Speaking Sensis

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com commented recently that, “we build new tools and these tools change behaviour” which I found rather interesting. Whilst Jeff probably wasn’t referring to the park assist button in my car which means I’ll never have to reverse park again (god bless technology!) he could easily have been referring to the ubiquitous iPhone revolution on our doorstep and the apps that are fundamentally changing the way we access information.

Virtually everything is now available via an app and don’t they make life easier? Touch an icon, get the info you want.

Enter Whereis® Navigator, which recently launched an iPhone app allowing Telstra customers with iPhones access to the premium GPS navigation product at the tip of their fingers. The Whereis® Navigator product includes features like voice guided turn-by-turn directions – basically turning your iPhone into your very own personalised nav device. Pretty cool huh?

As someone with absolutely no sense of direction I’m a huge fan of navigation technology and it seems I’m not alone – thankfully!

We have just completed a study about Australia’s navigation habits and it looks like Jeff Bezos is on the money when it comes to navigation – technology has indeed changed consumer behaviour. Australians are passionate about GPS and the many benefits it provides; security on dark lonely roads, time-saving by avoiding traffic or finding the nearest and cheapest fuel are a few examples of how us Aussies are relying on the technology today. This change in behaviour means more people are throwing out their old printed maps and street directories and embracing GPS technology in all its forms – built-in car systems, portable navigation devices and, of course, on mobile.

So next time you’re in the car wasting time stuck in traffic, or aren’t sure where the nearest petrol station is as your gauge gets closer to hitting empty- remember you now have easy access to Whereis® Navigator.

Whereis® Navigator is free to download. Charges may apply if users elect to continue use of Premium Features.

Whereis Navigator is free of all data charges on the Next G™ network. Once you have downloaded the app, data usage is free for both standard and premium features.

Restrictions on driver use exist in some States and Territories and you should check local rules.

It’s been a busy year so far for the international directories industry and this was evidenced at Kelsey’s annual Directional Media Strategies (DMS) Conference in Dallas, Texas and the European Association of Directories Publishers (EADP) 2010 Congress in Venice, Italy. 

Sensis Chief Operating Officer Gerry Sutton and GM Strategy Geoff Avard were in Venice to steer the Sensis gondola while our GM Product Thomas Arthur and GM Marketing, Michelle Sherwood donned the spurs in Texas. 

Now back on Aussie turf, Gerry commented that it was exciting to see the shift in overall industry sentiment since he attended the Yellow Pages Association conference in the US in April. The vibe’s more buoyant and upbeat as many organisations have set clear strategies for the future and new shoots of growth are appearing.

As part of a panel session discussing Transformational Experiences alongside Mark Cannon of Yell and Olivier Vincent of Ziplocal, Gerry provided the EADP Congress delegates with a high-level view of the key improvements Sensis is making to customer experience.

Two themes consistently came through at the event. The first is that Yellow Pages® is in a very strong position to act as a trusted advisor to small to medium enterprises and help them manage their multi-channel advertising presence and performance in a changing world. The second is the need to provide advertisers with sophisticated reporting on the leads that we generate in order to demonstrate accountability and return on investment to our customers. 

What are some of the other trends being adopted by our European counterparts? There’s a strong emphasis on offering customers multi-channel directories products while also partnering or acting as a reseller for performance networks like Google, website companies and social media networks like Facebook and Twitter. Product portfolios are being expanded to mini websites and landing pages. These strategies are paying off with some businesses expanding digital penetration by 20-30 per cent in a short timeframe, with plans to grow paying digital customers to up 80 per cent. The structure of print books is also being constantly improved and new content is being added to enhance usability. And there’s still an unwavering belief that salesforces continue to be a critical strength and training and investing in people is paramount.

Across the Atlantic at Kelsey DMS, there was a similar focus on managing the digital presence of small to medium enterprises. Michelle Sherwood observed that directories companies around the world are busy building large digital product pipelines whilst continuing to innovate and re-format print products.  

The growth being experienced in mobile traffic was another hot topic at Kelsey DMS, with many businesses quoting around 20 per cent of traffic to directories sites coming from mobile. We’re already exceeding this at Sensis, reflecting Australia’s high adoption rates for mobile search.

NSW Small Business Month is a big a highlight of the year for the Sydney Yellow Pages crew. We work hard to better understand what businesses need from their media services providers in a changing world, so we love having the opportunity to hear first-hand from the hundreds of business owners who attend these events about what’s keeping them up at night on the marketing front.

A lot of the discussions I was privy to during Small Business Month this year centered around the basics: Who’s your audience? Where are they looking?  What kind of tribes and communities are they a part of? How do I communicate and interact with them? How do I set up my website, leverage search engines or other media such as online and mobile directories to get them to buy my products and services? And there were questions about where digital marketing fits in – online, mobile, social…

One of the presenters that Yellow Pages® put forward during Small Business Month was our resident economist and small business analyst, Christena Singh. Christena’s the author of the Sensis® e-business Report which is based on interviews with 1,800 small and medium businesses (up to 199 employees) across Australia. The latest Sensis® e-business Report released on 22 September explored how SMEs use and purchase digital technology. It found that while Australian small businesses are embracing new technology and gaining good results, most don’t have a digital strategy to align activities with the business’ objectives and market plans. And without a plan, small businesses are possibly not getting the best return on their digital investment. 

