Recently in Vanity 800 Numbers Category

We have access to a new set of vanity 800 numbers for the health care industry.
These numbers will bring in more response to your ad campaigns, and help you book more new patient appointments.

We have this set of numbers for the health care/medical sector:
  800-THE-CLINIC
  888-2-RELIEF
  888-A NEW LIFE
  888-CHIRO-CARE
  888-PAIN-CENTER

Get a quote for these numbers in your market today.

From Dealer Marketing Magazine's recent issue...

Quality and value...two words that many people are focused on right now, no matter what their position on the business food chain, whether they're a consumer or a business owner. As we forge ahead through 2010, quality and value are two key messages you will want to convey in your marketing and advertising campaigns: not only from a product standpoint, but also from a service standpoint.

 

Think of all the business services you use to make your operation run smoothly--communications, customer management tools, the phone system, and so many others. Are they the best?

Do they deliver the quality and value that you expect?

Do they allow you to effectively talk to your audience?

 

Let's take your marketing and advertising communications as an example and look at the business services you deploy to deliver quality and value to your customers.

 

Quality leads to credibility:

A quality ad campaign is one that is appealing to, and resonates with, consumers. It should leave them with a favorable opinion of your business and a perception of credibility--a dealer they would want to buy a vehicle from. Quality advertising always includes an easy way for customers to get in touch with you. If you offer a local or toll-free numeric phone number, like 866-432-6897, it is going to be hard for people to remember. If you advertise with a vanity number, like 1-800-NEW-HYBRID, however, you make it easier for people to remember you when they want to call.

 

Make sure you work with a phone service and number provider that best fits your needs: a quality provider that offers flexibility with their services and delivers value.

 

Value drives response:

Value-added (along with quality) advertising campaigns generate a surge of consumer response and deliver leads. When a campaign brings customers into your dealership (with phone calls, web leads, or walk-ins) your ROI for the campaign improves, the cost-per-lead goes down, and the value of your advertising campaign, in relation to the business strategy goes up!

 

Also, the call data that your telecommunications provider delivers should be easy to access, understand, and manipulate for various reporting needs. Robust call data is valuable because it can show trends, including your busiest business hours and what campaigns are driving the most inquiries. Armed with this important data, you can plan staffing and marketing resources according to when you'll be busiest, where your leads are coming from and which marketing sources deliver the best ROI.

 

As part of your team, your service partners should help you deliver these key emotional and financial aspects--quality and value to your customers.

Here is a snippet about vanity numbers from an article on eHow.com, by a contributing writer. 

"Vanity numbers spell out words or suggest words. 1-800-FLOWERS is one of the most widely known vanity numbers and is easily remembered on Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. Vanity numbers are a marketing tool that can encourage brand switching. Even if consumers have a favorite restaurant with a local number, they're more likely to call the number they remember first. Vanity numbers are in short supply, and a broker may be required to negotiate a deal with the person who owns a specific number." Read the full article.

Every business misses calls from time to time. But these missed opportunities are costly, and can be hard to recapture. And, in today's business environment, missed leads could jeopardize the viability of your business.

Services are available that monitor when your business misses incoming calls and leads.  An automatic email or text message is sent immediately with the callers phone number, name, and time of when they tried to reach your business.  This alert gives you and your sales team a near real-time opportunity to call that person back and recapture the lead, and attempt a sale.

This type of monitoring service empowers a business to:

• Follow up with lost prospects within minutes.

• Choose which types of missed calls to monitor - hang ups, ringing "off the hook" without an answer, busy signals, and even short calls.

• Alert multiple contacts (sales, customer service, management) for full lead coverage.

• Schedule monitors for any combination of days, times, toll-free numbers and ring to numbers.

Employing a monitoring service that notifies your business of missed leads can help you turn those missed opportunities into sales, and that can make every bit of difference in sustaining your business.

We realize it's not a new concept - tracking ad response rates, but we wanted to reiterate the power and level of knowledge that ad tracking, and specifically phone call tracking, brings to you and your business.

Imagine spending thousands on your ad campaigns with no way of measuring the results.  (Yes, a closed sale is a measurement, but you also need to measure in terms of leads generated.)  Knowing how many leads a campaign generates empowers you to make decisions on future ad campaigns and media buys.

Real-time tracking and recording features provide you with the knowledge you need to make strategic decisions when it comes to advertising campaigns; whether it be decisions on creative elements, your offer, the call to action, and the media outlets you advertise with.

