Call-based conversion enhancer eStara announced today that it has launched a new Save & Send feature that will let users send online directory and classified listings or search results via text message, Skype IP voice, e-mail or fax.
EStara, a division of e-commerce provider ATG since its acquisition last September, is rolling out the Save & Send feature as part of its Click Suite for Local Search. Other capabilities in the product suite include click to call services, call tracking, and call recording.
Visitors to online directory, search or classified sites that subscribe to eStara’s Save & Send product will be able to click an icon to send the listing information they find in any of those formats, either to friends or to their own e-mailbox or mobile device. They can also click to save listing information in a variety of formats, including Outlook address book, Word document or .pdf file, and as a Web browser bookmark.
Besides providing greater usability for visitors, Save & Send will give Web publishers another metric with which to demonstrate their performance effectiveness to local advertisers.
“We know click to call is an incredibly powerful tool for marketers on these Web sites,” said eStara CEO Jon Federman in an interview. “But we also know that there are probably times when consumers would benefit from having an easy way to store the information they find on business they want to contact. If with a click of a button that information can be downloaded into a PDA, into Outlook or a document, that can create a very verifiable return on investment for that directory’s advertiser base.”
Federman points out that online directories and Internet Yellow Pages suffer from a problem he refers to as “leakage”. If a customer looks up a business listing and then either contacts that business through click to call or through a call tracking phone number, the directory will get credit for sending that referral to the local advertiser. But if the visitor makes a note of the number and dials it himself on a second contact, the directory is removed from the process.
Save & Send will make sure that both user and marketer know the original source of the listing information, giving local advertisers more visibility into the Web sites that are driving their call traffic.
A recent survey by Webvisible and Nielsen//Netratings found that as many as 35% of consumers will save listing information for later use. Almost one quarter of respondents to the survey said they bookmark business listings they find on the Web. Overall, the survey published last month found that 60% of searchers are able to recall a vendor’s contact information after the first search by either saving the phone number or using a browser bookmark.
The eStara Click Suite for Local Search is currently powering ads for such prominent directory and classified sites as Cox Newspapers, Idearc Superpages.com, Yahoo! Europe and Sensis, a leading Australian directory provider.
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