The Competitive Advantage of Vanity Numbers

(Takkk via Creative Commons)

A vanity number is a simple concept: an easy to remember telephone number that boosts customer calls and, in turn, generates more sales for your business. These are digital times, however, and social media have become the more exciting routes to customer communication.

Vanity Numbers: The Competitive Advantage

Against this digital backdrop, many business owners fail to consider the competitive advantage that a memorable vanity number provides. Even with the most wide-ranging online identity imaginable, potential customers may still find other businesses in your area when they look for you online. Often  in search engine advertising competitors will pay for ad words that make their business show up when your business is searched for, placing competing links alongside your own when the person was looking for onlyyour business. Facebook searches can also auto-complete, suggesting similar business names, while promoted tweets allow your competition to interrupt your communications on Twitter. The online environment is undeniably thriving, but it is also extremely noisy and laden with distractions. CEO of RingBoost Gregg Hamerschlag explains it like this:

"Businesses still want to talk to their customers. They might give their website... but a lot of times the consumer hears that but is doing other things. Then the next day comes, they forget the URL and a search on Google shows them all of your competitors."

Contrast this with an easy-to-recall vanity number, which not only connects the prospect directly to you without distraction, but gives them the opportunity to speak directly to someone who can help them. "It is around 25-30% easier to sell someone when they're on the phone, rather than just a web lead," says Hamerschlag, demonstrating the importance of making that first connection quickly and easily.

Balance Your Online and Offline Marketing Tools

This isn't to say that businesses should exclude online sales channels. Quite the opposite, in fact. A comprehensive marketing strategy harnesses the strength of multiple channels, allowing customers at various stages of interest in your product or service to engage with your business in the way that best serves them. Someone with a very general interest, for example, may not want to commit to a full conversation right away. In that case, having a deep website with all of the information that they need to conduct initial research is important. At the other end of the spectrum, someone who understands the subject well may have just a quick question to answer,so being available across social media lets them post and run, where they'll return to you for an answer at a later date. At any stage of interest, however, your business must be easy to recall when the prospect is ready to have a deeper conversation. At that moment, having an immediately memorable vanity number that connects them directly to you is the ideal solution to close that loop and let your talented sales team go to work! To learn more about how to boost calls that boost your sales, go here.