|
A custom
number like 1-800-UNLOCKS®
can make it happen!
When it comes to
boosting your bottom line and keeping you top-of-mind with customers, nothing
pays off quite like a toll-free Custom 800 number. We’ve said it before, but
it bears repeating: Companies that use unforgettable Custom 800 numbers in their
advertising and marketing materials increase response by as much as 45%.
Vanity
Toll Free Numbers for businesses mean more calls, and more calls mean you are
doing much more business
You
will get more sales off of a more memorable number like 1-800-UNLOCKS®
than
1-800-123-7654
Uses
of Vanity Numbers
They
have also been shown to be an inexpensive promotional method in contrast to
repetitive advertising through print and electronic media
Very
importantly, it also sets it apart from its competitors
Having
a good vanity number has enough benefits on its own; having a good toll-free
vanity number doubles that
| |
The unfortunate
way of perception?
The unfortunate
thinking of the general public is that, its no big deal, I
will just get a key from my wife. Finds out that she doesn't
have one either, neither have a phone directory nearby, but
the man remembered a van he has saw the same day, it was a
toll-free number, 1-800-UNLOCKS®.
There was a payphone since we both
left our phones in the cars...no change, call went right
through in less than a second.
With this testimonial,
the mind soaks in memorable numbers and names.
We don't sell
franchises, but if you are a locksmith and would like to know
more of how you can get involved with the 1-800-UNLOCKS®
program, simply call our sales number 888-2UNLOCK 9286-5625)
or visit us at www.1-800-UNLOCKS.com
Thanks, Management
|
A Custom 800 number such as 1-800-UNLOCKS® can make it happen!
When it comes to boosting your bottom line and keeping you top-of-mind with customers, nothing pays off quite like a toll-free Custom 800 number. We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Companies that use unforgettable Custom 800 numbers in their advertising and marketing materials increase response by as much as 45%.
 They’re Simply Unforgettable
Months after a campaign has ended, advertisers report that the phones are still ringing. Why is that? Vanity 800 numbers are much easier to remember (14 times easier to remember, in fact) than
numerics. Let’s face it, a prospect who suddenly needs replacement windows is much more likely to remember, and call, 1-800-NEW-WINDOW than a random collection of numbers.
“800” says “Toll-Free”
The terms “toll-free” and “800” are one and the same in the minds of consumers. It’s simple and easy, the way they like it – which could
explain why a 2002 Radio Recall study found that 95% of consumers recognize the 800 exchange as toll-free, but few connected with the newer toll-free exchanges like 888, 877 and 866. Seems these numbers are still confused with area codes – and where consumers are concerned, confusion usually translates to lost sales.
A Good Vanity 800 Number Is Hard to Find
Vanity 800 numbers are often difficult to find. You see them all the time, but the “good” ones are already taken. Advertising agencies have access to scores of toll-free number providers, but when it comes to
memorable, prestigious vanity 800 numbers that clients associate with such high-profile advertisers as American Express®, FedEx®, Avis® and hundreds of other major corporations have simply been spoken for and no longer available. .
Confusion-Free Calling
As more and more area codes are introduced around the country, consumers become more and more confused about where their calls are going – and how much they’re going to cost. Custom 800 numbers reassure your customer that no
matter where they’re calling from, the call will go through easily and at no cost to them.
Put Your Customer First
Having a Custom 800 number says right up front that you care about your customer. And at a time when great customer service is a top competitive advantage, 800 vanity toll-free numbers give you the edge you need.
The 800 Payoff
When you measure the increased effectiveness of your advertising, you’ll realize that the incremental costs of using a Custom 800 number are worth
every penny.
The Prestige Factor
Customers know that companies with top customer service standards have easy, memorable 800 numbers: Gateway ®(1-800-GATEWAY), FedEx (1-800-GO-FED-EX), and Toyota (1-800-GO-TOYO), to name a few. In your customer’s mind, your
convenient, thoughtful Custom 800 number puts you in the same league with these prestigious, service-oriented companies.
| |
It is a proven fact that if you get a vanity number more people will remember how to reach you. It seems that the same theory would apply for Vanity Toll Free Numbers.
If you wanted people to remember you or your company
One way to make it more memorable is with a toll free vanity number. It is like your companies Vanity Plate. Vanity Toll Free Numbers for businesses mean more calls, and more calls mean you are doing much more business. Some benefits to having a vanity toll free number can mean things like: sales success. You will get more sales off of a more memorable number like 1-800-Flowers than 1-800-123-7654 or something like that. It can mean more branding for your company. If
you want your company to stay in the minds longer, make it more memorable with a vanity number. You are sure to get more return on your investment than a regular number would. If you want more customers to call you with feedback, great comments, or questions than you should have Vanity Toll Free Numbers.
