Take a good hard look at what’s in your toolkit right now when it comes to growth. How do you advertise? If you’re here, then you’re no doubt considering a new tool for your business growth toolkit: an 800 vanity number. Let’s take a brief look at how a 1800 number might make every tool in your marketing toolkit more effective and efficient, facilitating market penetration and helping your business succeed.

Toolbox #1: Your Personal Network

 The personal network is the foundation for every business. Your family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances, Twitter followers, Facebook friends, LinkedIn connections—they’re all a part of your personal network. And if you’re trying to grow a business, constantly faced with the threat of not getting off the ground, trying to lay the foundation for security through prosperity, then you no doubt view your personal network as fertile ground for business growth.

How A 1800 Number Can Leverage Your Personal Network

When you select a 1800 Number for your business, you have instantly established credibility in your personal network. If you shout loud and clear that you’re an entrepreneur, your personal network is listening. However, no doubt there are a number of friends and acquaintances out there that are on the fence. Do they believe in you? Would they go to you for your product or service over some stranger in the phone book? A custom toll free phone number from David Ashley helps to establish, firmly and decisively, that you are in business and that you mean business. It is a clear signal of a business that is building upon a foundation of success, and is ready to grow.

Toolbox #2: Your Advertising Plan

Do you utilize business cards, door hangers, brochures, custom pens, branded USB drives, or personalized coffee mugs to get your brand out there and make it stick? Do you rent billboards, design magazine or newspaper ads, purchase ads in the Yellow Pages, or even utilize television or Internet commercials as a marketing tool? However you spread the message, you may be frustrated by how little of your advertising actually “sticks,” how little of it actually results in paying customers. How can you make your advertising plan, one of the costliest aspects of your business, work?

How A 1800 Number Can Make Your Advertising More Effective

A 1800 Number is like grease to an automobile. It is like gunpowder to a cannon. It’s like a motor on a fishing boat. It makes every tool in your advertising toolkit more effective. By creating an easy to remember phone number using David Ashley’s toll free number lookup and other tools, you’ve taken your business’s contact information and made it “stickier.” When you take, for instance, (123) 546-3964 and transform it into (800) BIG-DESK, you’ve applied a marketing Rosetta Stone. You’ve changed an unmemorable ten digit set of numbers and turned it into one number (800) and two easy to remember words. This new 1800 number will stick in your customers’ minds like glue. Those pens will take on new meaning. That brochure will become more effective. That billboard will slush around in the back of your potential customers’ minds. Your TV ad dollars might become money well spent.

Your Toolbox Redefined

A toll free phone number from David Ashley applies the proven business power of a toll free custom phone number and makes your business growth tool kit all the more effective. Apply the power of a 1800 number to your tool kit and enjoy continued growth and success.

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Easy to Use

Just about everyone knows how to dial a phone. You might remember how old you were when you learned how to write. You might recall the first time you sent an email. You may know the day you opened your first Facebook account. But can you remember when you learned how to dial a telephone? Probably not. You probably learned at the same time you were learning how to walk. 1 800 phone numbers take phone numbers and make them even simpler. It’s no wonder local vanity phone numbers have been a proven business growth tool since the early 1960s.

Easy to Remember

Custom 1 800 phone numbers are likely easier to remember than ten digit phone numbers. They’re probably easier to remember that your business name. In fact, it’s likely a potential customer will remember local vanity phone numbers more easily than they remember your own name. If you create a memorable toll free number based on a simple combination of seven letters and numbers, you can cross the “short term memory” barrier and get your contact information stuck in your customers’ minds. Recall is better with 1 800 phone numbers, which means your contact info might pop out in your customers’ subconscious just when they need it—even if they don’t have your contact information written down, or your business name memorized.

Easy to Create

David Ashley makes finding available toll free numbers easy. When we “hook you up” with one of our 1 800 phone numbers, we’re doing it with a focus on your success. We want to see your business grow. We’ll help you identify an open local vanity phone number, grab it, and implement that number so it points your customers right at you. Seven letters or numbers: that’s all it takes to allow us to create the best 800 local vanity phone number for you and your business.

Easy to Market

We’ve already established that custom 1 800 phone numbers are easy to remember and easy to use. They are then, by definition, a pleasure to market. When you implement a custom 800 phoneword, you’ve made it immeasurably easier for customers to get a hold of you. It is a product that really does, in many ways, sell itself. The simplicity and utility of local vanity phone numbers have been used as an integral part of successful marketing campaigns for over fifty years. Now you can use them as a part of a marketing campaign that will raise awareness of your valuable product or service.

