Entries from May 1, 2006 - June 1, 2006
eStara named Best for Boosting Sales
In a review of VoIP-based products published in next month's Inc. Magazine, eStara was named "Best for Boosting Sales. Check out the article to learn more and to see 5 other best-of-breed VoIP apps.
Best for… Boosting sales
Cool features: eStara uses VoIP to offer "click-to-call" services. Businesses put a phone number on their online advertising or websites; when potential customers click on the ad, they are connected directly to the company via VoIP. EStara also provides the same feature to customer support centers. Plus, it keeps a record of all incoming calls, creating a database of sales leads.
In action: Todd Walrath, executive vice president of Leads.com, specializes in using the Web to generate business leads for clients. He uses eStara's call-tracking service to track calls generated from clients' ads on sites such as Yahoo and Google. Not only is it cheaper than purchasing a new toll-free number for each promotion, but customers can also check their logs in real time to see who has called in and from where--and not just the calls they got but the calls they missed. "What's really cool is that we can use the Internet to drive consumer demand through the existing phone network, which everyone has," says Walrath.
Pay-Per-Call Struggles to Prove Worth in Internet Ad Realm
E-Commerce Times reports on the current state of the pay-per-call market:
Pay-per-call ads work in a similar way to pay-per-click ads, except that advertisers pay when they receive a phone call rather than a click.
Google is reportedly struggling to convince advertisers that click-to-call is a good tactic, as many businesses don't want customers bombarding their customer service centers with simple questions. The costs are simply too high.
eStara Leading the Way
Some online retailers, like Amazon.com and Verizon Superpages.com, reckon they have already proved that click-to-call can work in a text ad environment. These companies have figured out the right way to deploy the technology to make sure people can only click when they are most likely to make a purchase, or if they have a complex question the Web site can't answer.
For the most part, companies using click-to-call have not developed the technology themselves. Third party developers, like eStara, which is the leader in click-to-call deployments worldwide, have powered the trend, and their customers in this segment include Amazon and Yahoo UK.
The technology is being touted in earnings released by the companies who are using it, however. "The company introduced click-to-call, a new feature for our U.S., UK, German and French Web sites that allows customers to be connected quickly with a customer service representative who often already has the customer's account information in front of them, saving the customer time and increasing satisfaction," stated a recent Amazon.com press release.
eStara
in Pay Per Call, Click to Call
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Will pay-per-call search open a new market for ads?
Some interesting comments in Media Week about pay per call from some of the UK's top minds in search marketing.
Pay Per Call, It's not for all...
Glen Drury, VP of Yahoo! UK and Northern Europe, writes about pay per call in the most recent edition of Revolution Magazine. When it comes to creating a call-based local media program for advertisers, Glenn agrees, it's good to have options and it's important to offer customers the right form of contact at the right time.
The call center of the future?
"A customer-service clerk who knows exactly what you need sounds like science fiction, but it may be close to reality thanks to new technology. Call centres can now track customers' online activity to determine what they want when they call in for help. That may mean the end of frustrating touch-tone menus and agents who transfer callers to the wrong departments."
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