Three Tips On How To Make Your Online Marketplace Stand Out In The Crowd

marketplaces, call tracking, webconnect, sms, dedicated numbers, call alerts, analytics, 

Whether you are well traveled or have never left your hometown, chances are you’ve been to an outdoor marketplace. No matter if the vendors are selling produce, handmade clothing or souvenirs, some things all marketplaces seem to have plenty of is noise and distractions. What happens when you’re an online marketplace? The noise and distractions are still there, just in different forms. This blog is for those online marketplace leaders that are looking for the best ideas to make sure their brands always stand out from the noise of the crowd. The answer may be as simple as a phone call.

At iovox we’re spoiled at our London UK office, because it’s just down the street from the Portobello Road market in Notting Hill. Famous long before Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts brought attention to it in the movie Notting Hill, Portobello Road is one of the most well-known street markets in the world dating back to the 19th century. Millions of visitors (and of course 100% of iovox’s London employees) frequent the stalls each year.

The market is a beehive of activity and it’s easy to jump from one thing to the next and barely remember what you came for in the first place.

In the digital realm, the “online marketplace stands” are equally noisy.

Not with audible sounds, but with a hyper-competitive desire by brands to make a lasting impression on visitors in order to drive loyalty and accrue repeat business. After all, online marketplaces are big business and only getting bigger.

According to the excellent work by Jordi Iserte, Leire Corral and Stefan Grabmann of Adevinta Ventures, in a recent report called “The Future of Marketplaces” the value of marketplace unicorns has soared by 70% since January 2020 to more than $5 trillion, outperforming the tech industry overall as it relates to investment gains. Not only that, but venture investment, a sign of life for tech trends, is exploding in the sector.

Source: The Future of Marketplaces, Adevinta Ventures

In fact, as of April 2021, more than 370 online marketplace unicorns have been created globally and the room for growth (and competition) is massive as companies look to shift their models from “search and compare” to a more robust “full stack” approach that includes transaction processing and even owning the inventory.

If you’re operating a marketplace business model you have to be forward thinking about how to make your business stand out from the noise of the crowd.

At iovox, we’ve been supporting marketplace customers since our founding in 2007, and today we’re sharing three ideas for you to consider, particularly those of you operating “high involvement” purchase marketplaces like real estate, luxury items, financial services, and automobiles, to name a few.

1. Remove Communications Barriers With The Latest Technology

   Engaging with your potential customers is the name of the game and, sadly, many companies have such a narrow gate for potential customers to pass through that often times the user will give up and move on to the next rather than figure out how to break through the communication barriers.

   Smart and successful marketplaces selling high involvement products and services are committed to fully enabling communications on their marketplace sites with easily accessible options for potential customers. Whether it’s SMS, chat, a telephone number, or simply a button on the website to tap-and-talk, all these options make it easier for a prospective buyer to engage with a motivated seller.

   At iovox we have customers that use all of the above methods such as SMS Tracking, Dedicated iovox Numbers and our newest, very popular and in-demand service, iovox WebConnect.

   WebConnect is a button that can be placed on any website that enables a tap-and-talk experience. This video helps explain in more detail.

2. When You Prove Your Value With Simple Reminders Everyone Wins

   We fully agree with Bill Kenney, CEO Focus Labs, in his Fast Company article called “Branding is more than a logo” that branding is an entire ecosystem around your company that creates an experience for your customers.

   If your marketplace model is to forward leads to sellers, it’s extremely easy to get lost in the noise. Your marketplace is probably not their only lead source, so how do you stand out and prove that a listing on your platform is more valuable than some other promotional choice they have?

   With iovox, there are numerous ways we help you prove value, but two simple ways are through Call Whispers and Missed Call Alerts. The iovox Call Whisper feature doesn’t interfere with the handling of a phone or web-based call, it just pre-announces to your seller that the lead they are about to speak with came from your marketplace. Simple, yet over time, this feature helps build your brands value with your customers and is a constant reminder how much business you are sending their way.

   The other feature that is simple to implement is Missed Call Alerts which can be sent to your seller via email or SMS to alert them to the fact that they just missed a lead and what the telephone number was for the lead they missed so they can follow up. Again, this is a clear demonstration of your intent as a marketplace platform to help your customer capture as much new business as possible.

3. The More You Analyze The More Competitive Edge You Have

   Critical analysis of data is an important aspect of getting the most from your efforts. For marketplaces looking for a more competitive edge, the new iovox Conversational AI solution, iovox Insights, is the right solution. The simple act of recording calls, transcribing them into searchable text and setting up keyword filters to analyze (for example) sales conversations, becomes a powerful tool in helping convert more calls to sales.

   In addition to iovox Insights, our traditional call analytics features can be fully integrated into existing CRM and lead management platforms, or used as a standalone system. These communications analytics provide you with actionable information about who’s getting the most new leads on your platform, who’s answering (or missing) leads sent by your marketplace, among many other trackable attributes.

   Between iovox Insights and iovox call analytics, you will be equipped with all the data you need to help your business and your seller’s businesses grow.

All the new investment capital flooding into the online marketplaces sector of the economy can create stress for companies as they face new innovative competition that might have some (dare we say it, ‘disruptive’) approaches to serving customers.

At iovox we’ve been here for the evolution of the marketplaces industry since 2007 and we’ve always helped our customers stay ahead of the curve when it comes to innovation.

We’d love to talk with you about your business and how we can help. To learn more about iovox, tap the green call button below and our team will be in touch with you shortly.

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
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