Ideal for Local Businesses

1 800 phone numbers can be local as well as national. That means you can purchase 1-800-COMICBK for your small comic book shop in Concorde, New Hampshire, and pay a smaller rate for a regional number. When your faithful customer moves on to another region and dials your number again, they may be connected with a sister business in that region. So let’s say another comic book shop in Watertown, South Dakota purchased 1-800-COMICBK. When a local customer dials that local vanity phone number, they’ll get the Watertown store.

Ideal for National Businesses

Proven over and over for over fifty years, 1 800 numbers have been integral for a nearly limitless amount of successful businesses. They are, in fact, almost viewed as a necessity for the national business. They function as router numbers if offshore customer service centers are necessary. They provide a method of universalizing contact information so that an out-of-state customer can enjoy a toll free call anywhere in the US. In short, they are ideal for national businesses.

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Is Your Business Bursting at the Seams?

Typically, businesses purchase vanity phone numbers when they’re in the middle of a “growth spurt.” There comes a point when it becomes practical to purchase and institute a vanity phone number. Obtaining an 800 number is ideal when it’s a solution to a business problem.

A Business That’s Growing – If your business is growing—if your customer base is expanding, if you’re retaining employees to meet the demand for work, if your finances have reached a point where you can expand in your risk taking—then perhaps the purchase of a toll free vanity number might be a step that makes sense. 

A Business with an Expanding Customer Base – If your customer base is expanding, then you must be doing something right—right? But you still have a problem: the “short term memory gap.” Force-feeding your customers a ten digit contact phone number and then hoping they’ll keep it in their short term memory just won’t work. A vanity phone number makes it easier for potential customers to remember how to get a hold of you.

A Business without a Brand – There’s a difference between a business is a brand. A business is an organization with a function. A brand is an identity, one that may become a part of your identity as a business owner. Turn your phone number into a symbol of your brand with vanity phone numbers.

Is Your Business a Force to Be Reckoned With?

There’s something about purchasing a vanity number that may whet your competitive whistle. Perhaps you want your business to stand out locally. Maybe you’re driven to compete nationally in your field, and vanity numbers are the next step. Either way, a toll free number may definitely stimulate your sense of competition.

A Business with a Brand – A business with an 800 number is a business that is a brand. You have moved from the defensive position of a business owner trying to make ends meet to an offensive position of a business owner that is ready to win. An 800 vanity number will help you lay the foundation for building a brand.

A Business with Direction – Once you purchase a local 800 number from David Ashley, you’ve set the direction for your business. It will define your marketing techniques. It will inform how you communicate your product or service. You have become a business owner with a deliberate purpose when it comes to expansion, growth, and communicating who and what your business does to potential customers.

A Business that Succeeds – Put simply, vanity phone numbers facilitate business success. Every business problem should be solved in the simplest manner possible. In this case, the problem is this: how can you force-feed your contact information to a potential customer in a manner which they’ll remember? A vanity phone number is an easy to remember expression of your business. It lays the foundation in a potential customers’ mind for success. Put simply, a business with an 800 number is primed for success.

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Focused Growth for Your Brand

The move from business to brand not only establishes your business as a force in the industry, it turns your business into a very personal symbol. It represents that your work is a true labor of love. How do 800 numbers from David Ashley do that? Put simply, 800 vanity numbers turn your contact information from a set of numbers to a seven character symbol of what you do. 1-800-CAL-CUL8. 1-800-FOTO-GUY. 1-800-WEDDING. 1-800-DIV-ORCE. This simple arrangement of letters and numbers truly represents the birth of a brand.

Focused Growth for Your Customer Base

How do 800 numbers grow your customer base in a focused manner? They’re easy to remember. They’re representative of what your business does and who you serve. They’re simple to market. An 800 vanity number takes your contact information, industry and brand and pushes it together like coal turns into a diamond. And once you hand that diamond to your customers, an easy to remember number that’s as simple as a phoneme, you will likely enjoy focused growth of your customer base. David Ashley 800 vanity numbers truly work wonders when it comes to “bridging the communication gap” between you and your customers.

Focused Growth for Small Businesses

Are 800 numbers designed solely for national businesses? Are they the preferred tools only for the Ron Popeils, Jim McCanns, and telephone psychics of the business world? Absolutely not. Many business owners are unaware that 800 vanity numbers may be local as well as national. That means you don’t have to pay the increased fees of making your phone number available nationally. Make your local business stand out from the crowd with a phenomenal 800 vanity number and enjoy focused growth in your region.

