Every day, connections are being made between searchers and businesses at Matchpoint across a diverse set of local and national service categories. From people seeking resume writing help, to those in need of a car detailing specialist or a LASIK eye surgeon, Matchpoint is helping folks make quick work out of finding the best service provider for their needs.

Over the past 10 months since we launched the beta product, we’ve kept an eye on the interactions between businesses and consumers and collected feedback from both parties. A major theme that emerged is that people wanted to use Matchpoint to connect with one another over the phone and on the web.

Many businesses, especially local businesses, valued the more direct, immediate contact that web visits and phone calls can offer them. And, many consumers wanted to more quickly get to the end goal of their search; making an appointment, getting a price quote or learning more about the specialties of the businesses that matched their needs.

In response to this feedback, we recently launched two new products—TrafficPoint™ and CallPoint™—to complement our OfferPoint™ product and made improvements to the Matchpoint user experience both for consumers and advertisers.

Here are some of the details:

CallPoint combines the ad targeting features of OfferPoint (user supplied geographic targeting, business defined qualifying questions) and is loaded with helpful features for those that prefer to have prospective customers call their businesses:

•    Unique, toll-free, track-able phone number
•    Businesses can define up to three numbers to be called, either all-at-once, or in sequence
•    Per call pricing
•    Detailed call tracking and reporting

TrafficPoint also leverages the same ad targeting platform as OfferPoint, but is designed for those that want to drive visits to their website. Key features include:

•    Prioritized placement in search results
•    Image upload to add a company logo to be displayed in ads
•    Per click pricing
•    Unique destination URLs to enable tracking, data passing

To support the integration of these two new products, we revamped the Matchpoint Ad Center interface to make room for product specific metrics and reporting, upgraded the design a bit, and streamlined the ad creation experience. We also made it easier for advertisers to select the product category that best fits their business. On the consumer side we’ve simplified the process of getting to the results of a business search, while still enabling those who prefer to contact businesses through Matchpoint privately.

As we continue to refine the products to deliver the best user experience, I hope you will try them and give us your feedback. In the meantime, we’re hard at work on some new features that will even further improve the results for searchers and businesses looking to make the right connection.