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October 2003
Thomson Directories is launching an aggressive
drive into the lucrative new ‘Search Engine Marketing’
industry, with plans to expand its WebFinder.com‘s subscriber
base.
To spearhead its drive into a market that experts say will
soon be worth billions of pounds, Thomson has appointed Karen
Francis in the key role of Internet Channel Marketing Manager.
Alongside stepping up efforts of its 350-strong field sales
staff, Thomson Directories aims to encourage new subscribers
through an email and direct marketing campaign offering a
50% promotional discount to register with WebFinder.com.
The move is designed to help the company capture a larger
share of a market that Jupiter Research predicts to develop
into a £3bn industry by 2008.
Renowned for its local print directory, Thomson launched WebFinder.com
this year to help businesses promote their websites and drive
sales leads from as little as 5p a visit. The product was
the first search engine marketing tool to offer advertisers
positioning on dynamically-created maps.
WebFinder.com links into major search partners like Freeserve,
Ask Jeeves, Tiscali, Streemap and blueyonder to capture a
wide selection of search requests. This is alongside requests
directly from the WebFinder.com homepage, which has a unique
‘location specific’ search function.
Karen Francis said: “About 30 million people are online
in the UK, performing more than 152 million searches per month
- a staggeringly large number. Of course each search means
a potential customer – but a customer who is also deluged
by the sheer number of results a search brings up. It’s
no wonder that businesses are demanding new ways of ensuring
they stand out from the Internet crowd.”
Search Engine Marketing is a highly targeted way of generating
website visits. It displays the result listings of businesses
on Internet search engine requests. Advertisers on WebFinder.com
pick key words that reflect their business, such as ‘Travel
Agent’ or ‘Holiday’, which become the hook
to catch Internet surfers on the search.
A customer is only charged when a user ‘clicks through’
onto the advertiser’s website, starting from as little
as 5p a visit. Keywords can be changed regularly to match
promotions or events, such as ‘Winter Breaks’
or ‘City Breaks’.
Thomson Directories believes WebFinder.com will prove attractive
to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), who can benefit
most from its flexibility both in cost and deployment.
Karen said: “We have more than 30 years of experience
in communicating and working with SMEs, built on partnerships
formed through our Thomson Local print directory. Our customers
need results quickly because they want to know their investments
are making an impact.
“This is highly targeted pay-as-you-go advertising.
Payment by results means a highly measurable return on investment.
As the Internet user has already expressed an interest in
a certain type of business or product, a company’s website
is reached by the right people. There is no wastage.”
The 50% promotional discount on the set-up fee runs throughout
November. For more information contact Thomson Directories
on 01252 672222, visit www.webfinder.com
or contact our Press office.
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