Focused Growth with Proven Results

You’ve heard all the sales tactics before, and at some point you may have grown cynical about the effectiveness of 800 numbers when it comes to focused growth. Perhaps you’ve come to view 800 vanity numbers as a cheap shot, as a “junk food” marketing tactic that doesn’t reflect the business values you hope to project. Think again. 800 phonewords had their start in the hotel and rental car business, expanded through a heyday in the late 70s and early 80s, symbolized by the explosive success of 1-800-FLOWERS (which by no means has a “junk food” marketing image, but in fact is representative of the professional reputation every entrepreneur wishes for their own business), and continues to this day. In fact, the FCC ran out of 800 numbers about ten years ago, and created new toll free numbers including 888, 877, 866 and 855. In summary, 800 vanity numbers are a proven method of facilitating focused business growth.

Focused Growth with Confidence

Quite frankly, there is a feeling of importance and validity that comes after the purchase of David Ashley 800 numbers. You may be surprised at the synergy you experience in your business, amongst your existing customer base, in your workforce, and even in your personal identity in relation to your business, as a result of taking ownership and building your brand with an 800 vanity number. Call David Ashley today and let us help you create a plan for focused growth.

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What is Synergy, Anyway?

Synergy is when two forces combine to create something spontaneously more powerful, more effective, more efficient and more successful. It’s the effect observed when two horses don’t just double the power of the team, but quadruple it. It’s an elusive thing. Entrepreneurs have been dropping “the ‘S’ word” for quite a while, laying out a plan for business owners, small and large, to increase success without increasing resources.

How Can I Really Create Synergy in My Enterprise?

The unfortunate reality is that you can’t create synergy without a plan. The fortunate reality, however, is that vanity toll free numbers and 800 phone numbers from David Ashley may be a vital, actionable way to create synergy for your business, your brand, your workforce, your customers and even for you.

• Synergy for Your Business – Vanity toll free numbers are practically synergy incarnate for businesses. They package your contact number, as well as your product or service and/or business name, in an easy to remember package. When you take your ten digit, deeply unmemorable phone number and transform it into 800-CAT-CLEAN, 800-PLUMBING, 800-REALTOR or whatever you do or sell, then you’ve created synergy.
• Synergy for Your Brand – What’s the difference between a business and a brand? A business is a moneymaking organization. A brand is an identity. Vanity toll free numbers may be an integral part of taking your business to the next level and transforming it into a brand. When you receive that first business card in the mail with your 800 phone numbers listed, you’ll know you’re building a brand.
• Synergy for Your Workforce – Every human as a little voice inside calling out, a voice telling us to become part of something greater than ourselves. Vanity toll free numbers will encourage your workforce, letting your employees know that the business is growing, that the business is moving forward, that the business has direction and purpose. Synergize your workforce with an effective vanity toll free number from David Ashley.
• Synergy for Your Customers – Your customers want a business they can believe in. Your customers want to be a fan of something. If you work hard, provide exceptional customer service, put out a great product or perform a superior service, then you’re well on your way. With a vanity toll free number, you’re well on your way to synergizing your customers. An 800 number gives your customers an easy way to evangelize your business, allowing you to grow your customer base and succeed.
• Synergy for You – Don’t be afraid to nurture your ego on this one: in many ways, a toll free vanity number will synergize you. You’ll enjoy the satisfaction of having moved your business toward becoming a brand. You’ll know you’ve helped to synergize your workforce and motivate them toward success. You’ll believe you’ve synergized your customers, putting them under the banner of a product or service they can trust. It’s a true confidence booster. It adds power to your business identity.

Synergy + Vanity Toll Free Numbers = Success

Nothing helps you take that next step toward success like a vanity toll free number from David Ashley. It simplifies and synergizes your business, helping you move forward with confidence toward success and profitability. Call David Ashley today and find out how 800 numbers can synergize your business.

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Become the credible face of your company.

With a toll-free vanity number, you can be the “voice” of your company but that will work just as well as being the face and you will be just as credible to your target audience. There are many times when an ad is played on TV, on the Internet, and of course on the radio where the face is not seen or the potential customer is not looking at the ad, for many reasons, but the sound of the ad is still able to reach their consciousness.

