ServiceMagic Launches Online Service with Citysear
Golden CO, March 4--ServiceMagic, Inc. launched its new one-to-one matching service in partnership with Citysearch. Exact Match delivers a one-to-one match for consumers searching online for local home service professionals.
The partnership with Citysearch marks the beginning of ServiceMagic's integration into IAC Local & Media Services following the acquisition of ServiceMagic by IAC/InterActiveCorp in September, 2004.
With Exact Match, ServiceMagic creates and hosts a member business's web page (containing profile information on the service professional, including Customer Ratings). ServiceMagic optimizes the placement of the individual member web pages to appear within the search results of local search engines and online directories. These web pages are now available within Citysearch, enabling Citysearch to provide its consumers with a direct connection to prescreened and customer-rated home service professionals. Exact Match is viewable on all 141 cityguides in the Home & Garden category to which Citysearch provides content.
"Exact Match creates a one-to-one connection for both the consumer and our member businesses," said Michael Beaudoin, co-CEO of ServiceMagic. "We have created a way for home service professionals to get broad Internet exposure without having to pay huge up-front fees, build and maintain a complex web site or become Internet marketing experts or search engine gurus. We do it for them and they benefit from an increase in targeted consumer demand."
Exact Match takes pay-for-performance advertising a step further than existing competitive platforms by creating a searchable web page and delivering targeted leads only to an individual matching service professional - ensuring they only pay for the leads they want.
"Despite consumer trends toward Internet usage, small and medium-sized businesses have yet to widely adopt online marketing," said Greg Sterling, an analyst with The Kelsey Group, a research and consulting firm. "We project local commercial searches will grow from approximately 10 percent of all search activity today to 25 percent by 2009. Therefore, online marketing will become increasingly important for small businesses as consumers turn more often to the Internet to find local information."
When a consumer conducts an online search for local home service professionals and clicks to review the ServiceMagic member's Exact Match web page, they can directly connect with the service professional by either submitting an online service request or calling a local phone number provided by ServiceMagic; both options route the consumer through a short interview to confirm the request matches the service professional's work type and geographic area. Following confirmation, ServiceMagic connects the consumer directly to the service professional; service professionals are then charged for the consumer lead.
Today, ServiceMagic's 28,000 member businesses use the company's Market Match service to generate targeted customer leads via the ServiceMagic web site. With Market Match, consumers submit a home service request with ServiceMagic and the company then matches them with up to four prescreened and customer-rated local businesses that compete for the consumer's job. The Exact Match service complements Market Match by offering a new way for consumers to connect with specific service professionals and a new way for these businesses to market themselves directly to online consumers.
