Three Techniques For Improving Business Marketing ROI by: blog-editor2, December 22, 2010 Branding Many new start-ups put off investing in their branding in favor of doing more direct marketing in the belief sheer numbers will pay off. Of course, it really doesn’t matter how terrible your product, service, or business marketing is because you will probably find someone who will part with money for it. However, in order to survive and grow in the current economy, you must operate on higher profit margins and maximize your business marketing ROI. Starting from day one with a great brand, including an easily recognizable vanity number, will not only ensure you see higher closing ratios and be able to charge high premiums for your products, but you can generate thousands in referrals and residual revenues. Targeting No matter what industry you are in, there are many forms of business marketing that can produce revenues. However, unless you are making sure you are getting the maximum business marketing ROI, you will lose ground to your competitors. How do you determine your maximum ROI? When you make sure your business marketing brings your product to those who need and want it the most at the exact moment they need it or are looking for it, it will mean higher conversions and the highest returns on your business marketing budget. Testing As an entrepreneur or manager these days, you have no doubt already been told that you need or should try out all types of business marketing channels from Twitter and Facebook to direct mail and radio. However, despite all the advice in the world and regardless of your personal hunches and experiences marketing, without testing, you may as well just be gambling. By using toll free numbers for testing, you can now guarantee that you are putting all of your business marketing dollars to their highest and best use. Image Credit: © Julesunlimited | Dreamstime.com Read More
Why Toll Free Numbers are Essential for Business Longevity by: blog-editor2, December 20, 2010 In order for a business to survive, a concrete strategy should exist even at its early stages. This strategy involves recognizing trends and benchmarking against best industry practices. In today’s highly dynamic environment, one of the best ways to ensure business longevity is to use toll free numbers. So why are toll free numbers so important? Well, it actually all comes down to communication. Whether you are running a B2B or a B2C firm, customers just want to get in touch with you at the end of the day. Toll free numbers make the process easy, cheap, and convenient for them. But take note; there should be a friendly voice at the other end of the line as well! Otherwise, your efforts might backfire. Having said that, below are other benefits you can expect from using toll free numbers: Improved Customer Trust – Research shows that people are 30 times more likely to provide personal data to an 800 number than a regular landline number. The toll free number assures them that you’re running a credible organization. Better Brand Awareness – Competition is stiff in the market. Both large and small businesses are competing with the same market. Through the use of custom toll free numbers, you can get an edge over your competitors. Provides a Professional Image – Customer perception is everything. Given this, you certainly want to leave a long-lasting good impression. A toll free number enables you to get a professional image the very first time a person is exposed to your business. All these factors will play a part in helping your business succeed over the long-term. It is no wonder then that many organizations are convinced that using toll free numbers is essential for business longevity. Image Credit: © Mattwatt | Dreamstime.com Read More
Keeping Your Domain Name Information Private by: blog-editor2, December 15, 2010 Privacy is more important than ever these days, especially when doing business on the Internet. Once your information is out, it can be copied and distributed to all types of individuals for all kinds of uses. While most individuals and businesses have learned to keep their information private in most areas on the Internet, this need is often overlooked when registering domain names. Did you know that without the right protection when you register a domain name, your mailing address, email address, and phone number become instantly available to everyone in the world at anytime? Whenever you register a domain name, you are required to submit accurate contact information for this WHO IS directory that lists all owners of domain names around the world. If you try to get around it by submitting false information, you may end up getting your website suspended. Posting your personal or business information for all to see online when registering a web domain name highly increases the possibility of your identity being stolen. Sales people and data miners will harvest your information and plague you with calls, emails, and mail. Even worse, this lack of privacy increases your exposure to lawsuits, making it easier for attorneys entertaining frivolous lawsuits to "pierce the corporate veil" and come after you personally. It even makes it easier for your spouse to tap more of your income and assets in a divorce! So what can you do about this situation? Fortunately, leading Internet domain name registration consulting firms now offer private domain name registration. Much like a registered agent when you file a new company, private registration or proxies are used by masking your details and making them private by publishing your agent's details instead. These are legitimate contact details for a legitimate company but act as a privacy cushion to prevent your information from being made public and being at risk of misuse. This service is normally very inexpensive, but it will pay off in thousands saved and avoiding hours of wasted time. Don’t register a domain name without private registration! Read More