With the explosion of media channels, an average customer is bombarded with several hundred ads all throughout the day, wherever he or she may be—buried deep in the newspaper, surfing television channels, browsing the Web, or driving down the highway. The glitziest amongst these are dismissed by many as being too impersonal while the ones with copies that tug at their heart strings actually do not influence their buying decisions because these are viewed as the creations of some wordsmith and not what the company believes or promises.

In such a scenario, a toll-free vanity number serves to bring in credibility to a business. When your customers see you flaunting a custom 800 number, they not only take you for a business larger than your actual size or market share but also as a customer-friendly business entity willing to pay from its own pocket to listen to their customers. This is one image that no amount of commercials or copies can project and herein, advertising with a toll-free vanity number scores over not having one to spearhead your promotional campaign.

Become the one company that your target audience readily remembers.

Advertising with a toll-free vanity number has one benefit that just cannot be replicated by any number of ads on the television, radio commercials, billboards, mailers, and flyers—that of easy recall. Research has shown that vanity numbers have much higher recall rates than a standard local telephone number that is just a random collection of some haphazard numerals. On this count, advertising with a toll-free vanity number actually spikes the effectiveness of any ongoing ad campaign. And how?

A customer driving down the highway has just a few seconds to look at your billboard ad and in all probabilities, only the vanity number and perhaps the model’s facewill stick into the person’s mind. Or, a prospective customer catches just the last part of your radio ad while he shuffles across radio stations and manages to remember only the vanity number. So, even though your ads have failed to reach their marks, the vanity number topping your billboard ad or signing off your radio message has ensured that you have been noticed and kept in mind.

The above two are only two arguments in favor of advertising with a toll-free vanity number than without one. But for an astute and perceptive business owner, they are the clinchers and could be game changers.

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Myth #1: You HAVE to go in for an 800 prefix.

While it is true that the 800 prefix has been around for lot longer than its counterparts and is more readily recognized, some of the other prefixes aren’t doing too badly either. The prefix 888 is a case in point. It more than a decade old and most of your customers are used to dialing it. So, the claim that having an 800 prefix in your toll-free vanity number reduces the chances of customers misdialing to almost a naught is to be taken with a pinch of salt. If the prefix 800 is not available, as is almost always the case, business owners can stop blaming their luck and grab the next best option, an 888.

Myth #2: Avoid “Q” and “Z” in your vanity number spelling.

This is a vanity number marketing advice that has outlived its relevance. For it has been quite some time that desk phones, cell phones, and home phones with English characters have started flaunting “PQRS” instead of “PRS” and WXYZ” in place of “WXY” in their 7 and 9 keys respectively. This has come to be accepted as the new standard of phones and so business owners now need not feel restricted when choosing a spelling, especially if these once “taboo” alphabets are integral parts of the word/phrase that will make up their vanity numbers.

Myth #3: Avoid number hybrids.

Again, this is one vanity number marketing advice that has long outlived its efficacy. While it is indeed true that a 1-888-SMILE is more effective and easy-to-remember than a 1-888-293-SMILE, the search for a vanity number like the former may just end up being a quest for the Holy Grail. With businesses, large, medium, and small, making a beeline for vanity numbers, the plum ones are hardly to be found up for the grabs.

Business owners can however, turn things in their favor with a choice of repeating or sequential number combinations like 1-888-444-SMILE or 1-888-345-SMILE.

The above are only some myths that surround the topic of vanity number marketing. But with these misconceptions not clouding your judgment, you can now go ahead and choose a toll-free vanity number and spelling that is just as effective without having to tear your hair out.

Busting Some Toll-Free Vanity Number Myths was brought to you by Telename Blog

There is much more to the business 800 number story, however, than hard sales gimmicks. It’s a tried and true testament to the power of simple, effective marketing techniques. Let’s take a look at the solid foundation vanity numbers have as a longstanding, potent tool for your marketing goals. 

Beginnings at the Cutting Edge of Industry

The business 800 number story began inEngland, as AT & T introduced toll free business numbers in the 1960s. It migrated to the West in 1967, and was immediately put to use by hotels and car rental agencies, both industries that book the majority of their business from long distances. In the late 1970s, second-generation toll free numbers took hold, and a new era in modern business telephony was born.

Prosperity Through Innovation

Just about any time you hear about 1800 vanity number success stories, you hear about Jim McCann and 1-800 FLOWERS. McCann’s story is one of capitalizing on the right opportunity, at the right time, in a unique manner. He founded 1-800 FLOWERS at the beginning of the 1-800 number craze, and carefully shepherded his business into a nationwide empire. Market growth through came through ads on pay cable channels like then-new CNN and Headline News. The result is one of the great business success stories of the 80s, and the greatest 1800 vanity number sensation ever.

