Your Business Needs a Toll Free Number in 2018. Here's Why...

What was the last phone number you committed to memory? Your home phone number before you switched to mobile? That new cell number of a parent or spouse? Perhaps even the digits of a hot date who you'd been plucking up the courage to ask for months? Even in that last scenario - which, let's face it, should be significant motivation - the chances are you didn't have to memorize a number. You simply programmed it into your smartphone and walked away with a big smile on your face. So, one last question: when was the last time you memorized - or even saved in your cell - the phone number of a business? Based on our limited need to memorize the digits of friends and family, the answer for companies is next to never! This is why every business needs atoll free number in 2018; you simply can't rely on any other number to stick in the minds of potential customers. Memory and Marketing in the Smartphone Era

The move away from memorizing numbers is bad news for businesses who rely on phone calls to find new customers. Sure, smartphones are helping more people to find your business online. They can now even use the click-to-call button on your ads and website, which might help to bridge the gap between digital and traditional marketing methods. However, as more and more companies compete for online visibility, the likelihood that your company ranks high enough to win significant business through organic search and other unpaid channels is quickly declining.  More and more small businesses are finding online marketing to be an uphill battle. That's why many traditional marketing channels, such as television, radio, and print, have all seen an uptick in popularity. Companies that moved away from these options for the shiny new social media platform or a nice new app are quickly reallocating budget dollars to tried-and-trusted channels with proven ROI. With these marketing approaches, however, there are no click-to-calls, no granular analytics, and no forms to fill in. How can they make a brand stand out and stick in consumers’ minds? Vanity phone numbers have proven to be a timeless marketing tool, one which increases brand recognition and awareness through the use of mnemonics. A great phone number strengthens a business’ brand, and it makes marketing efforts more memorable. Most importantly, they have been proven to drive more phone calls to companies who use them efficiently. [search-tag]

The Need for Toll Free Vanity Numbers in 2018

A vanity phone number is a phone number that spells out a word or phrase on a phone’s keypad. For example, the phone number 1-800-466-3227 spells out 1-800-HOMECARE. Marketing the phone number 1-800-HOMECARE is far easier to remember than the phone number itself, and when consumers type in the letters, they will dial the correct phone number. As we examined in our last article on memory and marketing, short-term memory needs all the help it can get to remember even three or four small pieces of information.  Vanity phone numbers are easy to remember in any situation. Driving while listening to radio ads. Walking in a hurry past a poster or billboard. Scrolling past a banner ad on a mobile device. In all of these cases, the best vanity numbers help consumers to recognize a business’ brand as well. A home care company using 1-800-HOMECARE, for example, will stick in peoples’ minds to call for home care services, far more so than a company using the random 10-digit phone number handed to them by the phone company. Aren’t all the great numbers taken? The short answer is yes. Like domain names and personalized email addresses, the best numbers in the business are almost all taken. However, toll-free numbers have a trick up their sleeve that domains and emails cannot achieve: they can be shared. Through a complicated weave of decades-old regulatory policy, the routing of toll-free numbers can be designed to split calls up so that they will ring to different locations based on where the calls originated. This all sounds complicated, but it is quite simple. Let’s take 1-800-HOMECARE, as an example, and imagine we own a small home care company in San Diego, CA. At the national level, 1-800-HOMECARE is unavailable, meaning I do not have access to it. Luckily, there’s a company out there who do have the phone number, and they have made it shared-use. For a monthly fee, typically sold as a license, my small home care company can use the phone number in the San Diego market only. I can add the phone number to my television, radio, and print ads and any call made to 1-800-HOMECARE from San Diego will ring directly to my home office. Not only does this give my company access to the phone number, but it also makes using the number affordable. We're privileged to work with business owners around the country and proud to offer the most extensive inventory of custom phone numbers. Your business can also take advantage of high-value, shared use vanity numbers such as 1-800-HOMECARE, 1-800-HOSPICE, 877-WINDOWS, and many more. Simply browse by business category to find a number that fits your industry, or explore broader definitions like call-to-action numbers to include a compelling message in your contact details. With these numbers, we empower SMBs and local entrepreneurs by giving them access to the best phone numbers in their industry at an affordable price. If you have more questions about how vanity numbers work for your business, contact us anytime on 914-200-0000!