admin | February 22, 2012
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How can Financial Institutions Benefit from the Use of Toll-Free Vanity Numbers?

There was once a time when financial institutions did not need to advertise their services and products to the masses. Those who needed any of these came to them on their own. Loans, bonds, equities, and mutual funds—financial institutions have many a product in their kitty to help their customers tide over cash-crunch situations and the latter were all too keen to turn to them when dollars ran dry. But the recent recession and the present slow growth rate of the economy have changed situations. People are wary about going in for loans and investing large sums of money in mutual funds and bonds. They have tightened their purse strings and financial institutions are feeling the pinch.

A Host of Benefits

In such a disturbing scenario, financial institutions have no choice but to begin a marketing campaign or rev up an existing one, as the case may be, to attract customers. And while they are it, they have to keep a hawk’s eye on the budget; after all, their businesses too have been dealt a blow by the recession. When the marketing campaign has to fulfill such diverse objectives, then advertising with toll-free vanity numbers brings in a host of benefits.

The greatest benefit of custom 800 numbers lies in the image of credibility that these numbers impart to any business or institution. On the one hand, advertising with a custom 800 number provides customers the impression that an institution is bigger than what it actually is. This gives them the confidence that their funds will be safe with it and thus encourages them to invest their money in mutual funds, bonds, and equities.

Positive Results

Customers are also encouraged to seek loans as the impression of a large organization assures them that they can bag favorable deals. On the other hand, when financial institutions advertise with personal 800 numbers, customers take it to be a sign that these institutions are willing to address calls, queries, and grievances. This then encourages the customers to call the institutions and clarify their doubts before they plunge into making an investment. What is more, these calls give financial institutions the opportunity to interact with their customers—both existing and potential—and motivate them to make an investment.

Phone Words are much Easier to Remember

Toll free custom numbers are effective marketing tools to build up a brand identity and financial institutions can leverage on this to project their USP to their target audience. These phone words give them an opportunity to incorporate words and phrases that convey to their target audience all the good that comes out of dealing with them. For instance, personal numbers like 1-888-FASTLOANS or 1-800-4-CREDIT are more than just telephone numbers—they also spell out the reason why customers should approach financial institutions for their monetary needs. Financial institutions, by incorporating their brand identity within custom 800 numbers and giving other advertising media like the television and the radio the miss, can also hope to save a considerable amount on their marketing efforts.

The afore-mentioned benefits of toll-free vanity numbers are eye-openers for many a financial institution wondering how to survive in a tough and competitive economy.

Category: Brand Advertising, financial advertising, Marketing tips | Tags: , ,
admin | February 21, 2012
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How Can Toll-Free Vanity Numbers Help Health Care Professionals?

Increasing competition, a massive spurt in operational costs, a sharp decline in revenues and Return on Investment, and a fickle economy. Physicians and health care practitioners these days have to contend with myriad challenges. The need of the hour is to not only to retain existing patients and attract new ones but also formulate a campaign that sticks to a tight deadline and a tighter budget while achieving these ends. The marketing maverick who gets called in to deliver a practice or a medical facility from these odds is expected to weave magic. Thankfully, he has his magic wand—the toll-free vanity number.

A Personal Number Sells Itself

It may not be realized by many health care professionals but a toll free vanity number, if wielded smartly, often has more potential than any number of glitzy ads, flashy spreads, and lengthy mailers to achieve the desired marketing ends. In fact, the nature of the relationships in this industry is such that ads are taken with a pinch of salt and going overboard with promotional campaigns labels a health care facility as suspect. Thus an analysis of the nature of the healthcare industry is essential to understand why custom 800 numbers succeed more as marketing tools here than probably in any other industry.

Times & People have Changed

The profession of medicine is one that is entirely built on trust and mutual respect. An individual seeking medical treatment is drawn to a facility or a practice not only because he is confident about the abilities of the practitioner, but also because he perceives the person as a compassionate, kind, and caring doctor. In this respect, medicine has not much changed since old times, when the “old doctor down the road with a kind face and who enquired about your aunt’s pie when you visited him” got more patients than the “that curt young man with a lot of fancy machines and no time to talk.” A health care professional advertising with a custom 800 number exudes such a favorable image.

