking all calls will also identify demand in each market and each vertical. Prices will rise as the market for leads becomes competitive.
7. Bundle: Paying per-lead makes the source of the lead less relevant and promotes bundling.
8. Get mobile savvy: Bundling will stimulate Internet, mobile, DA and other distribution as publishers become more savvy identifying new sources of leads.
9. Fix the data: Assigning numbers to all advertisers will identity disconnected numbers, mis-categorized businesses and other indicators of poor service significantly improving the data.
His idea #5 is to add tracking phone numbers to every single YP ad, and let advertisers see the results. Naturally, I think this is a great idea.
I take Chris's thought further. By assigning tracking numbers to all print advertisements publishers could answer 8 of the remaining 9 ideas to save the yellow pages and here’s how: (
[Chris's idea: my thought]
1. Stop distributing books to people who no longer use them: Call tracking data would identify heavy usage households as well as non-users. The data would also reveal true service areas based on calling partners. This is great data to up-sell neighboring directories.
2. Reduce environmental impact: Distributing books based on household usage would lead to a lighter environmental impact (smaller, less frequent directories to non / light-users?).
3. Better, more dependable industry usage statistics: The call tracking data would be rock solid, empirical and does not relying on surveys.
4. Improve PR: The call tracking results would lead to improved public relations for the reasons stated above (better advertising results, lighter environmental impact.)
5. **Add tracking phone numbers to every single YP ad, and let advertisers see the results.**
6. Drop the cost of print advertising: The call tracking usage data would lead to performance pricing. Some prices will fall, and others may increase, but will be ROI-based. Consumers will receive a secondary benefit as the call tracking data will identify which business are more responsive to the calling consumer. This data acts as a base for consumer reviews. Tracking all calls will also identify demand in each market and each vertical. Prices will rise as the market for leads becomes competitive.
7. Bundle: Paying per-lead makes the source of the lead less relevant and promotes bundling.
8. Get mobile savvy: Bundling will stimulate Internet, mobile, DA and other distribution as publishers become more savvy identifying new sources of leads.
9. Fix the data: Assigning numbers to all advertisers will identity disconnected numbers, mis-categorized businesses and other indicators of poor service significantly improving the data.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
YP.com Sued for "Cramming" - LEC Billing
According to the CBS Affiliate in Rockford, IL (near Chicago) YP.com was sued for tricking local merchants into a monthly fee billed on their phone bills. The practice, called LEC billing, is frequently used by incumbent yellow page publishers. The benefit is reduced churn - many advertisers mistakenly believe they have to pay the charge or lose phone service. Further, LEC billing makes it easier for the advertiser to say "yes" vs.a charge billed to a credit card, or invoicing.
It is interesting this story hits the day MerchantCircle announced 400,000 of their 650,000 merchants have no other social networking presence. Reading into the MerchantCircle press release, I estimate that about 10% of the 650,000 merchants are active (5% added a photo to their profile in October).
MerchantCircle enticed 400,000 merchants to create their first social networking profile and perhaps ~40,000 are actively building their profiles. The profile is free with several options for a paid upgrade.
FastCall411 uses autodialing to verify local listings. With such high merchant turnover in local search, we want to insure that the merchant is still in business and we also want to verify that the merchant has a history of answering their phone (good customer service) with some indication that the merchant wishes to service searching consumers.
YP.com is apparently tricking merchants into verifying their listings then billing them with a misleading sales pitch.
I am all for pushing the envelop, but the accusations against YP.com are concerning. If too many local merchants get burned our industry will suffer.
Here's the story:
Chicago – Attorney General Lisa Madigan today filed a lawsuit against a Las Vegas-based corporation, alleging that, in offering Internet yellow pages listings, this company bilked small businesses in Illinois and across the country through a practice known as “cramming.” Cramming involves adding charges to a consumer’s telephone bill that the consumer never wanted or ordered.
WIFR.com
http://www.wifr.com/home/headlines/34347459.html
It is interesting this story hits the day MerchantCircle announced 400,000 of their 650,000 merchants have no other social networking presence. Reading into the MerchantCircle press release, I estimate that about 10% of the 650,000 merchants are active (5% added a photo to their profile in October).
MerchantCircle enticed 400,000 merchants to create their first social networking profile and perhaps ~40,000 are actively building their profiles. The profile is free with several options for a paid upgrade.