Five Ways Toll Free Numbers Offer More Freedom by: blog-editor2, December 7, 2010 1. Toll Free Numbers– A Quick Escape From Corporate Chains Today, entrepreneurs and executives are not only starting new ventures because they have been forced to by the economy. Rather we are seeing a new era where people are actively seeking to start new businesses that fulfill their needs and involve things they enjoy, instead of just taking jobs out of necessity. The branding and marketing benefits of toll free numbers allow for the quick launch of new enterprises and rapid success. 2. Freedom To Work From Anywhere People are now craving the ability to travel more and even relocate to destinations that offer higher quality lifestyles for less. Toll free numbers provide the ability to travel and work from anywhere in the world while maintaining a professional local presence. 3. Freedom For Employees Not only do free phone numbers give owners and managers more freedom, but they enable all types of employees to work remotely. This lowers overhead for employers and creates a happier and more productive work force, which in turn means higher profits, happy customers, more referrals, and repeat business. 4. Bigger Profits The proven advantages toll free numbers offer for increasing advertising effectiveness and maximizing marketing ROI mean more available cash. More cash for the company means the freedom to enter new markets and spin off new divisions. At the same time, bigger paychecks for executives means the freedom to take more time off and discover new travel destinations. 5. Ability To Run Multiple Businesses The flexibility that toll free numbers and the latest and most advanced routing options offer means that you can easily run more than one enterprise at the same time. While more work may not sound like more freedom, it does give you the ability to work on all the things you are passionate about simultaneously without actually having to put in too many more hours. Read More
1-800-AWESOME by: Custom Toll Free, December 1, 2010 The benefits of toll free numbers for increasing advertising effectiveness through higher response rates, improved closing ratios and streamlining for higher profit margins are often shouted about. These advantages are indisputable and can have a major impact on your bottom line. However, this too often distracts entrepreneurs and businesses owners from some of the basic and most amazing ways that vanity numbers can rocket your enterprise. Read More
Six Tips for Maximizing Direct Mail Results by: blog-editor2, November 23, 2010 Get The Tools You Need Make sure you have all the right and best tools for the job including high quality lead lists, batches of toll free numbers, and high quality content. Without all three of these tools, you cannot expect to run consistently profitable and successful direct mail campaigns. It doesn’t matter whether you have a great list of prospects, if the message isn’t right. And it doesn’t matter how great your mail piece looks if your business phone number doesn’t close the deal and enable you to track results. Ensure Correct Mailing Unfortunately, as with any other industry, any type of marketing mistake can be made or your requests may just not be completed competently. You must keep a close eye on your direct mail, ensure that you receive the lead lists you requested, oversee that your mail is sent out at the right time, and make certain everything goes out. Check all the way through your mailing lists to doublecheck that everything is in order – not just the first sheet. A reputable mailing firm should not only be able to offer toll free numbers as a part of its package but also provide you with proof that your campaign was sent out on time and in its entirety. Call Capture Using toll free numbers on your direct mail pieces not only increases response rates and closing ratios but also enables you to capture the number of prospects who have called in but not left numbers or who got disconnected. Test Before you launch a full campaign, you must test. Testing in smaller batches allows you to compare the advertising effectiveness of the content of your mail piece, the quality of your mailing list, and whether you are sending at the right times. However, do not be too cautious; you must use tests that are big enough to assess results accurately. Any small batch of a few hundred pieces can either be a huge hit or miss. You should be testing at least 2,500 pieces per run in order to determine future profitability in a realistic manner. Monitor Call Metrics Do not judge the success of your direct mail campaign based solely upon how much you think your phone is ringing or what your phone reps are saying. Closely monitor your call metrics to determine the real results and where improvements can be made. Monitoring goes beyond just counting calls. Your toll free number provider ought to give you online access to call details. This information will enable you to see how long your agents spoke with prospects so you can tell whether there are issues with your script and which of your team members are performing the best. Recalibrate After reviewing your toll free number statistics and actually closing numbers, adjust and hone your direct mail campaigns for maximum ROI. Then continue to test new factors in order to improve constantly your revenues and profit margins. Image Credit: © Olgalis | Dreamstime.com Read More
Seven Places You Need To Use Your Vanity Number by: blog-editor2, November 16, 2010 1. Website Using your vanity number on your website is critical. Some people try to get by with just an email contact form, but failing to deliver credibility with full contact information can drastically reduce the advertising effectiveness of all your online marketing campaigns. In fact, it has been proven that providing your toll free number on your website not only increases conversions but helps prevent charge-backs. 2. Social Media You should not only be including your vanity number on your company’s social media profiles but on your personal ones as well. This listing will make it easy for those who want to refer you business to pass on your business phone number. 3. Business Cards Although the power of business cards may have become underestimated in the last couple of years due to all the other marketing channels available, you should have them, and you must have your vanity number on them. In fact, you should have a system that provides and requires all of your employees to have your toll free number on their business cards. This consistency not only improves effectiveness but makes sure you don’t lose clients when employees leave. 