What a Vanity 800 Number can do for You

A toll-free vanity number in your ads gives your target audience the perception that since you are willing to pay for their calls, you are someone who is keen to listen to them. This perception immediately creates a feeling of trust in you and patients feel more confident about approaching you. For a medical facility, a personal 800 number projects an image of a bigger organization than it actually is, and thus more competent. This is indeed a favorable image to project, and more so because it can be projected without the aid of flashy commercials and radio jingles with catchy tunes, which are apt to be viewed with skepticism. Character and substance matter more than superficial marketing ploys.

A Net Positive for Your Practice

Custom 800 numbers not only project a brand image but also add to your brand’s value. What is more, they achieve these objectives without you getting labeled as a minting machine. Rather, these phone words help you reach out to your target audience and build lasting relationships based on trust—the key to succeeding as a health care professional and helping your practice or facility flourish even during challenging times.

Category: custom toll free, Healthcare marketing, Increase ROI | Tags: , , ,
admin | February 19, 2012
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How can Toll-Free Vanity Numbers Help in Offline Marketing?

The world may have gone digital when it comes to communicating, but businesses cannot afford to give offline marketing the miss entirely. There are still people who pore over the Yellow Pages to look for services, look up at the billboards when they pass underneath them, and pay attention to the product that dances on the television. Traditional marketing has immense potential to take your message to a considerable segment of your target audience and it is imperative that you brandish all the weapons in your marketing arsenal to reap the riches. So how do you intend to use your toll-free vanity number to give your offline marketing efforts that extra edge?

A toll free vanity number is a potent offline marketing weapon and its full scope is yet to be realized by many business owners who have only recently woken up to the advantages of advertising with a custom 800 number. Here’s a rundown of how toll-free vanity numbers help in offline marketing:

Adds to Brand Value

A personal 800 number has its distinctive aura. When a business advertises with an 800 custom number, it is immediately perceived as being bigger than it actually is with manpower to handle a huge volume of calls.  What is more, when a business is shelling out money from its own coffers for the calls that its customers make, the target audience regards it as a customer-friendly entity, willing to pay heed to their opinions and feedback.  And all these images conjure up in the minds of the audience even before they have had the chance to see your commercials, pore over your newspaper ads, or interact with you on a personal level on the social media. The latter thus are now believed more readily because the toll-free vanity number has already established you as a credible entity.

Builds a Brand Image

Contrary to popular perception, it is not only who endorses your product or the images that you use in your commercials that build up your brand’s unique identity. The words or phrases that you incorporate in your toll-free vanity number also have the potential to project the USP of your business. A business owner or his marketing team can craft an entirely new word or phrase to be used in the vanity number or can use a catchword or phrase from their ongoing ads. The latter ploy ties the entire offline marketing campaign into a composite whole, easily identifiable by a word or a phrase that recurs across ads, commercials, phone words, and billboards.

Increases Response Rates

Toll-free vanity numbers have 14 times more recall rates than the standard telephone number that is just a collection of some random numerals. So, your target audience is more likely to remember the former even if they just catch a glimpse of it while flipping through the newspaper on their way to work or hear it for a fleeting moment as they are changing channels on the radio. And when your existing customers remember you, they are more likely to call you for repeat business and even pass your number around to their acquaintances. The result is that you see a spurt in response rates without needing to put in additional marketing efforts.

Now that you have an idea of the power of a toll-free vanity number, there cannot be any shadow of doubt that it is an indispensable tool in your offline marketing campaign.

Category: Marketing tips, Small business advertising, Vanity Number Info | Tags: , ,
admin | February 18, 2012
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Customer Perception: Why 800 Numbers Are Best

If you are here, you no doubt want to know how a toll free vanity number will drive customers to your phone line, and then to your doorstep. You may already be aware of the options available to you: 800 numbers, 888 numbers, 877 numbers… can it be any simpler? And strangely enough, the price seems to drop as the prefix gets more forgettable. 855 might be the least expensive, but has anyone ever heard of them? Probably not—they’re brand new, just released by the FCC, and the prefix hasn’t had the chance to penetrate customer consciousness like the good ol’ 800 vanity number.