FastCall411 uses autodialing to verify local listings. With such high merchant turnover in local search, we want to insure that the merchant is still in business and we also want to verify that the merchant has a history of answering their phone (good customer service) with some indication that the merchant wishes to service searching consumers.
YP.com is apparently tricking merchants into verifying their listings then billing them with a misleading sales pitch.
I am all for pushing the envelop, but the accusations against YP.com are concerning. If too many local merchants get burned our industry will suffer.
Here's the story:
Chicago – Attorney General Lisa Madigan today filed a lawsuit against a Las Vegas-based corporation, alleging that, in offering Internet yellow pages listings, this company bilked small businesses in Illinois and across the country through a practice known as “cramming.” Cramming involves adding charges to a consumer’s telephone bill that the consumer never wanted or ordered.
WIFR.com
http://www.wifr.com/home/headlines/34347459.html
Monday, August 25, 2008
Left in the Dark: Mobile Local Search from Google, Yahoo, MSN
Driving home last night I was cut off by a shiny white Porsche Cayenne. Not one to honk my horn, I flashed my high-beams only to realize that one of the bulbs was out. Instead of showing my toughness with a flash of light, I winked. Today I set out for a new headlight bulb and I thought I’d give the mobile local search applications from Google, MSN and Yahoo a try. I searched “auto parts” 90046 (my zip code in LA) and called each listing. The search results were all very different and all really bad. Only Google had my neighborhood auto parts retailer, Autozone, but then gave me 9 bad listings (one wrong number). Yahoo had 9 listings on the first screen and 8 were auto parts retailers (no Autozone), but all were inconveniently further away than Autozone. Yahoo’s phone call answer rate was 78% and 5 out of nine had the bulbs (56%). Great scores, but not in my neighborhood. Last, MSN Live Search had 20 listings within 2 miles of my house, but no retailers w/ bulbs. 12 merchants of the 20 answered (60%) and 3 had disconnected numbers (15%).
I’ll note that there are a few more Autozones – in each direction, a Kragen and Pep Boys (all national chains) as well as several BMW dealerships in the area who would all have the part. I also live near a Target and Sears. Any of these would have been good sources for auto parts and are better choices than the results I found from Google, Yahoo or MSN.
The problem starts with the base data that every mobile local search property licenses from an aggregator. Google Maps credits Navteq (now part of Nokia) and in the terms of service (TOS) credits local data to Acxiom or infoUSA. Yahoo credits InfoUSA. MSN credits Navteq for maps and Yellowpages.com for sponsored results (I don’t know if MSN uses Yellowpages.com for organic results too, but they credit Localeze and Acxiom for data). Either way, these are the aggregators who license out-of-date, poorly categorized data to the industry.
Why hasn’t a solution been found to deliver a better consumer experience? Surely mobile local search is a high priority at the big three (Google, Yahoo, MSN.) This problem could be solved by breaking down the top 50 or so categories and a few hundred neighborhoods to identify the best results for each combination. Surely, auto parts in LA qualifies. I’d note the national chains and retailers who are in many categories like Target, Sears, Walmart and other brands like BMW.
FastCall411 breaks this model with a completely new approach. We call all our merchants to 1) test that the number is in working order and 2) ask the merchant if they will categorize themselves. Then, we use the record of the connection of each phone call (call length, etc) and consumer reviews of the call to weight our listings. We identify disconnected numbers, penalize merchants with busy signals and unanswered phones and we allow users to rate if the merchant had what they were calling for. Users can add meta data to correct a listing (the Rolls Royce repair shop listed on MSN would be a great example – what supper data to collect.) Over a series of phone calls the data begins to identify which merchants are relevant based on our Quaility of Service score . The result is the quality of Yahoo’s listings, the favorable geography of MSN and a much better consumer experience.
I’ll note that there are a few more Autozones – in each direction, a Kragen and Pep Boys (all national chains) as well as several BMW dealerships in the area who would all have the part. I also live near a Target and Sears. Any of these would have been good sources for auto parts and are better choices than the results I found from Google, Yahoo or MSN.
The problem starts with the base data that every mobile local search property licenses from an aggregator. Google Maps credits Navteq (now part of Nokia) and in the terms of service (TOS) credits local data to Acxiom or infoUSA. Yahoo credits InfoUSA. MSN credits Navteq for maps and Yellowpages.com for sponsored results (I don’t know if MSN uses Yellowpages.com for organic results too, but they credit Localeze and Acxiom for data). Either way, these are the aggregators who license out-of-date, poorly categorized data to the industry.
