4 Winning Vanity Number Strategies by: Custom Toll Free, April 27, 2011 1. Niche Marketing Generic vanity numbers are becoming harder to come by for most industries, and marketing pros are more and more recognizing the power of niche marketing. By using one or more highly targeted vanity numbers you can laser target niche market segments by maximizing the advertising effectiveness of each of your marketing campaigns. Think of it like using multiple web domains and landing pages to appeal to different customers on the web. Read More
What Makes A Good Internet Domain Name For A New Company? by: Custom Toll Free, March 16, 2011 Along with choosing a winning vanity number, reserving a great Internet domain name for your business is one of the most important things you can do to ensure the success of your new venture. What makes a good Internet domain name? There are two ways to select an excellent Internet domain name for your business. The first is to opt for a catchy web domain name that stands out, grabs attention and is easy to remember. While this method has worked extremely well for many others, it does unfortunately generally mean more work and will be harder and more expensive to promote. The second and preferred way to choose a great Internet domain name in terms of SEO and ease of being found is to choose a website name that tells prospects what you do and includes your main keyword. This will make is easier for new traffic to find you when they are looking for your product or service. Ideally this will also include your business name in order to unify your branding and make it easier to receive referrals and for those have heard of you offline to find you on the web. If your business name is available as an Internet domain name then you really must reserve it even if you don’t want it as your main one in order to prevent the competition from grabbing it. If the second method of choosing an Internet domain name is not an option either because it is already in use or because it is too complicated to remember quickly or will be misspelled too often then consider this third option that has been producing great results for others. Some companies have found that using their vanity number as their web domain name is helping to dramatically improve response rate and increase closing ratios. For example "www.1800-YOUR-INDUSTRY.com". This makes your Internet domain name and website instantly stand out in search results and online advertising campaigns. Why? Because it offers instant credibility and helps your stand out and appear as an expert. Read More
Six Things You Should Be Demanding From Your Toll Free Service Provider by: blog-editor2, March 9, 2011 1. Shared Usage You should only have to put out money for exactly what you need. If you want the best premium toll free vanity phone numbers, but you don’t need them for the whole country, you should be able to get them just for the areas where you provide service. Shared usage with another provider, so you can use that toll free number just for your area, will enable you to get a better number, increase advertising effectiveness, and reduce expenses. 2. Toll Free Fax Included You should be demanding free fax service from your toll free service provider. Free fax service makes it easier for your customers, saves them money, and makes them more likely to do business with you. It also saves you money by not needing an extra line, and provides an easily traceable record for the future. 3. Access to Call Details Online You shouldn’t have to wait for your phone bill to know what is going on with your toll free numbers. Online access enables you instantly to track marketing campaigns and make adjustments on the fly to maximize your marketing ROI as well as identify problems immediately. Of course, it also makes it easier to measure employ performance daily and weekly and keep up production. 4. Voicemail to Email Voicemail to email and call notification by email services instantly alert you to business opportunities as well as enable staffing on demand, which can dramatically reduce overhead and rocket your profit margins. 5. Call Blocking Call blocking ability is essential for businesses today. It not only saves you big on your phone bill, but it will also save your staff an incredible amount of time, making sure they are maximizing production at all times. The best toll free providers should also enable you to block calls by area code and prefix. 6. Non-Blockable Caller ID Non-blockable caller ID means you will always know who is calling your business phone lines, enabling you effectively to block problem callers as well as capturing a prospect's number 100 percent of the time so no business opportunities are ever missed even if the original call is. Read More
Five Reasons Not To Attempt Marketing Without Vanity Number by: blog-editor2, February 22, 2011 1. Missed Branding Opportunities Whatever type of marketing campaign you are launching, a vanity number offers instant branding. Even if your prospects do not take immediate action, an easy to remember vanity number will stick in their minds until when they do need your product or service. This truth applies to PPC advertising, direct mail, email marketing, and display ads. 2. Increased Response Rates It has been proven time and time again that toll free vanity numbers consistently provide significantly higher response rates. So, considering the small investment it takes to get a winning vanity number, why anyone would ever dream of running an ad campaign without one is a mystery. Otherwise, you are not just throwing away money but handing those prospects over to your competition. 