 

When it comes to customer perception, 800 numbers are still simply the best. Let’s look briefly at how customers perceive 800 numbers, how they perceive those other phone number toll free prefixes, and summarize the advantage of the 800 toll free prefix.

 

How Do Customers Perceive 800 Numbers?

 

The first toll free phone number was provided by AT&T, for a service called IN-WATS.

Budget Rent a Car, various hotels, and other companies were among the first to purchase 800 vanity numbers. A second generation of 800 numbers was patented in 1978, and the modern use of the 800 vanity number was born.

 

That was over thirty years ago. For those three decades, the 800 number has been synonymous with toll free business calling. That’s as long as many of your customers have been alive. When it comes to market penetration, the 800 number has an innate penetration that cannot be beat.

 

How Customers Perceive 888, 877, 866, 855?

 

It was not until 1996 that the FCC finally permitted the use of another toll free vanity prefix: 888. In the decade and a half since, 877, 866, and 855 have been released as well, with 844, 833, 822, 880, and others on the way.

 

These other personal toll free number prefixes simply have not been a part of popular culture consciousness for the same length of time that the 800 number has been. While you will pay less for these numbers, some customers might mistake these prefixes for a normal long distance area code.

 

“You Get What You Pay For”

 

If you want to maximize your business exposure, simplify how your phone number and contact information is presented to customers, and get the most bang for your buck, the 800 number phoneword system is best. Call now for great vanity phone number ideas for your company.

Category: Brand Advertising | Tags: ,
admin | February 17, 2012
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Simplify, Simplify, Simplify: Toll Free Vanity Numbers

One of the primary advantages businesses see when they go with vanity 800 numbers is simplicity. The marketing goal of any business person is removing every barrier possible between a customer and his or her money. Personal 800 numbers do that by providing an easy to remember, simple number for customers.

 

Wouldn’t it be nice if the phone number system could be replaced with something simple, like Facebook? With Facebook, you can just type in your friend’s name and communicate with them. Unfortunately, phone numbers don’t work that way. You can get a step closer to that kind of simplicity in communication, however, using 800 custom numbers.

 

Complex Numbers

 

In 1956, the legendary psychologist George A. Miller wrote a legendary paper called “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information.” The paper suggested that a human being can hold around seven digits in short term memory, plus or minus two.

 

Now pull out your business card and take a look at your phone number. How many digits do you see? Now, how on earth can you get your phone number to stick on your customers’ minds? When the current number-based telephone number system was introduced, businesses the world over began asking the very same question. Thankfully, the FCC quickly provided an answer.

 

A Simple System

 

The introduction of vanity 800 numbers gave corporations a quick and easy way to simplify the process of getting phone numbers into customers’ minds. Keep in mind that in the 60s, as is the case today, the telephone was often the first point of contact between businesses and their customers. When the numeric keypad was introduced, thankfully corresponding letters were placed on those numbers, allowing the introduction of vanity phone number ideas.

 

1-800-WANT-MTV, 1-800-MOW-LAWN, 1-800-BALLOON, 1-800-CLOWN-NOW became four word and number combinations that were easy—if we believe Mr. Miller’s paper, which the majority of the psychological and marketing world seems to—and simple to remember. The 1800 vanity number provided a simple system for turning phone numbers “sticky.”

 

The Human Algorithm

 

Marketing geeks and business professionals the world over want nothing more than to find simple, innovative ways of getting their business into their customers’ minds. One solution, however, has already been around for decades, a “human algorithm” for helping customers memorize complex phone numbers: the 1800 vanity number. This tool provides simplicity, which in the business realm simply cannot be replaced.

Category: Increase ROI, Marketing Strategy, Vanity Toll-Free Number | Tags: , ,
admin | February 17, 2012
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How can You Wield Vanity Numbers on the Web?

The young professional is to be found more on the social media—exchanging news, airing views, and scouting for information—than spending time out in the park or in the neighborhood library. The busy mother of two will rather hunt blog forums to find answers to her parenting queries than pop over to her neighbor to ask. The number of Silver Surfers who have taken to the Internet to look for information on health issues is increasing by the day.

