National or local vanity number? It’s all about your branding

Did you know you can structure your business vanity phone number to appear to be either local or nationwide?

Either way, you can still incorporate memorable words, letters or a series of numbers. Keeping your own local area code may be important if your business brands itself as catering primarily to your immediate neighborhood or city, while choosing a 1-800 prefix may be best if you’d like to draw nationwide trade. Before seeking a new number, consider your branding and how you’d like most of your customers to view your business.

Here’s a summary of the advantages associated with each kind of number.

Liking the local: Emphasizing community and personal service

– They’re still largely memorable, since your local customers will have their area code memorized.

– They’re effective among customers who prefer to patronize neighborhood businesses. Researcher Stacy Mitchell recently told CNN Money the U.S. “buy local” movement has ramped up since the last recession. “Rather than pulling back and buying into the idea they could save a few bucks elsewhere, in many communities people seemed to make even more of an effort to steer their spending to businesses owned locally,” she noted.

– Customers may accordingly perceive your business as more community-oriented, friendly and personal.

– Some experts say consumers are more likely to call local numbers as they near the bottom of the sales funnel.

– Some may be averse to dialing 1-800 numbers because they’re associated with call centers, which are often unfairly stereotyped.

– They work well for outgoing sales calls; prospects are more likely to answer a local call than an anonymous-sounding 1-800 number.

– They prevent customer confusion surrounding businesses that have close-by branches in adjoining states.

– They’re accessible to international callers who sometimes can’t dial 1-800 numbers.

Bigger may be better: National numbers not so limiting

– They create a nationwide presence for your company, sometimes making it appear larger, more professional and more credible.
– Research shows consumers are much more likely to remember vanity 1-800 numbers than regular, all-numeric toll-free numbers. In fact, the 1-800 prefix is so engrained in people’s minds that companies attempting other variations typically find 20 percent of their calls misdialed to the 1-800 version. That’s probably because 1-800 was the only prefix for 26 years after toll-free numbers were established.

– They’re portable, such that you can keep the same number anywhere you move.

– 1-800 numbers are often better remembered by customers when printed on mailings or print ads.

Maybe a combo? Here are shared advantages

– They tear down the sales barrier of customers having to write down or search for your number.

– They promote word-of-mouth marketing.

– They encourage trust by letting customers know you wish to hear from them.

– They’re easy to install and incorporate into call marketing campaigns.

– When used with other tools, they can provide multitudes of valuable data about incoming callers.

– They help optimize sales to the many customers who still prefer to conduct business with live human beings.

Have a vanity number in mind? Find out more about that number by accessing Custom Toll Free’s free search tools.