When wanting praise and positive comments more people will call you if it does not cost them.
For technical support many companies will give toll free numbers. When your happy customers tell their friends and family about your great products they are going to be more memorable with Vanity Toll Free Numbers. Repeat business can be icing on your cake with things like being able to reach a great sales department with toll free numbers. Get much more return on your advertising investments and definitely go with a wonderful thing like vanity numbers.
|
|
Uses of Vanity Numbers
Submitted by Newswire on August 10, 2007
A vanity number is a type of toll-free number beginning with 1-800, 1-888, 1-877 or 1-866 and ending with a word, acronym or domain which represents the company and/or the goods or services that it markets. Sometimes called word numbers or alphanumeric numbers, vanity numbers have been proven to be a very valuable and effective marketing tool. They have also been shown to be an inexpensive promotional method in contrast to repetitive advertising through print and electronic media.
A catchy, meaningful and properly chosen word or acronym in a vanity number captures not just the very essence of the company, but also promotes its goods and services. Very importantly, it also sets it apart
from its competitors. Having a vanity number which is concise and easy to remember and pronounce will establish your company in the market, subsequently leading to a greater customer pool. This allows for better customer service and, consequently, a boost in sales and revenue. Needless to say, not having a vanity number will put you at a disadvantage alongside companies, big and small, with good and appropriately selected vanity numbers.
Having a good vanity number has enough benefits on its own; having a good toll-free vanity
number doubles that. Perhaps the most important benefit to having a good toll-free vanity number is the boost in sales. This is mainly because vanity numbers serve as an added medium to reach out to more customers. Despite the increasing trend of having websites to promote your company, most customers are still more comfortable conversing with a live person to get the information they need before committing to making a sale or availing of a particular service.
Another very important advantage of having a good vanity number is the ability to get feedback from your customers and prospective clients. This particular aspect tends to be overlooked by most companies. However, the value of this is the capacity for you to keep your business going on the right track by staying attuned to your customer’s needs,
questions and problems. In keeping with this, a good vanity number paves the way for improved customer service. This also lets you project a strong image in terms of customer service, making you appear customer-centered. A good vanity number imparts to your customers that you place a lot of value on their needs and what they have to say. It is a way of demonstrating your desire to make it easy for them to get in touch with you.
And because a good vanity number makes for easy recall, there is a higher probability for repeat and second-hand marketing. Customers are more likely to remember how to reach you with a good vanity number than if your
toll-free number was composed of a random series of numbers. In other words, with a good vanity number, you can better augment word-of-mouth promotion of your company.
And because customers are more likely to remember you, you get more repeat customers and have more customers referring other prospective customers to you.
A good vanity number also makes your company look more impressive, prestigious, and professional. It’s a good means to make your company look more established and secure. Add to that
the air of credibility that you can exude with a good vanity number, definitely making it a good channel to entice customers to your company.
It can also be an automatic brand name, further making your company seem bigger than it really is. This holds true especially for 800 vanity numbers, because of the brand quality of 1-800. Also, with a vanity number, you can more easily get hold of a domain name than if you were to use your name alone. That is, 1800YourName.com is more likely to
be available than YourName.com. The best thing about this is that this would put you on top of other domain names in any alphabetical listing.
Lastly, having a good vanity number increases response rates to your advertising, by as much as 11 to 42 percent.
This would mean more monetary flow into your business, which is definitely good for your business.
With a vanity number, you can go head to head with even the biggest corporations in the US and the rest of the world—never mind
that you are just one entrepreneur or a small group running your business from your living room. |
The Advantages of Toll-Free Numbers
The benefits far outweigh the costs for marketers
By Michelle Tirado
for Office.com
April 19, 2000 — No matter where an ad is placed — TV, radio, magazine or billboard — a toll-free number is sure to boost response rates. Marketers who use toll-free numbers know this, but many marketers have no idea how much business they are missing out on by not using the toll-free strategy.
Judith
Oppenheimer, president of New York-based ICB Inc., a purveyor of news, intelligence, analysis and consulting about toll-free numbers and
dot-coms, says toll-free numbers are a major asset for business-to-consumer marketers.
|
| |
|
"800-FLOWERS spent $2 million in cash to buy a business with $7 million in debt. That means they spent $9 million on a phone number. But look at what it's done for them." | |
|
Judith Oppenheimer, president
ICB, Inc. | |
|
"The 800 number by itself increases responses," Oppenheimer says. "There are people out there who don't have them and, often times, that's because they're accustomed to the thought that they're going to have a massive phone bill."
