• It really works
• Get together, try to help one another
• TV on the Web? Not yet
• Too late for last month

by Gerry Blackwell [May 4, 2001]

It really works
Click-to-talk services may no longer be the latest, greatest value-added service opportunity for ISPs—that was last year's news. But IP voice services firm ITXC Corp. showed recently how beneficial, from an end-customer perspective, click-to-talk can be.

ITXC announced the results of recent e-mail campaigns by Group Lotto, The Venetian-Resort-Hotel-Casino and YesMail. It says the results prove the effectiveness of the company's Push to Talk service in increasing direct e-mail marketing response rates and boosting closure rates and revenues.

Whether this also proves anything about the effectiveness of click-to-talk buttons on Web pages is another question.

Push to Talk adds a response option to e-mail marketing allowing recipients to take immediate action, at the moment they're most interested in making a purchase or getting additional information, the company says. By clicking the button, recipients can set up a call with the advertiser via phone or computer.

Three e-mail campaigns
Group Lotto delivers opt-in email campaigns on a regular basis. Before the online gaming company implemented Push to Talk, the highest response they had generated was 2 percent. After adding it, Group Lotto reports nearly 10 percent of recipients who open messages respond using Push to Talk—a 500 percent increase in conversion rates.

Yesmail.com, an email marketing solutions provider and pioneer of permission-based marketing, recently used Push to Talk in a trial campaign and reports that 23 percent of recipients who open the messages and click through for more information use the voice call button to reply.

The Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino uses Push to Talk in monthly e-mail campaigns to boost occupancy rates. A typical offer delivered to 50,000 online travelers costs only $500 to send but generated more than $125,000 in revenue from recipients who used Push to Talk to make reservations at the Vegas resort.

We wonder how much of this is due to the gee-wiz factor—recipient receives first Push to Talk-enabled e-mail and can't resist trying it out.

Still, as ITXC says, the success of these campaigns does seem to prove the thesis that there are still lots of people out there who would rather talk than click. Which should be ammunition for selling click-to-talk buttons on Web pages.

(Back to top)

Get together, try to help one another
NeTrue Communications Inc., a Los Angeles-based IP communications solutions provider, has announced availability of N-Gage, an international VoIP community and clearinghouse.

N-Gage facilitates the exchange of traffic between VoIP service providers that have deployed networks based on Cisco voice gateways. Through a single relationship with N-Gage, they can terminate traffic around the world in a secure and controlled environment, NeTrue says.

N-Gage uses the Open Settlements Protocol (OSP) standard. NeTrue facilitates the relationships between providers and also provides authentication and authorization for each call and delivers weekly and monthly settlement reporting between providers.

The company currently has origination and termination partners in North America, South America and Asia - though it doesn't say how many, or what what percentage of any market they have covered.

Early-adopter partners include existing customers of NeTrue's billing solution, N-Voice, and selected Cisco partners. From May 1, N-Gage will be open to new members. Members will be qualified by NeTrue Communications.

"The N-Gage solution allows service providers around the world to build their business through secure and managed partnerships," says NeTrue CEO Eric Gurr.

"In providing an OSP clearinghouse service for service providers that rely on Cisco voice gateways, we have teamed with the leading manufacturer. A positive worldwide response to N-Gage has been immediate."

Alistair Woodman, director of marketing at Cisco Systems' Voice Technology Center, adds, "Cisco is committed to helping its global service provider customers grow their VoIP business. Solutions such as NeTrue's, that connect customers and allow them to share traffic and build their business, will be of great benefit to these providers."

Additional N-Gage services include updated international routing table; call detail record (CDR) monitoring and storing; least cost, best value or preferred routing; weekly and monthly reconciliation; and real-time Quality of Service.

Go to page 2: TV on the Web? Not yet >