All advertiser phone numbers listed online with Yellow Pages Group are free calls for some Skype users. The new feature reflects an agreement we covered in February between YPG and Marchex, a company that provides call advertising services among its key SMB offerings. Skype software allows users to make voice and video calls over the Internet.

While Skype calls to landlines and mobile phones are normally associated with a fee, YPG enables Skype users to connect to any of the 370,000 businesses that currently advertise with the company. Click & Call Advertising with Skype highlights participating advertisers’ phone numbers with a blue Free Call button anywhere those numbers are displayed on the Internet. Skype’s free call icon boosted call volume for advertisers listed in European directories and YPG NZ, as we covered in our previous post. Consumers who can Skype advertisers from the ease of their computer are more likely to establish contact. Skype users must have Windows with the Skype Toolbar plug-in enabled. To enable free calling to businesses advertising with YPG, users should download the plug-in.

“Digital tools are an essential part of any marketing mix and we use a multi-channel approach when determining how to best promote our advertisers,” said YPG Chief Marketing Officer Stephane Marceau.