The reality is that rates for toll-free services, which now include the prefixes 888 and 877, have dropped right along with the rates for other kinds of long distance service. Not too long ago, a company would have paid between 20 cents and 25 cents per minute for an 800 call. Today, they pay as little as 7 cents
per minute.
Toll-free numbers may not always make sense for business-to-business advertising, however. Winter Haven, Fla.-based HydroEnhanced Laboratories, for example, has a toll-free number but does not display it on the ads it buys in magazines like Entrepreneur and Business Start-Ups. Nor is the number included in the firm's direct mail packages.
Matthew
Stichter, president of HydroEnhanced Laboratories, a domestic water management company, says management battled over the issue when they obtained the toll-free number earlier this year. Ultimately, they decided to leave it out — after all, anyone truly interested in becoming a certified dealer through its program would be willing to make that
first call with their own dime.
"It's a screening process," Stichter says, "especially for business opportunities, when people have a tendency to call and just kind of kick the tires. If we put a 50 cent phone call on there, it keeps some people who are not very serious at all from just calling and getting our material."
The marketing package sent to potential clients costs HydroEnhanced Labs between $7 and $10. Understandably, they want to minimize waste by avoiding sending it to people who are not likely to make good use of it. Once a potential dealer demonstrates interest, or when HydroEnhanced Labs and a client are in dialogue, the toll-free number is used.
Oppenheimer says that, while it depends on the product or service, most business-to-business marketers can count toll-free numbers as a cost effective option. She recommends that businesses invest in one, and that they use it in their advertising.
Vanity numbers, the toll-free numbers that spell out a word or words associated with a product or brand, are seen as more of a luxury item. The ROI for having a good one, however, can be impressive.
Unless you are incredibly lucky, setting one up is not as simple as calling the phone company
and asking for the rights to 800-COOKIES or 888-WINDOWS. In fact, it takes considerably more effort. The first option, and the one Oppenheimer suggests, is to call the number you're interested in to find out who subscribes to it and whether they are willing to sell it. The second option is to go through a broker who will handle that legwork (the searching and calling).
Buying a toll-free vanity number can cost a mint. "One of the more publicized purchases was made by Tickets.com, which spent $60,000 for their domain name and $1 million, plus 6 percent interest, on their 800-TICKETS [number]," Oppenheimer says. "800-FLOWERS spent $2 million in cash to buy a business with $7 million in debt. That means they
spent $9 million on a phone number. But look at what it's done for them."
An additional caveat: In 1997, the Federal Communications Commission outlawed the selling of toll-free numbers. "Which is really stupid," Oppenheimer continues. "It makes just about everybody in any kind of business at all a criminal. You can't get one without buying it from somebody."
If a company can get one, they stand to reap substantial benefits. In January 1999, Michael J. Motto Advertising & Public Relations, in Providence, N.J., compared the impact of numeric toll-free numbers versus toll-free vanity numbers in radio advertising. They ran 66 radio commercials on WDHA-FM for a Cedar Knolls, N.J.-based Nissan dealerships.
Half of the ads mentioned a numeric phone number, and the other half mentioned a vanity number. Both were aired on an equal rotation. The results: The vanity number received 14 times more responses than the 800 numeric.
To gauge the pervasiveness of toll-free numbers in advertising, consider Super Bowl XXXIV. Response Marketing Group, a Burlington, Vt., consulting firm that specializes in toll-free vanity numbers, conducted a study and found that 16 percent of the commercials that ran during the NFL championship included a toll-free number, and all were vanity numbers.
How does a Toll-Free Vanity Number Help Me?
There are numerous benefits and reasons for businesses to use toll-free numbers, but the bottom line is that they just work. Toll-free vanity numbers are proven to increase the response rate to any type of promotion, to increase sales and even the dollar value of each sale. They have become a necessity and requirement for any serious business in today’s highly competitive market.
1-800-UNLOCKS® introduces its new 1-800-UNLOCKS® blog at unlocksblog.wordpress.com (simply cut and paste into browser without adding http://), visit the blog and read of the stories and postings on the blog, add your input and suggestions, tell us what your questions are, expose your creative marketing and advertising techniques, or general questions that are answered by our staff
that monitor the blog daily. The blog is soon to be added to similar blogs concerning the scamming and posers that are infiltrating our industry with creative ways to deal with them. You may be surprised to see the effort that has been put into this blog to entice others to join in the fight against corrupt, unethical, unlicensed, and unprofessional acts from these individuals. Your suggestion and input is welcome, and could be the answer we are all looking for!
|
