How Your Competitors Feed Off Your Success with A Similar Business Phone Number by: blog-editor2, January 27, 2011 As with anything done well, your business success will generate people who want to feed off or piggyback on your success. This situation is especially true for web domain names and business phone numbers. On one hand, you certainly can’t blame competitors for maximizing their own marketing ROI with this smart strategy. But it can be extremely frustrating and may mean losing potential deals and clients despite all of your hard work and dedication to growing your organization. Fortunately, you have the ability to stop the situation before it even begins! First, you must understand how competitors can feed off your business phone number. Just as with having similar Internet domain names, other businesses can feed off your advertising, reputation, and marketing budget by acquiring similar business phone numbers to yours. For numeric numbers, this situation could mean obtaining similar numbers that could be incorrectly dialed. In terms of vanity numbers, competitors may try getting their hands on the same vanity numbers with different prefixes since dialing the wrong prefix is a common mistake by customers trying to call you, especially if you do not have the 800 number version. Worse, if you have a well known company name, but you do not have the matching vanity number that spells out your name, competitors might acquire it and be able to take large amounts of prospects and even current customers who were actually attempting to call your business phone number. To protect yourself, begin by making sure you have a unified brand, including an easily recognizable vanity number. Then just as with reserving a domain name for your website, try to reserve as many variations of your business phone number as you can. Start with the 800, 888, 877, 866 and 855 prefixes and then move on to any other obvious combinations. Image Credit: © Nabeel Zytoon | Dreamstime.com Read More
Five Reasons You Shouldn’t Be Doing Business Without A Toll Free Number by: blog-editor2, January 26, 2011 1. Branding Toll free vanity numbers are a critical part of any successful brand. An easy to memorize vanity number not only can unify your branding and make you easier to contact, but it is essential for those who really aspire to become long-term fixtures in their industries. If one of your business goals is to become a leader in your field, then you must have a vanity number. 2. Advertising Effectiveness Whether you are a new start up, a large corporation, or a non-profit organization, toll free numbers have been proven to increase dramatically response rates to advertising. Isn’t it worth a few dollars a month for a winning toll free number that will increase the responses from your advertising by double digits? That could be the difference in only getting a handful of leads or getting several hundred from the same marketing campaign! 3. Better Closing Ratios Getting lots of leads is great, but unless they become closed deals, they are just burning up your resources. Toll free numbers offer superior brand recognition and credibility and have been shown to increase closing ratios significantly. So if it is closed deals and actual revenues you want, and not just inquiries, then don’t even think about launching your next advertising campaign without a toll free number. 4. Enhanced BPM In the last few years, toll free numbers have actually emerged as one of the most powerful tools for aiding more efficient business process management. Utilizing the latest toll free routing options, businesses can now offer increased service coverage and have staff working around the clock in every time zone at very affordable rates while streamlining their processes. 5. Business Continuity One of the biggest buzz topics of the last couple years – "business continuity" – is not to be overlooked. Toll free numbers actually provide the most effective and affordable tools for business continuity in order to protect revenues, gain customer retention, and ensure your company does not miss a beat even in the face of natural disasters and terrorist threats. Read More
Back To Branding Basics – The 800 Vanity Number by: blog-editor2, January 25, 2011 With the surge in Internet marketing and the ability to launch virtual companies overnight without a massive budget, many entrepreneurs and business owners are sadly overlooking some of the basics and their branding in particular. Branding is still more important than ever regardless of what industry you are in, whether you will have a local brick and mortar presence, and the size of your operation. When branding is mentioned, most people immediately think of logos and slogans; however, web domain names and 800 vanity numbers are just as important. In fact, 800 vanity numbers could actually be the most essential and powerful part of your organization’s branding. It is no secret that some of the most successful, industry dominating companies right now have gained their influence and are enjoying such lofty revenues due to their 800 vanity numbers alone. But even if your goals aren’t that big, the bottom line is that anchoring your brand with a premium 800 vanity number will have a positive compounding effect on all areas of your business, resulting in better ROI and superior profit margins. With a winning 800 vanity number as part of your core branding, your company will immediately benefit from increased credibility and recognition, which translates not only to more volume and customers seeking you out, but it makes closing deals a breeze. Of course, you can launch marketing campaigns without an 800 vanity number; you may even see some response although it is doubtful it will be anywhere near as successful as if you had one. The advantages of using toll free numbers and the impact they can have on advertising effectiveness are well known. So with premium vanity numbers available from as little $19 a month that will likely result in double digit improvements in response rates to your marketing, why would you even consider launching without one? Image Credit: © Victor Correia | Dreamstime.com Read More