The Right Way

These days, communication means digital and you have done the right thing by taking your marketing efforts online—you are most likely to meet your existing and potential customers here than anywhere else. But are your online marketing campaigns being spearheaded by toll free vanity numbers? If not, you are losing out on the opportunity to create a brand identity, increase the effectiveness of your ads, and capitalizing on the buzz you have so painstakingly generated via social media.

But fret not! All is not lost yet. You can still redeem your Web presence by these effective uses of toll-free vanity numbers.

Create a phone word that aptly spells out the USP of your business.

Before you embark on your Web mission, ensure that you have the right tool in your hand. While you may not have much of a choice with the numbers—the 800s and the 888s are mostly taken—you can always infuse creativity in the words that make up your vanity number. Choose words and phrases that bring out the USP of your business smartly and crisply. But don’t go overboard and restrict yourself to common words that are easy to remember and easier still to spell.

Flaunt your custom 800 number prominently on every page of your website.

You have taken the pains to acquire a custom 800 number and what is more, it sports the much sought-after generic industry name relevant to your business. So why not flaunt it on your website. Remember, a vanity number is not only a means for your customers to reach you but is also a vehicle for your marketing efforts.

When your target audience discovers you on the Web, the toll free vanity number that is topping the page will immediately give them the impression that you are a big business entity—bigger than you actually are—and thus a credible one. Your 800 custom number will also convince them of the importance that you accord to their opinions and feedback; you are after all, paying for their calls! The vanity number thus succeeds in creating a favorable brand image for your business even before the browser delves deep into your website.

Pass around your toll-free vanity number when interacting with your audience on the social media.

The various social networking sites are the ideal places to hobnob with your target audience and build lasting relations. And while you are it—posting updates, tweeting, replying to blog comments, uploading videos, and exchanging bookmarks—pass around your vanity 800 number to convince them that you are just a dial away. And then let it do the talking.

And now that you know how toll-free vanity numbers weave their magic on the Web, you know how you can channel your personal number to bring in positive results for you and your enterprise. This will not only benefit you but others that you care about, in the professional and personal life you live.

Category: Marketing Strategy, Vanity Number Info |
admin | February 16, 2012
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The 800 Number Advantage

The FCC has now released five toll free prefixes for businesses and other organizations to purchase: 800, 888, 877, 866, and now 855. With the amount of toll free numbers available increasing exponentially, what’s the difference, and which is best?

 

When it comes to new things, the latest and the greatest new products tend to get the spotlight. However, this tends to be different when it comes to toll free vanity numbers. In the world of phonewords, 800 is still best. When it comes to band perception, simplicity, and the widest demographic range possible, only one toll free prefix stands out after all these years: 800.

 

Brand Perception

 

What does it take to prove custom numbers lead to business success? One could easily do it with one word: 1-800-FLOWERS. This brand completely upended the floral industry. Using the brilliant, simple system devised by innovator Carl Wescott and popularized under the leadership of Jim McCann, thousands of flower shops in America were united under a simple banner, and orders could be taken through one simple, toll free number. The result created a boom in the industry, and a corporate legend was born.

 

How did a custom 800 number help? When customers call 1-800-FLOWERS, they think they are talking to a national flower vendor. The reality is that 1-800-FLOWERS (in many cases—the company uses drop shipments and has its own proprietary products) is simply a broker. Florist nationwide under the brand’s Bloomnet network all received the benefit of being under one toll free vanity number.

 

Simplicity

 

Say it out loud: “One eight hundred.” Now, recite the other toll free prefix options available: “One eight seven seven.” “One eight eight eight.” “One eight five five.”

 

What’s the difference? Syllables. The 1-800 prefix is simpler and easier for customers to remember after all these years—which leads to the final point.

 

Demographic Awareness

 

The 800 prefix has been around for decades. Put simply, every corporation with an 800 number has helped drive these toll free vanity number prefixes into your customers’ minds already. When customers see 1-800 underneath your business name, they know that you are a serious business.

 

For exceptional brand perception, unmatchable simplicity, and inborn demographic awareness, the 1800 vanity number is unbeatable. The best toll free numbers, after all these years, belong to the “oldie but goldie” prefix, 1-800. “How do I get a vanity phone number?” you ask. Find out more from telename.com.