3. Improved Closing Ratios Vanity numbers not only help increase the response rates to your advertising, but more importantly, they also improve the actual closing ratios from your campaigns. That is where you really put profits back into your pocket. Ask yourself how much a closed deal is worth, not only now but also in terms of the value of a lifelong customer and the referrals you will receive. Easily in the tens of thousands. So with some shared use, vanity numbers are available for as little at $19 a month. That small amount can provide at least two or three times the closed deals from a campaign. It is really a no brainer. 4. Tracking & Testing Toll free numbers offer the ability to track and test easily all types of metrics and variables involved in your marketing. Those tools mean the ability to identify easily what is working well and what you can improve on so you can hone your marketing into a well oiled money making machine. 5. Maximizing Marketing ROI These compounding factors of increased advertising effectiveness through better brand recognition, higher response and closing ratios, and well-tested campaigns means being able to see the maximum return on investment from your marketing budget. What you do with the extra profit is entirely up to you, whether it is expanding your marketing efforts, handing out bonuses, donating it to charity, improving your products or services, or just treating yourself to a well-deserved vacation in the sun. Going to the market without a vanity number is the equivalent of handing over large slices of market share to your competitors. Win or lose – it is all up to you. Image Credit: © Vladimir Mucibabic | Dreamstime.com Read More
855 Numbers For Call Centers – Now Is The Time To Boost Your Revenues by: blog-editor2, February 9, 2011 In the last eighteen months, the call center business has become more competitive than ever before. With a surge in the demand for outsourcing and the new global way of doing business, third party call centers are now a crucial tool for almost every business. However, there is also more and more pressure to reduce prices and deliver a superior quality of service. To offset these effects on your bottom line and provide a higher level of service, it is necessary to add additional revenue streams. A great way to do so is by offering 855 numbers. When operating a call center, all of your clients need toll free numbers, and in most cases, blocks of many toll free numbers. So why shouldn’t you be offering toll free numbers and making money from toll free services too? At least one leading toll free service provider is now offering a high quality affiliate marketing program that will enable you to bring in additional revenues naturally from the client base you already have as well as helping you to attract new customers. The recent release of 855 numbers has attracted a lot of press, and as an affiliate, your call center can piggyback off of this publicity and demand by promoting 855 numbers too. This affiliate advantage can be done simply by adding links to your website as well as by using your product funnel and social media marketing to let people know about this new addition to your services. Or perhaps you just want to pack more value into your current programs by bundling 855 numbers with your regular services for new clients. This not only provides additional revenues, but your clients who are using 855 toll free numbers will also see much better results from their campaigns and be better able to test and hone their marketing campaigns, which will make your company look like a rock star compared to the competition. Read More
Appraising Domain Names For Sale by: blog-editor2, February 3, 2011 Domain name appraisals have become a growing business over the last decade. When you consider how web domain names are valued, you may ask whether it is worth paying for a domain name appraisal and what is the best way to avoid overpaying for a domain name? Domain name appraising is definitely more of an art than a science. More than one way exists to appraise a domain name and a range of factors can be used to determine its value, including name length, marketability, brand recognition, industry strength, revenue, traffic, and search engine popularity as well as how a domain name compares with other recent sales. However, what a domain name is worth to one person is often far different to what the next person in line may be willing to pay for it. In fact, few other products out there vary so widely in value, with web domain names ranging from a few dollars to millions. If you are flipping domain names for profit, it may be a good move to invest in domain name appraisals or at least to educate yourself better on how they are valued. Those who want to launch new ventures with a bang and enjoy healthy amounts of traffic from day one may also benefit from further research. For most, however, it is a matter of what an individual domain name is worth to you and your brand. For example, if you made the mistake of creating other branding materials, registering a business name, and acquiring a toll free vanity number only to discover the matching domain name is taken, then you may really need it and have to be willing to pay a significant amount for it. Whereas if having a certain web domain name is just a nice addition or preference, then you obviously are not under the same pressure. There is quite a bit of strategy that goes into getting the best deal on a web domain name, and making one small mistake at the beginning could result in the owner skyrocketing his demands. So before you begin any negotiations or show any interest in a domain name that is already taken, it is wise to consult a professional service that offers web domain negotiation so you can be sure to get the best possible deal. Read More
