Just in case you had any doubts. A study just released by ad-ology has shown that a Restaurants online presence is most influential in convincing customers to visit a restaurant.
Online media influenced 40 percent of recent restaurant visitors, with restaurant Web sites having the most influence. Traditional media proved more effective than social media for these consumers. Twenty-seven percent were influenced by newspaper, and 25.4 percent said the same for direct mail.
“People are still eating out and ordering out, but want to make sure they’re spending their money wisely,” said C. Lee Smith, president and CEO of Ad-ology Research. “Restaurant Web sites can really drive traffic by providing menus and prices, plus details like hours and location so consumers feel like they have all the information they need,”
An old study done by Com-score delves further by showing the specific impact that online reviews have for a restaurant. See the discussion in an earlier post here The findings are no suprise but thought they might be interesting for you to know.
Skype just announced its partnership with European directories one of Europe’s largest yellow pages companies to enable its listings with a Skype powered click to call button. This kind of functionality has been available for a while with the browser plugin available for skype that turns any phone number on a web page to a button that launches a call in skype like below.
So whats new? The new Skype functionality allows directories to put a link which they or the business pay for instead of the consumer. This is a nice additional business model. This could get even more interesting if and when Skype starts advertising category related either in the call or within the skype software ie you click on a plumber in your area to call them and the skype software also suggests - sponsored listings that the plumber pay a premium for receiving the phone calls.
I also look forward to seeing what kind of reporting metrics the directory can pull in to show the business how many leads they generated for them and whether they have a solution that doesnt involve the customer needing the skype software ie just enter their own phone number and be called.
Exciting times in the voice / web world, especially in local.