Category: Marketing tips, Vanity Toll-Free Number | Tags: , ,
admin | February 15, 2012
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Top 3 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid with Toll-Free Vanity Numbers

The toll-free vanity numbers revolution is here to stay. And for sound reasons too. Marketers and business owners all over the world have woken up to the magic that these phone words can weave on the sales curve and thus are sparing no effort to bag a vanity 800 number for their businesses. You too have not lagged behind and have one such number to show for all your efforts. Now it is up to you to unleash the potential of toll free vanity numbers. And as you ponder over ingenious ways to use your vanity number, here are three common marketing mistakes to steer clear of.

Marketing Mistake #1: Going over the over-the-top with your toll-free vanity number.

In their enthusiasm to work wonders with a newly-acquired vanity number, business owners often go berserk and conjure up a mishmash of numbers and words that make the phoneword hard to remember. This defeats the purpose of the vanity toll-free number, the appeal of which lies in its easy recall feature.

Business owners err on two fronts. Firstly, many end up using a hybrid number, like 1-800-421-SMILE instead of its simpler alternative 1-800-SMILE NOW. Hybrid numbers are harder to remember simply because a collection of some random numbers is difficult to keep in mind. Secondly, some business owners go a little too far with their creativity and end up using words in their vanity numbers that are difficult to spell. For instance, a number that reads 1-800-ORTHODONTIST is harder to remember than 1-800-SMILE NOW. Besides, the latter also conveys more readily the unique selling position or USP of the practice.

Marketing Mistake #2: Conveying nothing with your toll-free vanity number.

A toll-free vanity number is not just a number that tells your customer how to reach you. It is also a medium which you can use to portray your USP or all that is good and refreshingly different about your business. So, instead of inserting your company’s name in the phone word, which means nothing to your target audience if they do not know you by name, try phrases such as QUICKLOANS or SMARTLAW. You may also insert the generic name of the industry you are operating in, in your vanity number, an excellent marketing practice, provided it is still up for grabs.

You are the decision the maker. Your employees are doing their job and the better you are doing in business the more employees you can hire. This is what a vanity toll-free number can do for you and you should not have to hire an expensive PR firm to conjure up this idea. When you grow sizeable enough then the marketing efforts should be handled by professionals since this is not your domain by trade but to reach that size, your business may almost always need a vanity number to enable this growth to occur.

Marketing Mistake #3: Not using the toll-free vanity number across all your promotional campaigns.

When you are shelling out money for a vanity toll-free number, then make the most of it and use it in all your promotional campaigns—in newspapers, on the television and radio, billboards, and in the social media. It makes sense for it will hardly take up much ad space and you will also not lose out on any opportunity to take your vanity number to your target audience.

The above are some of the most common pitfalls that business owners fail to realize when they advertise with their toll-free vanity numbers. And now that you know all about them, you can build your marketing campaign around your prized vanity number and ensure that you are not pipped to the post.

Category: Marketing Strategy, Marketing tips | Tags: , ,
admin | February 14, 2012
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What A Custom 800 Number Offers You

Much has been said about how 800 vanity numbers drive awareness in the marketplace, how they increase the customer base, how they make your business’ phone number “sticky” in customers’ minds. Now it’s time to take a moment and look at what toll free vanity numbers offer you, the business owner. Does an 800 number really add value to your business? Does it make your job easier, increase your confidence, and change how you perceive your success?

 

Move Your Number Regionally

 

One of the realities of business is that locations may change. When you pull up stakes and move, you need to change all your documentation, communicate your new business address to clients and debtors, re-print your business cards and other promotional material, etc. It is a logistical mess and nightmare. But there is one element of your business presence that does not have to change when you move: your custom number. When you change locations, you can keep your phone number—even when you make an interstate move.

 

A Local Network on a National Scale

 

800 phonewords offer a tremendous local network on a national scale. What exactly does that mean, however? Get vanity number may grow your industry as customers move to another region or state. Let’s say you purchase 1-800-LAWN-MOW. You build up a steady customer base, but one of your customers moves away. If you know a small business owner in your peer network that works outside your region, and that small business owner uses the same vanity phone number you do, then you have grown their business. It can build your small business, undercutting huge conglomerates that steal from America’s small business owners.

