Is Your Toll Free Number Available in Two Seconds or Less? by: blog-editor2, December 28, 2010 Are your business phone and toll free numbers memorable in two seconds or less? If they aren’t, then you are throwing away a huge portion of your marketing budget. Whether it is your toll free number on a billboard, direct mail piece, TV ad, or your website, if your number cannot be remembered in two seconds or less, your message is often rendered ineffective. Two seconds is even actually very generous for most types of advertising and prospects. How many times have you seen a TV commercial or heard a radio ad for a product or service you really wanted or needed, yet the number was too complex to remember in time? What good did the ad do, really? You can make all the excuses you want about getting your business name out there or that customers will be sitting by the radio or TV with a pen in hand next time, etc. However, this is not going to put profits back in the bank and certainly isn’t the way to maximize your marketing ROI. If you are going to market, then do it right. If you do not put the effort and wisdom you have into making the most of your marketing, then you shouldn’t be surprised when you start losing market share. You can hold focus groups to test how memorable your number is, though it is pretty much common sense. Short and straight to the point is the best. Trying to squeeze in extra numbers or words that result in odd spelling probably are not going to be as effective as something similar that can be said in one word. There are no excuses for not having a winning vanity number any more. The days of having to wait on the phone for hours with a phone company trying to figure out a great and available toll free number are long gone. The leading toll free service providers now provide tools that allow you to search and return vanity numbers in an instant. Read More
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
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
Phone Number Look-Up Tools by: blog-editor2, December 6, 2010 Many reasons exist for needing phone number look-up tools, but a long array of mediocre sites also exist for local phone number look-ups. Until recently, those seeking information on toll free numbers have been poorly underserved. Fortunately, that has all changed. Thanks to leading toll free service providers, you can now find a new range of great phone number look-up tools, including reverse phone number look-up tools that enable you to find out who owns specific toll free numbers, whether you are trying to find out who is running up your phone bills or you want to approach them to try acquiring the numbers for yourself. The best toll free number providers also offer phone number look-up tools for checking the history of toll free numbers you are considering. This service is very important and should not be overlooked. You do not want to invest in an 800 number that has a bad reputation and lots of negative baggage. The last thing you need is bill collectors and unhappy clients from a previous business calling you all day. Now you can even set up toll free number monitoring with phone number look-up tools that automatically track the status of your choice of toll free numbers and send updates to you every month. These tools save you time and hassle every month while keeping you updated when any numbers you are interested in become available. Whichever of these tools you use to track and locate winning toll free numbers, you may want to give some serious thought to retaining the services of a firm that can negotiate the acquisition of your favorite numbers if they are already taken. Unless you have experience specifically negotiating toll free acquisition, there is a good chance you will get taken advantage of or end up over-paying. Image Credit: © Vladimirs Koskins | Dreamstime.com Read More
Top Selling Domain Names by: blog-editor2, November 29, 2010 2010 has certainly seen its share of significant domain name transfers, further demonstrating just how valuable a good Internet domain name really is. Transfers include Dating.com for $1.75 million, Poker.org for $1 million, Guns.com for $800,000, BlackFridaySales.com for $90,000 and one adult-orientated domain name going for a cool $13,000,000! Clearly a good domain name is the best investment many businesses can make. It could one day be worth more than the rest of your company’s revenue streams put together. True, most companies do not have that kind of cash to invest at start up, but those that do can lock in success from day one. Acquiring a winning web domain name from the start also makes attracting investors and obtaining funding much easier. It not only looks cool, but through evidence of existing and estimated web traffic, it can show that your new venture is a sure thing with revenues just waiting to roll in. However, you can still be incredibly successful and even dominate your industry with a lower cost domain. Branding is key, and having an Internet domain name that unifies your branding can mean plenty of savings and help your marketing budget go a lot further. One way to guarantee your success and position your enterprise to grab up market share quickly is to acquire a powerful toll free vanity number and use the number as your web domain name. For example 1800FLOWERS.com. Do not despair if all of your domain name choices are already taken or they are being advertised for high dollar amounts. A leading domain name search and negotiation firm can assist by using its expertise and honed strategies in order to get you the best deals on premium domain names. Read More
