3 Proven Ways iovox is Helping Online Directories Thrive

marketplaces, directories, call tracking, webconnect, 

The internet has transformed most business models, but perhaps none greater than the Yellow Pages. What seems like a bygone era, those valuable directories, where our “fingers did the walking”, allowed us to find the nearest salon or hardware store. Ads in those directories generated billions in revenue for the owners of those books, but the internet has a way of disrupting business models. What are some of the leading “online directories” business models doing now? Keep reading to discover how iovox call tracking is keeping directory services companies at the forefront of innovation.

A fun fact about the “Yellow Pages”

The name actually came about in 1883 when a printer in Cheyenne, Wyoming was working on a regular telephone directory for that era and ran out of white paper and used – you guessed it – yellow instead. In 1886, Reuben H. Donnelley created the first official Yellow Pages directory.

The trusty phone book and related Yellow Pages were a huge part of most homes for decades. In the 1970s, in the United States, the slogan “Let your Fingers do the Walking” became popular as a descriptor for browsing through a series of advertisements and listings to find the store you were looking for. As part of nostalgic marketing, we couldn’t pass up this gem from the 1980s from our friends at British Telecom.

And what did you do once you found the listing you were searching for? Well, you made a phone call.

Despite the fact that print directories have largely disappeared, the value of directory services lives on around the world and the pattern is the same.

Search. Find. Call.

Today there’s an online directory service for just about any topic. Whether you need a directory of lawyers, pet sitters, welding experts, or real estate companies, you name it and it’s probably out there. With all this competition, how do providers of online directory services set themselves apart?

At iovox, we help some of the world’s largest and leading directory service providers create new avenues for revenue and ensure that their platforms remain vibrant and valuable for their listing customers.

The Challenges Faced by Online Directory Service Providers

If you’re an operator at a directory service, we know the pressures you face, which tend to fall into these three categories:

1. The business is under constant pressure competitively and some struggle to demonstrate value to their paying customers.
2. Budgets are tight. When it comes to tracking outcomes, there are far too many listings to be able to afford a unique telephone number for each one.
3. The upsell path for free accounts to become premium customers is not always clear.

Fortunately, iovox has good news and a brand-new tool for providers of directory services who are looking to distinguish themselves from the competition.

Why iovox WebConnect is a perfect fit for Online Directory Services Providers

At iovox, we recently introduced a new service called WebConnect which uses WebRTC to enable real time conversations from any browser-based device (laptop, tablet, or mobile). WebConnect can greatly enhance any directory service business model.

Here are 3 practical ways:

1. Visibility
   Phone leads are the main channel of leads generated by Yellow Pages. With WebConnect, providers can track every phone lead generated by their website. One main benefit is that directory providers immediately understand which ads are working well, and which ones are not performing, which gives users the data to run A/B testing and optimize the campaigns.
2. Cost
   With WebConnect, there are no phone numbers. Really. Just a button added to your website that enables your site visitors to make calls via the web. Local numbers definitely have value, but when a provider has hundreds of thousands of listings, adding a phone number to each one becomes impractical.

   With iovox WebConnect, directory service providers only pay when there’s a call generated from the ad.

   This is massive news for large providers that need attribution and would benefit greatly from all the brand impressions through features like Call Whispers, but without the added cost of a local number for every listing.

3. Conversion and Upsell
   With WebConnect, directory service providers get rich analytics and data that they can use to sell or upsell their solutions to advertisers, achieving more premium listing customers. Companies can collect information such as session ID and understand the customer journey in-depth which helps to optimize their marketing spend.

iovox WebConnect

This sounds almost too good to be true, doesn’t it? Well, it is true, and definitely possible because we’re helping our current directory service clients with these kind of implementations right now and the benefits are huge. Even Reuben H. Donnelley would be proud!

To learn more about iovox solutions, click the green call button below.

We look forward to learning more about your business and how we can help.

You can also email us at hello@iovox.com or give us a call toll-free from within the US at +1 888 369 9519.

From outside the US please reach us at one of these numbers:

London, UK +44 (0)20 7099 1070
Sydney, Australia +61 (0)2 8520 3530
Paris, France +33 (0)1 84 88 46 40