Of those businesses that did have a digital plan, the report found that most have not integrated all the digital components. It was most likely to include online (80%) and internet (80%) strategies. Mobile and social media strategies were only incorporated in one third of digital plan. For anyone who runs a small business or works with small businesses, this report is a fascinating read and is free to download: http://about.sensis.com.au/small-business/sensis-ebusiness-report/

At Yellow Pages®, we see it as our job to get businesses as many leads as possible via our multi-channel platform – print and digital. When a business takes out a
Yellow Pages® ad, their details can be searched for via major search engines like Google Maps and Bing, as well as www.yellowpages.com.au and www.whitepages.com.au. Online optimisation campaigns are available using our Click Manager product. And we now have links to social media sites Twitter and Facebook through some of our media solutions. The details are also available via our mobile applications and the 1234 voice service (think 1234 sock puppet!). 

We want to make digital marketing easier for businesses by looking at the various options and developing a plan that’s suitable to their business model, industry and perhaps most importantly, their need to maximise their time by optimising all the solutions available. We can also help businesses track the success of their investment through our various measurement programs.

Hopefully the sessions that we led at events like Digital Day cut through some of the noise for small business owners. If you’re in business and you missed the sessions, visit the NSW Small Business Month website or contact Yellow Pages® for advice on a cost effective solution for your business.

Sensis’ experience of its successful foray into the mobile space was presented at the recent Digitech conference in Sydney – and it proved to be a significant reality check for someone like me.

As a web analyst for Sensis’ mobile websites and Android/iPhone applications, I am a mobile fanatic, but even I was taken aback by the overwhelming interest in the medium, with a flurry of questions throughout my presentation and many fascinating follow-up conversations.

And if the number of Twitter followers and re-tweets of the event is any indication, mobile has become way more interesting to many more people in recent years. 

Why you ask?

Well, it’s no wonder. Reports from the recent Mobile Marketing Association Forum showed that there are six times more mobile devices in Asia compared to PC’s and by 2012, Disney projects that 50% of its engagement will be via mobile devices

Also:

• 40 million in China pay to get news alerts;

• 1 in 3 Google searches are mobile in nature; and

• The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has more than 200 per cent mobile phone penetration. That’s the world’s highest, which means that on average everyone in the UAE has at least two mobile devices. 

And the list goes on!

Mobile’s unique ability to connect businesses with consumers has been expounded upon frequently over the past few years, but it’s really in 2012 that we’re finally seeing the much heralded tipping point in terms of usage. Sensis’ mobile portfolio continues to see outstanding growth and in May it saw 3 million visits during the course of the month.

So what makes mobile so unique?

Firstly, mobile is one of the most personal devices we have. It reaches us in our sleep and wakes us up. It is permanently connected and if there is one thing that we carry with us at all times, it is more than likely to be our mobile phone.

In fact, did you know that half of all Finnair passengers check in via their mobile device? And that in Kenya, there are more mobile banking accounts in than other account type.

Available at the point of creative impulse, mobile measures its audience accurately (by some estimates ten times more accurately than other media). Sophisticated tools allow Sensis to measure all high value usage activities we are delivering to advertisers and functions such as seamless click-to-call provides directions, allows details to be saved to contacts, advertiser photo galleries views and listings sharing with friends to name a few.

Mobile use will continue to grow.  In fact, Mobile usage now makes up 12 per cent of all digital usage, which is double last year’s share.

Yellow Pages® Mobile continues to deliver an outstanding experience for users. For businesses that continue to invest in the mobile space, this is good news for them. And for those business who are sitting on the fence, perhaps it’s time you searched for this, or followed this list.

In his first blog for Speaking Sensis, Sensis Group Manager for Yellow Pages® Online & Mobile Product Simon Betschel announces that the latest release of Yellow Pages® Mobile has gone live.

I am excited to announce that the latest release of Yellow Pages® Mobile has gone live, featuring improvements for our advertisers and users.

The release is the culmination of many months work from the mobile development team and it delivers user and advertiser features.

Premium advertisers will be able to include a business logo, image gallery and a new text descriptor. 

Advertisers will also have access to new online and mobile combined summary reports that will demonstrate any improvements to return on investment resulting from extended customer reach.

For users, the new features are mainly targeted to high end devices and focus on improving search accuracy and aligning the online and mobile user experience.

The changes include:

Auto-suggest Type, Name and Location – reducing the number of keystrokes required to enter a search term on a mobile, and time to task for users.  To support this and the search changes, the team developed Hint Text which can also be reused across other mobile sites;

New Maps for iPhone, iPad and Android – now users can pinch to zoom and swipe to pan.  This now takes maps to a world benchmark position for mobile browser based maps;

Seamless Click to Call – enabling calls on high end devices to be actioned immediately and capturing these metrics to report back to our advertisers; and

We will also be releasing new versions of our iPhone and Android apps, and providing iPad support.

This has without a doubt been the largest release of Yellow Pages® Mobile since its inception three years ago and demonstrates just how far internet on the mobile has come in that time.