With a call tracking service you can hone in on the fine details of who is calling your business, what their average household income is, their average home value, as well as when they are most likely to call your business.  How?  With detailed tracking reports that capture data on each incoming call.  Call tracking reports like:

• Addresses & Demographics will build your lead database.
• Zip Code Summary shows you the hot spots, where your callers are calling from; home, work.
• Repeat Callers Detail reveals who is calling you often, or more than once for information or to hire you.
• Missed Calls is a huge eye-opener for many businesses, they can monitor how many leads they are losing with a report like this.
• Hourly and Daily Call Summary reports show when your business lines are most active so you can determine the necessary staffing levels and monitor response to radio campaigns, TV ads, etc.
• Top Cities and Top Area Codes reports also drill down on where your callers are located.

 

With all of this data at your fingertips, you'll be able to more accurately plan out marketing and advertising campaigns, and get more return for your advertising investment.

 

Find more information about call tracking, call recording, and vanity toll-free numbers here.

There are some out there, so we'd like to debunk them.
Here is one:

MYTH: Good Vanity 800 Numbers Must be Expensive

If you (or your client) think they cannot afford a vanity 800 number - think again! No matter what the size, if your clients are not including a vanity 800 in their ad campaigns, then they're losing a significant portion of incoming leads - like 25-50%!

 

FACT: Custom 800 number costs are minimal compared to your clients' overall advertising budgets. In fact, a quality vanity 800 number is typically just 1% of a broadcast ad budget.

 

A vanity 800 number will increase the leads and sales from ad campaigns, providing a healthy advertising ROI.

 

Your clients can't afford NOT to have a Custom 800 (a.k.a. vanity 800) number. Don't take our word for it though. We work with businesses in many industries that experience more incoming calls and sales after they add one of our Custom 800 numbers to their ad campaign.

Here's what just one of our career college customers has to say about advertising with a Custom 800 number...

 

"I could not be happier with the response we get from our advertising. Using the vanity 800 number is an inexpensive way to increase the number of applications we process.  I would not give up 1-800-NEW-CAREER for anything."

by Brandi Armstrong

In today's economy, businesses must adjust to the financial challenges of their customers. A recession puts businesses in a strange bind. Companies must find ways to sell ideas and products to people who need the products, but who are increasingly hesitant to spend their money. In times like these, one of the most reliable techniques is the use of a toll free number. Even though it is traditional and has been around for decades, there are good reasons why most major companies still employ a toll free number.

 

A toll free number provides a key service - giving customers a cost-free method to contact a company. Telephones were the primary method of communication until the internet. A phone number that customers could use to contact the company for free was key to business operations for years. Companies set up complex phone systems to service their customers. Despite some customer complaints about speaking to computers, it is a prevalent method of customer service. Other companies have set up call centers around the world. No matter the method, these still require one thing for success - a toll free number.

 

The initial barrier is the hardest for buyers to overcome. This is the mental or financial anguish that comes from going from spending nothing to spending something. One is infinitely greater than zero. This is why many companies find success offering a low priced item to get customers "through the door," and making substantial profit on "extras." A toll free number creates a situation where there is no cost for customers to come through the door. Even though cell phones have free long distance, and some local rates are low, they are still greater than zero. Even the greatest call center or phone system is useless if customers do not call. Using a toll free number gives the least possible barrier to their entry.

 

A toll free number also has a secondary purpose of creating a corporate identity. Television ads and jingles often have, say, "1-800," and then a few words that identify the company. All this is due to the vanity 800 numbers used by many companies. Incorporating the number into the name of the company is also popular, and allows customers to easily remember contact information. Originally, these numbers had to start with the area code, "800." Companies made land-grabs, trying to register any number with the possible combination of numbers which could someday be used to form words. Then, if another company wanted that number, the owner could sell it at a high price. Today, the prefixes, "888", "877", and "866," all indicate a toll free number, allowing for more companies to get those sought-after vanity numbers.

 

Of course, there is a cost to having a toll free number. The call is free only for the customer. The cost for the call goes to the company that owns the number. However, the cost for telecommunications has dropped over time, and will likely be even cheaper in the future. Costs have dropped to the point that it is often cheaper to route calls across the globe than to have them answered in America. A toll free number is just part of doing business. Just like advertising and other methods to get a company's name out, allowing people to contact a company free of charge is necessary for a company's success.

 

Today, with the economy in a recession, buyers purchase less on impulse and research more significantly. The internet has become the primary tool for this sort of research. Web pages are run by virtually every major company to provide specific information on their products and services. However, there are still many times when a customer has a question that is not addressed on a particular website. There are online methods of communication, such as live chat or email. However, a toll free number is important because many customers prefer the sound of a human voice over typed words. Wary customers may wish to call just to know more about the company in general. This is why most sites come with the following phrase, "For more information or questions, please call 1-800..."