Why hasn’t a solution been found to deliver a better consumer experience? Surely mobile local search is a high priority at the big three (Google, Yahoo, MSN.) This problem could be solved by breaking down the top 50 or so categories and a few hundred neighborhoods to identify the best results for each combination. Surely, auto parts in LA qualifies. I’d note the national chains and retailers who are in many categories like Target, Sears, Walmart and other brands like BMW.
FastCall411 breaks this model with a completely new approach. We call all our merchants to 1) test that the number is in working order and 2) ask the merchant if they will categorize themselves. Then, we use the record of the connection of each phone call (call length, etc) and consumer reviews of the call to weight our listings. We identify disconnected numbers, penalize merchants with busy signals and unanswered phones and we allow users to rate if the merchant had what they were calling for. Users can add meta data to correct a listing (the Rolls Royce repair shop listed on MSN would be a great example – what supper data to collect.) Over a series of phone calls the data begins to identify which merchants are relevant based on our Quaility of Service score . The result is the quality of Yahoo’s listings, the favorable geography of MSN and a much better consumer experience.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Do Locals Give a Click? Negotiating the Buys to Make Local Advertising Work
By Richard Rosen, from adotas
Successful local advertisers and business owners know that to close a deal, they must ask for the sale. It’s a bold question at times, designed to push a hesitant buyer toward action.
Now, take this same principle — one that you’ve no doubt mastered — and apply it in the other direction: to your advertising buy.
What am I talking about? Here’s the thing: local advertisers often find themselves stuck in between the new and the old. Online local search brings lots of clicks and pay-for-performance economics, but doesn’t offer an understanding of each local market. Traditional media — primarily newspapers and Yellow Pages — are well-entrenched in their communities, but have yet to truly embrace the performance-based model that merchants can get online.
(continued)
Successful local advertisers and business owners know that to close a deal, they must ask for the sale. It’s a bold question at times, designed to push a hesitant buyer toward action.
Now, take this same principle — one that you’ve no doubt mastered — and apply it in the other direction: to your advertising buy.
What am I talking about? Here’s the thing: local advertisers often find themselves stuck in between the new and the old. Online local search brings lots of clicks and pay-for-performance economics, but doesn’t offer an understanding of each local market. Traditional media — primarily newspapers and Yellow Pages — are well-entrenched in their communities, but have yet to truly embrace the performance-based model that merchants can get online.
(continued)
Saturday, July 12, 2008
A Fitting Fix to Local Search: Why the “Less is More” Approach Provides Real Pay-Per-Call Benefit
By Richard Rosen, published in adotas
There’s been a ton of news on the Google-eBay announcement around pay-per-call. The message is that pay-per-call is a way to apply pay-for-performance advertising to something small businesses actually want — phone calls. The publisher now has something else to package and sell to businesses —phone leads. But what no one is talking about yet is how pay-per-call can — and is — revolutionizing the search experience for the consumer.
Consider this familiar scenario: you need a plumber (or any service-oriented business). You search online for Los Angeles + plumber. More than 8,000,000 listings appear. You add the words residential + licensed + emergency. Still, there are more than 226,000 websites listed. Try local search and you’ll find 5,600+ plumbers in Los Angeles. From here, you start dialing, and probably make several calls before finding someone to fix your leaky pipe.
Local Search is a Poor State of Affairs for the Consumer
(continued)
There’s been a ton of news on the Google-eBay announcement around pay-per-call. The message is that pay-per-call is a way to apply pay-for-performance advertising to something small businesses actually want — phone calls. The publisher now has something else to package and sell to businesses —phone leads. But what no one is talking about yet is how pay-per-call can — and is — revolutionizing the search experience for the consumer.
Consider this familiar scenario: you need a plumber (or any service-oriented business). You search online for Los Angeles + plumber. More than 8,000,000 listings appear. You add the words residential + licensed + emergency. Still, there are more than 226,000 websites listed. Try local search and you’ll find 5,600+ plumbers in Los Angeles. From here, you start dialing, and probably make several calls before finding someone to fix your leaky pipe.
Local Search is a Poor State of Affairs for the Consumer
(continued)
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