No Signs of Stopping

1800 vanity numbers continue to facilitate success stories for businesses around the world. Why? Because the 1800 number idea is fundamentally sound. It simplifies the manner in which a customer can make contact with a business. It removes the clunky numbers from the phone number equation, replacing them with an easy to remember number that a child could recite. It starts the business/client relationship on the right foot by providing a courtesy, toll free phone call.

For nearly fifty years, 1800 vanity numbers have propelled countless businesses and industries toward success, both at a national and local level. Nurture growth. Nurture simplicity. Nurture success. Contact David Ashley today to find out how your local or national business can grow as a result of purchasing a 1800 vanity number.

No Passing Phase: The Continuing Benefits of 1800 Vanity Numbers was brought to you by Telename Blog

To learn your local market, the quickest and easiest method is still your local phone book. Go ahead and take a look at your business in the phone book. Typically, there are two to four local “big dogs” in your industry. They purchase little box ads in the Yellow Pages, ensuring their appearance as the biggest and the brightest. At the bottom are several competitors, some marginalized to a simple business name and phone number. How do you stand out from the competition?

Local Growth with the 800 Advantage

Toll free vanity number availability is not limited to the national conglomerate. That’s right—1800 numbers are available as local numbers for small businesses. Consider how your phone book listing will contrast the competition’s when your business has a custom, easy to remember number as opposed to the mass of un-memorable digits your competitors—even the ones with the ads in little boxes—have.

The National Phone Number Problem

National businesses face an even larger customer connection problem: how do you invite customers to make contact if you must force them to dial a long distance number? Even more daunting is this: how can you provide an easy way to connect when your customer service team exists outside theUnited States? At the national level, vanity toll free number availability may be a necessity.

National Growth with the 800 Advantage

Fortunately, toll free numbers provide welcome relief for the large business that needs to connect with customers nationwide. Vanity numbers make the process even easier by allowing businesses to select a simple combination of letters and numbers that customers will find easy to remember. Offshore customer service teams are easily supported, enabling large businesses to manage multiple locations under a single, simple customer contact base.

Local businesses face a challenge: connecting with customers amidst a sea of competition. Vanity toll free number availability, however, provides a way to overcome the challenge. National businesses face a challenge as well: connecting with customers nationwide in a sustainable, simple way. Vanity toll free numbers help businesses take on the challenge through simplifying the customer connection process.

800 Numbers: Magic for Small and Large Business was brought to you by Telename Blog

There is No Difference

888, 877, 866, 855 and 800 are all essentially the same. They’re all toll free number options. The difference is simply the prefix. The additional prefixes, which are harder to remember and not preferable for most businesses, came about simply because the FCC was running out of 800 numbers to sell. You’ll see 888, 877, 866, and 855 numbers now used as customer care numbers for credit card companies, hotels and other corporate communications options. As you grow in your understanding of 800 vanity numbers and the various prefix options available to you, it’s important to understand the history of the prefix.

The 1800 Vanity Number Story

The toll free number was originated as a cost saving method for phone companies. That’s right, AT & T actually saved money once it stopped charging for a segment of the phone calls that went across its lines. The reason, at the time, was the overwhelming prevalence of collect phone calls for long distance. Each collect phone call needed an operator to attend it, and each operator needed to be paid a salary. Once 1-800 vanity number options became available, the cost prohibitive operator workforce could be reduced or moved around to better service AT & T and other phone companies of the time.

What Happens When You Run Out of Numbers?

After the landmark success of 1-800-FLOWERS in the early 1990s, businesses saw the utility and beauty that 1-800 vanity number options provide. These numbers were revealed as an extremely simple, memorable way for consumers to connect with businesses. The result was a feeding frenzy. A decade later, the FCC was forced to create another toll free prefix, 1-888. Demand continued to increase nationwide as businesses discovered the power of 1-800 vanity number options for local as well as national use.

Customers Remember 1-800 Numbers

Toll free numbers have been around since 1960. They have evolved into a tried and true business tactic that continues to be used to spectacular effect by local and national businesses in the United States. While 888, 877, 866 and 855 may be less expensive options, 1-800 vanity numbers still remain king of the hill. Why? It’s simple: they’re so much easier to remember. Call David Ashley today to learn how you can take advantage of 1-800 vanity number options for your business.

800… 877… 888… What’s the Difference? was brought to you by Telename Blog