Five Common Advertising Strategy Mistakes To Avoid by: blog-editor2, January 20, 2011 1. Not Developing a Brand It doesn’t matter how creative and ingenious your advertising strategy is if you have not made the effort to develop a unified brand. Proper branding includes having a matching business name, web domain name, logo, and an easily recognizable and memorable vanity number. Don’t just have them either; make sure you use them! 2. Failure To Test Whether your advertising strategy includes direct mail, telemarketing, or Internet marketing, those who do not test and ignore their metrics are asking for failure. You may need to temper the figures with a little common sense and insight into future trends, but the numbers do not lie. Use blocks of toll free numbers for split testing various elements of your campaigns and hone them. 3. Not Maximizing ROI Many marketing channels and ideas that you can include in your overall advertising strategy may work, may generate leads, and may even bring in money. However, just generating some income is no longer enough to survive. You must strive to seek out those channels that provide maximum advertising effectiveness and the highest possible ROI for your marketing budget. 4. Working Harder Rather Than Smarter Too many entrepreneurs and managers fail to harness the power of building blocks that can be re-purposed. This strategy means having to do a fraction of the work for much larger results; not only can it improve your advertising strategy profit margins, but it can enable your organization to reach more prospects for less money and grow faster than you ever imagined. This process can mean utilizing content more wisely and re-purposing article content for blogs, videos, and social media, or outsourcing your call center agents and using them to spin off new products and services. 5. Not Seeing The Full Potential "If you are going to think, you might as well think big." Thinking big certainly doesn’t take any more effort. However, too many business owners and managers still fail to see the full potential of their businesses. With a little wider vision applied to an advertising strategy, and just a little more effort, the exponential rewards can make all the difference in being a one man band or the next Facebook. 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
What Vanity Numbers Have Done For Business In 2010 by: blog-editor2, January 6, 2011 1. Enabled Industry Domination Companies like 1-800-Flowers have used winning vanity numbers and continue to dominate entire industries and block out almost all competition. With a buoyant annual revenue of around $714 million, it is clear to see just how powerful a premium toll free number can be. So if you thought vanity numbers were simply for vanity, maybe it is time to see what you have been missing out on. Remember you may not have to acquire the number of your choice for the whole nation initially; look into shared usage. 2. Massive Growth 1-800-Contacts is proof of just how explosive your growth can be when you tap into the power of vanity numbers. In just a few short years, this company managed to hit over $247 million in annual revenues, thanks to its toll free number. Combined with its matching domain name, 1-800-Contacts has built a formidable brand, so that, even if not backed by a profitable business model, it would still harness control of a huge portion of the market, which alone is almost priceless. 3. Revolutionizing Business Process Management Together with new cloud computing solutions and Internet phone service, vanity numbers have helped revolutionize the way businesses are organized and have fueled globalization. These advances have not only allowed businesses to operate far more efficiently, but they have enabled entrepreneurs truly to live life on their own terms, spurring the publication of books like 1-800-Awesome. 4. Maximizing Marketing ROI Toll free numbers have given business owners and managers the ability to hone in their marketing campaigns to target their ideal customers through blocks of 800 numbers, increasing direct marketing response rates to incredible highs. At the same time, vanity numbers have provided credibility and better branding, which have dramatically improved closing ratios. 5. Fueling New Ventures Vanity numbers have certainly made it viable and more profitable for thousands of new businesses to be launched in the last years as well as making it possible for existing enterprises to spin off new products, services, and divisions. These changes alone have created millions of jobs that may have single-handedly saved the global economy. Have you been underestimating the value of a great vanity number? Read More
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