 

In short, a toll free number may not be the newest technology on the market, but it still has its importance in today's business world. With cell phones, practically everyone now has a telephone in their pocket. Businesses just need to give them someone to call.

Many toll-free service provider claim to have "vanity" numbers - but beware.  They may not necessarily be the best vanity numbers available, meaning they may be:

1. Partial vanity numbers that are a combination of numeric and vanity aspects (888-392-TOES).
2. Or, they may have a prefix other than 800, so they are not a true vanity number (866, 877 or 888).

You've probably noticed that some advertisers have to mention in their ad to make sure you dial "888" and not "800."  This is because "800" is known as the true toll-free prefix and our brains automatically defer to dialing "800" over the alternate prefixes.  It was the first toll-free prefix, and it is the most widely recognized toll-free prefix, as proven in research studies.

If you're looking for a vanity number for your business, just know that "true" vanity 800 numbers are rare, but not impossible to find.  Search for a true vanity 800 number today!

A great article on vanity numbers (or phone words as they're known as in Australia)...

by Gavin Scholes, CEO of Australia's largest provider of phone words and smart numbers, 1300 Australia.

 

For those who don't know the lingo, a phone word (or vanity number) is the alpha numeric equivalent to a phone number. For instance, 1300 CREDIT = 1300 273348.

 

For more than 30 years, phonewords have been a phenomena in the United States. Three years ago they entered the Australian market and have shot to popularity in advertising because of their memorability and demonstrated results when it comes to customer recall.

 

If you have a phoneword - or are contemplating getting one to boost your marketing efforts - here are 5 handy tips regarding how to use it effectively to maximise its impact - and your advertising spend.

 

   1. Use your Phone word throughout all your marketing activities - on promotions, throughout advertising, even on your business stationery and building signage.

   2. Phone words are particularly strong in radio. If your business suits radio advertising, use it and ensure your Phone word features prominently in the broadcast.

   3. Create fun little direct mail pieces for customers and prospects that connect back to your Phone word. For instance, send your prospects a packet of "lifesavers" with your name and Phone word as a solution to their problem.

   4. Ever get a jingle stuck in your head? Create your own fun jingle featuring your Phone word and include it as "on hold" music when customers and prospects ring.

   5. If you advertise in the Yellow Pages, make sure you feature your Phone word largely in your listing. Once a customer remembers your name, they don't need to look you up any more, and that's bad news for your competitors.

 

There are so many ways you can use your phone word and each time you use it, it grows stronger and stronger. A phone word is a valuable marketing asset and you should actively use it in your promotional activities to make the most of it.

 

Gavin Scholes is CEO of Australia's largest provider of phone words and smart numbers, 1300 Australia. Talk to 1300 Australia for access to expert advice and the broadest range of high quality phonewords in Australia.

A Custom Call-to-Action

Gienna Shaw, for HealthLeaders Media, May 7, 2008

 

Wouldn't it be cool if your hospital's phone number was so memorable that your customers--including referring physicians and patients--didn't even have to look it up? An academic medical center's heart care number could be (800) HEART SMART, for example. A community hospital that offers personalized care could have the number (800) ACH CARES. A hospital wanting to tout its overall superiority could use (800) TOP-HOSP.

 

In fact it's more than cool--it's a smart marketing tactic: Customized numbers used in the call-to-action in marketing efforts can increase response rates by 30-60%, says Laura Noonan, vice president of marketing at 800response, which rents out its collection of toll-free numbers to businesses by region. (Hospitals in different regions can share the same number--calls are automatically routed to the correct hospital based on the caller's area code.)

 

The reason it works: People quite simply remember words more easily than they do numbers. And, says Noonan, "It's all about the recall."

 

NextCare Urgent Care in Mesa, AZ, has two toll-free vanity numbers. The main number, (800) NEXTCARE, works for them because it is so easy to remember.

 

Another number, which they use as the call-to-action for a campaign they called "What's Next? NextCare," does more than improve recall, says Megan Lamy, regional manager of marketing and sales. The number, (877) WHATSNEXT, helps the organization track effectiveness of ad placements. For example, she can look at the call volume following a radio spot that airs during the morning drive and compare that to one that runs during the evening commute.

 

NextCare employs another form of customization, using a different URL for each print publication they advertise in. Then Lamy and her team looks at response data to decide where best to invest the organization's marketing dollars going forward.

 

Media advertising is expensive, Noonan says. If you're going to spend the money on it, you want to leave the audience with an easy-to-remember way to reach you when they need to, even if it's weeks or months later.

 

"It's really just good advertising practice," she says.

 

Having trouble fitting a word or phrase that's right for your organization into a 10-digit number? "It doesn't matter," Noonan says. "The phone will still ring if you dial the next number."