4. Email Signature Many Internet marketing gurus are now insisting that you include links to your social media in your email signature, but doing so isn’t a substitute for including your vanity numbers. You don’t want prospects to get lost surfing Facebook; you want them either to email you or to pick up the phone and make a deal now! 5. Display Advertising This tip should not even need to be mentioned; however, some companies still, surprisingly, attempt to use local numbers. You only have seconds for your number to be remembered, and using toll free numbers on your display advertising also provides easy capture of callers who do not leave a message and enables you to track performance better. 6. Blog While you probably already have your vanity number on your website, you will probably find that your blog may receive more visits and that your traffic is spending more time on your blog each visit, so you must not overlook your blog as a crucial place for your vanity number to be prominently displayed. 7. Direct Mail Direct mail has recently seen a resurgence in success, but without using your 800 numbers for testing and tracking, you are giving the edge to your competition. Read More
Are You Frustrated With Reverse Phone Number Searches for Cell Phone Numbers? by: blog-editor2, November 12, 2010 Reverse phone number searches can be necessary for all kinds of reasons. Perhaps you are trying to find out who is talking to your wife or boyfriend, you want to know who is behind that strange number that keeps calling you, you want to acquire a certain number, or you need to stop a number from continually running up your toll free number bill with unwanted calls. Whatever your reasons for a reverse phone number search, trying to perform your own detective work can quickly become frustrating if you do not know where to look. Occasionally for cell phones, you may be able to perform reverse phone number searches simply by typing variations of the number into search engines like Google and Bing. However, all too often the result is just bringing up paid reverse phone number search sites that cannot guarantee they have the exact information you want. When it comes to reverse phone number searches for cell phones, you can also try sites like Board Tracker, which are designed to search forums and networking sites that normally do not come up in Google searches. Or if you are really desperate, you can try call spoofing which masks your number and voice, so you can call the number directly. Fortunately, if you need a reverse phone number search for an 800 toll free number, things are a little more straightforward. Owners of toll free numbers are closely guarded by phone companies and sometimes even by the owners themselves. However, by using the latest and most advanced reverse phone number search tools, you can now instantly get details on 800, 888, 877, 866, and 855 numbers for free. You will also find that the leading toll free number providers offer further search and negotiation options that guarantee results. Read More
How To Get An Overseas Internet Domain Name by: blog-editor2, October 13, 2010 Many benefits can result from obtaining overseas Internet domain names. We all know the huge benefits of having multiple web domain names. Having multiple Internet domain names can both ensure no customers are lost by incorrectly typing in your domain name while searching for you, and it can prevent other competitors from trying to piggy back off of your marketing budget and branding. You can have all the domain names forwarded to one site or you can use separate squeeze pages on your different Internet domain names in order to reach different niche markets and improve your websites' rankings with the search engines with links between your sites. Those of you reaching out specifically to tap foreign markets will find that overseas Internet domain names can be a huge help in boosting your website's credibility and conversion capability. People like to acquire products and services from companies that appear closer or local to them. So how do you get an overseas Internet domain name? You must watch out for small scam operations that advertise these types of Internet domain names. However, the leading U.S. companies that provide web domain search and negotiation services also provide overseas Internet domain names including .uk and .eu domain names. However, you will find that in many cases you will need to have a business address registered in the country or region where you choose to have an Internet domain name. This process is much easier than you think and does not require you to lease expensive office space. Like in the U.S., you will find most countries have executive business centers and mail box stores that can provide you with a premium local address very inexpensively and can forward your mail to wherever you choose. These locations, besides being used for your Internet domain name registrations, can often also offer receptionist services and even provide meeting spaces on an as needed basis. So take a look at your operation to determine in which other countries you could be gaining bigger revenues and profit margins by utilizing overseas Internet domain names. Then get started on your overseas expansion. Read More
Low Cost Testing For Marketing Online by: blog-editor2, September 30, 2010 It is no secret that to survive and succeed in the business world today you must become efficient at testing marketing strategy. Split testing is the best way to compare quickly the advertising effectiveness of different factors of your campaigns. Direct marketing via direct mail and print advertising is one way to achieve split testing and can be incredibly effective and accurate using blocks of toll free numbers to pinpoint the successes and issues with your marketing campaigns. Now with most businesses extensively marketing online, it is also essential to test your Internet advertising campaigns before committing to one channel or strategy. Read More