7 Quick and Easy Ways To Promote Toll Free Numbers by: blog-editor2, December 21, 2010 If you have taken advantage of partnering up with a leading toll free number provider via an affiliate marketing program, check out the following quick and easy ways to let your visitors and clients know about your new service. 1. Blog Your blog is one of the easiest and fastest ways to let all of your prospects and past clients know you are now offering toll free services. If you have chosen a leading toll free number provider to work with, you should find that it has already created some marketing materials, such as blog posts, for you to use. 2. Email Why not use the opportunity of launching this new addition to your service to send out a new email campaign announcing your toll free number offerings. Or you can incorporate the news in with your regular enewsletters or autoresponders. 3. Banner Ads A great toll free numbers service provider already ought to have created banners and image ads for you to use. You can use them on your own site or launch a PPC or CPM campaign via Google Adwords, Facebook, YouTube, or similar sites. 4. Your Own Toll Free Number If you haven’t had your own until now, what better way to promote toll free numbers to your website traffic, channel partners, prospects, and past clients than to announce your own new winning number. You may even want to get out a couple of press releases to capitalize on the event to gain more publicity. 5. Twitter Toyota this week showed that it thought a Tweet was worth $500 by offering big incentives to those re-Tweeting their latest promotions. Twitter is obviously the fastest and most direct way to get the message out about your toll free service partnership. 6. Website Why not add an announcement or new page to your website about toll free numbers? More fresh new content is always loved by the search engines and could help you improve your overall traffic volume. 7. Sticky Widgets The best toll free number providers have developed incredibly powerful sticky widgets for enabling your website visitors to make quick searches for winning toll free numbers right from your website and returning premium vanity number ideas instantly. Use these to boost the value of your website and hold traffic. Read More
7 Quick and Easy Ways To Promote Toll Free Numbers by: blog-editor2, If you have taken advantage of partnering up with a leading toll free number provider via an affiliate marketing program, check out the following quick and easy ways to let your visitors and clients know about your new service. 1. Blog Your blog is one of the easiest and fastest ways to let all of your prospects and past clients know you are now offering toll free services. If you have chosen a leading toll free number provider to work with, you should find that it has already created some marketing materials, such as blog posts, for you to use. 2. Email Why not use the opportunity of launching this new addition to your service to send out a new email campaign announcing your toll free number offerings. Or you can incorporate the news in with your regular enewsletters or autoresponders. 3. Banner Ads A great toll free numbers service provider already ought to have created banners and image ads for you to use. You can use them on your own site or launch a PPC or CPM campaign via Google Adwords, Facebook, YouTube, or similar sites. 4. Your Own Toll Free Number If you haven’t had your own until now, what better way to promote toll free numbers to your website traffic, channel partners, prospects, and past clients than to announce your own new winning number. You may even want to get out a couple of press releases to capitalize on the event to gain more publicity. 5. Twitter Toyota this week showed that it thought a Tweet was worth $500 by offering big incentives to those re-Tweeting their latest promotions. Twitter is obviously the fastest and most direct way to get the message out about your toll free service partnership. 6. Website Why not add an announcement or new page to your website about toll free numbers? More fresh new content is always loved by the search engines and could help you improve your overall traffic volume. 7. Sticky Widgets The best toll free number providers have developed incredibly powerful sticky widgets for enabling your website visitors to make quick searches for winning toll free numbers right from your website and returning premium vanity number ideas instantly. Use these to boost the value of your website and hold traffic. Read More
Improve Closing Ratios with 800 Numbers by: blog-editor2, December 16, 2010 In the last few years, 800 numbers have rocketed from being solely the domain of huge corporations to mark their territory and of vanity toys for small and medium enterprises to becoming one of the most valuable and critical tools for businesses of all sizes around the world. The branding benefits of 800 numbers are now widely publicized, and organizations of all types have recognized their power both to attract new prospects and minimize chargebacks. In fact, more recently vanity numbers have even been credited with being responsible for the incredible success of new enterprises in many industries that have used their 800 numbers to rocket their businesses to industry dominating status. This use not only includes flower delivery services and contact lenses but even new books. Branding, publicity, efficient lines of communication and attracting masses of new prospects are all important for both new and established businesses. However, none of them are any use unless prospects are turning into closed deals and dollars. It doesn’t matter how much website traffic you can generate, how many incoming calls you can create from direct mail campaigns, or how great your products and services really are if no one is actually acquiring them. Fortunately 800 numbers have also been shown dramatically to increase closing ratios, adding tangible benefits and bringing in real revenues. Toll free numbers can improve closing ratios in multiple ways. Using 800 numbers for testing before launching large campaigns enables organizations to hone their messages and target markets, increase advertising effectiveness and maximize marketing ROI. Getting the right message to the right prospects at the right time means that not only will your response rates be higher, but those who respond are those most ready and willing to acquire what you are offering. On top of this advantage, the credibility that great 800 numbers can add to your image instantly positions you as the best if not the only choice for meeting prospects' needs so they are left with almost no option but to work with you. Image Credit: © Dario Bajurin | Dreamstime.com Read More