Direct Marketing – Testing For Effective Mail and Email Campaigns by: blog-editor2, January 21, 2011 Despite all the new forms of Internet marketing and the plethora of social media networks that have sprouted up in the last couple of years, direct marketing through direct mail and email marketing still remains one of the most effective advertising channels for businesses of all sizes. However, that does not mean that rushing and just sending out any direct mail or email campaigns is going to guarantee your success, achieve maximum advertising effectiveness, and result in the best ROI for your marketing budget. Throwing all of your resources into one large campaign that flops can not only stall your operation and income but could even cripple your organization. Fortunately, by using web analytics and blocks of toll free numbers, you can perform affordable tests quickly in order to hone your direct marketing campaigns and maximize your marketing ROI. By acquiring blocks of toll free numbers, you can use different numbers in a split test campaign to improve the various factors that determine optimal advertising effectiveness, such as your lead and data lists, the copy of your direct marketing pieces, email subject lines, mail packaging, and the timing of your delivery. Some marketers see testing as something that slows them down. However, testing means you can still get out a partial campaign and receive leads now while you will get a lot bigger return for your money when you go all out. Just look at the difference in not only leads but in actual dollars that a great direct marketing campaign offers. For both mail and email direct marketing campaigns, the response rates can range from less than 1 percent on the low end to over 10 percent for those who have honed and tested. Good campaigns will also yield higher closing ratios. So on the same 10,000 piece campaign, without testing you may end up with 100 responses and one closed deal, while those you have tested could be looking at over 1,000 responses and as many as 250 new deals. Which results do you want for your money? Image Credit: © Kotist | Dreamstime.com Read More
Why You Should Not Create Your Own Advertising Strategy by: blog-editor2, January 17, 2011 Business columns and business coaches often dedicate much of their time to telling entrepreneurs and business owners that they must be revolutionary in their advertising strategy and be unique if they want to win. However, the reality is that as an entrepreneur or marketing executive, achieving a successful advertising strategy can often be a difficult tightrope walk between doing what is working for others and offering a unique proposition. There are two problems with developing your own advertising strategy from scratch. First, it can mean ignoring the facts and figures and the tried and true methods that are working in the current market. Choosing just to learn from your own mistakes rather than others is costly and can result in losing any lead time you had on your competitors. Secondly, creating an advertising strategy that is too far away from the norm can be confusing to prospects and consumers, not only reducing your advertising effectiveness and the ROI of your marketing budget but alienating many viable customers. In order to develop a truly successful advertising strategy, you really should take the best of both worlds. If a certain marketing strategy, channel, or platform is proving to be incredibly profitable in your industry, you shouldn’t ignore it. Consumers will be looking for some of the similar attributes in order to find your product or service and judge it’s value and credibility. However, at the same time you need to be different enough from your competition to differentiate enterprise and stand out from the crowd. The perfect example is books. While self-publishing is becoming more popular than ever and has turned out many of the best sellers in the last couple of years, it remains an independent way to produce books; nevertheless, authors can definitely benefit from promoting their books on reputable sites like Amazon or by using Facebook likes and a familiar blog or website format for promoting it. What will you take from the proven and comfortable way of doing business in your industry and what will you do differently to develop the ultimate advertising strategy? Image Credit: © Ali Mazraie shadi | Dreamstime.com Read More
Domain Name Lookup, What Not To Overlook! by: blog-editor2, January 14, 2011 Domain name lookup may be very fast and relatively easy these days. However, there are some important factors critical not to overlook if you really want your venture to be successful. For a start, you need to ensure unity of your branding when performing domain name lookups. This means making sure that your new web domain name matches both your business name and toll free vanity number as well as your verbal branding. Unfortunately, all too often entrepreneurs and managers overlook this point and only realize their mistake once they have registered their business name, leaving them with the choice of refiling or being stuck with a fragmented and inferior brand. So make sure you check the availability of all three important brand elements when doing your domain name lookup. Other business owners and executives give up when they do a domain name lookup and find that their top choices are already taken or in use. Do not settle for a substandard domain name without going further. You can take advantage of professional search and negotiation services that can track down the owners of your preferred Internet domain names and negotiate on your behalf to get you the best deals. Other factors you should be looking at when doing your domain name lookup and reservation include the length of time your are reserving it for, the history of the domain name, and acquiring multiple variations. Many SEO experts claim that the length of time for which you reserve a domain name can have a big impact on how your website is viewed by search engines and can have a significant effect of your rankings. It is worth taking a quick look at businesses that may have recently used the same name since you do not want to adopt someone else’s bad reputation. Lastly, the more variations you get of your web domain name, the better protected your position will be and the better your marketing will perform. Read More