Domain Name Lookup – Critical Mistakes To Avoid by: admin, November 24, 2010 If you are looking for a new domain name there are a few critical mistakes that you need to avoid. You Internet domain name is not just the heart of your Internet advertising but in most industries your website is now responsible for the bulk of your revenues in one way or another. Perhaps the biggest mistake that businesses make when it comes to reserving a web domain name is not ensuring that it is in-line with the rest of their branding. It is best to check the availability of matching domain names, vanity numbers and business names before registering any of them. It should go without saying, but it is crucial to check your spelling when reserving a new domain name. The last thing you want is to obtain a domain name that is wrong. However, with that said you should definitely also consider acquiring as many other versions of your web domain name as possible including common spelling mistakes and the .net and .com versions as well as possibly others for specific countries if you are doing business internationally. Experts also argue that the length of time that you reserve your domain name for plays into how favorably the search engines view your website. So for the small extra investment consider reserving your domain name for 5 or 10 years instead of one. Don’t give up just because your domain name lookup shows your ideal domain name is taken. You can often still acquire the name with a little negotiation. Sometimes these names have been reserved and never used while others are no longer being used or were specifically obtained for reselling. However, it is wise to have a professional negotiate on your behalf. There are many factors involved and it takes the right strategy to get the best deal. Read More
Transferable 800 Numbers by: blog-editor2, November 4, 2010 The beauty of transferable numbers is that you can select the toll free numbers of your choice and transfer or move (port) them to any phone carrier you wish whenever you like. This flexibility means you do not need to be stuck on the phone with your normal business phone line carrier for hours on end trying to figure out a winning toll free vanity number for your company. Instead you are free to acquire your 800 numbers from the leading toll free number providers who offer the best and easiest search tools. Look for those that allow you to search by keywords and return multiple great 800 number suggestions in seconds. You should also find that the best toll free service providers include a certain number of free minutes each month if you choose to keep your toll free number management with them. Additionally, you should expect to receive online faxing, advanced routing capabilities, email notification for voicemails, and even online access to call details for monitoring your 800 numbers and metrics. Using transferable 800 numbers means, of course, that you can port your number anywhere you want, but make sure you do a little research before moving phone carriers. While some of the biggest names in the telecom industry constantly bombard you with advertising on TV, you may find that they are not quite all they are cracked up to be when it comes to toll free number management. You need to ensure that you are able to move your 800 number again quickly if need be, that response times will be rapid in the case of technical problems, and that you have access to flexible routing options to maintain a superior level of service and seamless operations. Only then can you be confident that you will be able to retain the competitive advantage over others in your industry. Read More
Calculating Business Marketing ROI by: blog-editor2, October 14, 2010 Without a doubt, the current economic environment requires businesses to be more careful with and more demanding of their marketing budgets than ever before. If you want your company to survive and prosper, you must maximize your business marketing return-on-investment. So how do you calculate your business marketing ROI? What factors are the most important? Most forms of advertising and lead generation are invested in terms of how many pieces or leads you receive for your money. For direct mail, it is how many pieces you send out; for pay-per-click, it is the number of prospects that click through to your site, and for Internet leads, it is how many actual leads you receive. When calculating expected business marketing ROI from an advertising campaign, it is important to recognize the difference between leads and revenues. It really does not matter how many leads or calls you get on your toll free numbers if none of them are converting into actual customers. In fact, too many contacts not following through will actually begin to cost you more money. While most lead generation companies will shy away from giving you any hard figures on what you can expect in actual closing ratios, the prospective close ratio is still the most important figure when calculating business marketing ROI. However, smart marketing companies and lead generators, who offer direct marketing like direct mail and use toll free numbers for tracking, should be able to show you real numbers from what similar campaigns have generated in actual prospects and incoming calls. These historic results help close the gap between your marketing pieces and actual business marketing ROI, but in the end, it still comes down to your staff to ensure conversion. When calculating business marketing ROI, what you really need to look at is cost-per-action. In other words, what is it really costing for each new client and each dollar in revenues? Compare these numbers to your other advertising options; then strive to achieve the lowest cost-per-action possible and hone your campaigns to maximize business marketing ROI. This strategy includes doing a better job of targeting your ideal customers and improving the conversion capability of your phone staff or website. Credit Line: © Dmitry Baevskiy | Dreamstime.com 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