 

Simplicity

 

The value of simplicity is paramount to a business owner. You don’t have time to feather-chase, sorting through idiotic details like various locations, area codes, etc. You have a business to run. Custom 800 nummers offer a simple solution for customers—and you—to make contact. It not only removes barriers between your customers’ money and you, it eliminates unnecessary details.

 

Boost Your Confidence

 

It may seem like a small thing, but owning a business with an 800 number is certainly a confidence booster. There is nothing like waking up in the morning knowing your business is out there, that customers can call in to your business toll free and deal with your business. Never underestimate the power of a confidence booster.

 

Category: Marketing tips, Small business advertising | Tags: ,
admin | February 13, 2012
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It’s Not Too Late to Pick up a Romantic Vanity Phone Number for Valentine’s Day

Did you know that exposure to romantic music makes people more susceptible to suggestion? Valentine’s Day is here, and studies like that one make us wish someone would take a scientific look at the power of romantic phone numbers too. Over the past few days, we’ve been flooded with requests for every single one of our heartfelt vanity numbers in a huge holiday rush. Florists want 1-888-FRESH-ROSES, jewelers want 1-800-4-A-JEWEL, hotels want 1-800-RESERVATIONS and somewhere, somebody out there is desperately trying to change their number to 1-800-BACHELOR.

Although it might seem odd that all these companies are trying to get their names into the Valentine’s Day marketing mix at such a late date, they know that it’s better to arrive fashionably late to the party than not at all. Americans will be spending a ton of money just to say “I love you” on February 14th, and just 24 hours of advertising with a memorable vanity phone number will do wonders for any business. But here’s the secret that explains the mad rush: many of the “romance” industries don’t do the bulk of their business until after Valentine’s Day.

Some companies, like florists and chocolatiers, might have trouble reaching customers on the big day itself, because many of those customers (if they know what’s good for them) have already gone shopping. But it doesn’t make much sense for a bridal shop to start advertising 1-800-4-A-WEDDING or 1-800-BRIDALS until after the 220,000 would-be grooms who are planning to propose this year actually pop the question. The same goes for travel agencies and hotels. Although some Romeos book a Valentine’s getaway during the holiday itself, many more simply propose a vacation to their special someone and wait until the summer to act on it.

Even if you’re not in the business of love, you can still take advantage of an ironic vanity phone number to make a truly memorable impression on scores of potential customers. Consider the business that licensed 1-800-BACHELOR. Although marketing your company to single men might seem like a way to pick on a tragic minority, it’s really quite the opposite. A lot of people are going to be spending Valentine’s Day alone this year. (Most of the money spent this February 14th will actually be on teachers, children and mothers, not girlfriends and wives.) If you can use your vanity number to appeal to the singles, you can make a lot of money from a largely untapped market.

What makes a vanity number such a powerful marketing tool? Simply put, a vanity telephone number is a brand identity that you can dial. Phone numbers are easier to remember when their digits form words, and if those words happen to be related to your company or industry, then you’ve found a surefire way to stick in a customer’s memory. It’s like combining instantaneous product recognition with a direct line to your sales department. Just look at 1-800-CONTACTS or 1-800-FLOWERS. These companies have capitalized on a billion-dollar industry by making their contact information synonymous with their brand, and you can do the same for your business.

A quality vanity number will outlive the holiday you purchased it for. Sure, a lot of people might flock to 1-800-ANNIVERSARIES around Valentine’s Day, but couples celebrate anniversaries all the time. In fact there are 60.3 million married couples in the United States, and each one of them will celebrate some sort of anniversary next year. February isn’t the only month people buy jewelry, either. A number like 1-800-4-A-JEWEL will be plenty relevant during Christmas and the wedding season.

This Valentine’s Day, why not show your business how special it is by licensing your own vanity phone number? You don’t need to be in the business of love to take advantage of the branding opportunities that a unique and memorable phone number presents. We have over 2,000 registered numbers available in a wide variety of industries, and thanks to our “Shared-Use Routing” program, you can save money by sharing your number with a company in a different part of the country. So take a look around. Talk to us about building your own toll-free identity today. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Category: Vanity Number Info |
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