Directory Listings: Contacting Vendors

Which contact method is better?

[cfx211]

We run a paid vendor directory on our site that contains some information about each vendor like a description, photos, and their contact information. We also offer two ways for our users to contact the vendors from our site. The first is by filling out a form that emails the vendor with the users information. The second is a link that takes the user to the vendors web site.

Right now we have a ratio of maybe 20 link outs for 1 contact form that gets emailed. This is partially because users can link out to the vendors site directly from the search result listings and partially because filling out the form is a much bigger commitment from our users.

Right now I am trying to figure out if we should promote one form of contact over the other. Because almost all vendors get some link out traffic referred to them in a week, and not that many get emails, I want to switch our emphasis to pushing more link out traffic so that the onus on conversion is now with the vendor.

Has anyone running a directory site had this problem, and if so do you know which one is more preferable, 20 clicks or 1 email? Our vendors are mostly US small businesses who may not be that web saavy which is why in the past we have promoted the email contact.

[Mark_A]

I dont run such a site at the moment but have thougth through one or two of them.

I think it depends on the type of sector you are in but it would be interesting to look at both the enquiries route and clicks in some detail.

There are quite a lot of different models of directory out there at the moment.

If it were my site I would be interested in knowing all the ins and outs of generating and owning the enquiry and doing with it what I wanted - (i.e. whatever it was that gained both me and my clients the greatest return)

Interested to hear what others think
hth