Why Do I Need A Toll Free Vanity Number?

When it comes to boosting your bottom line and keeping you top-of-mind with customers, nothing pays off quite like a Custom “Vanity” 800 number.

Vanity numbers are customized 800 phone numbers that are easily remembered, say what you do, who you are, and how you can be reached

And Most Importantly…People Remember Them

By using a combination of letters on the telephone keypad, you can form significant and personalized words for your phone number. 

Consumers like them because they're free to call.

Advertisers like them because customers are more likely to call.

Companies like them because they create a national, larger presence for their business.

Vanity Numbers are simple to set up that even the smallest part time business, almost can't afford not to use one.  And they are cheap!

Click here to sign up now. Enter code MIACO for a Cable Girl discount!

10 Reason to have a Vanity Number

What is a “Vanity” number?

What is a Toll Free Number?

How Do Toll-Free Numbers Work?

Here are 10 Reasons to have a Vanity Number

The are a lot of benefits to a good vanity number. These are in addition to the benefits of a toll free number because you can have a toll free number that is not a vanity number and a vanity number that is not a toll free number too. But when you combine the two you get a very valuable combination that will definitely help your business in a number of ways. Here’s my top 10 list for benefits of a Vanity Number.

10. INCREASED RESPONSE RATES - The most tangible and measurable benefit of a great vanity number is an increased response rate to all advertising. If you don't do much advertising it won't make much difference, but if you do any significant amount of advertising a good number can easily increase your response rate by typically 12 to 42 percent and sometimes more. And one third of your advertising can certainly be a lot of money.

9. CREDIBILITY & PRESTIGE - A good toll free number gives even the smallest start up, an air of credibility and authority. Consumers also trust companies more when they are more accessible. They feel more comfortable knowing they can pick up the phone and talk to someone real. You could be a one man business with just a cell phone and a website, but a good vanity number will help create a much stronger image in your prospects mind.

8. INSTANT BRAND NAME - Just like a good domain name, a good vanity number creates an almost instantly prestigious brand name. This is probably more true of 8-0-0 vanity numbers because of the amount of advertising that’s been done by large companies over the years.

7. CUSTOMER FOCUSED IMAGE - Toll free numbers create a professional customer focused image. They show a companies desire to hear from consumers and make it easy for consumers to call and make the company seem more local no matter where they're based.

6. STRONGER PRESENCE - A good vanity number makes you look larger and more established and creates an image of a good more significant brick and mortar business, which has proven to be a real advantage in online marketing.

5. BETTER DOMAIN NAME AVAILABILITY - YourName.com is usually not available. But 1800YourName.com usually IS! This also has an added benefit of putting you ahead of even the A's in the alphabetic directory listings.

4. REPEAT AND SECOND HAND MARKETING - A good vanity number is one of the few things you can do to increase word-of-mouth and customer referral marketing as well as repeat customers. That’s because a vanity number makes it easier for customers to remember how to reach you for repeat orders and to tell someone else how to reach you.

3. BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE - Toll free numbers not only improve customer service but create a strong customer service image and focus and allow for hand holding when unsure customers can talk to a live person.

2. IMPROVING CUSTOMER FEEDBACK - One of the most important and often over looked aspects of building a successful business is getting feedback and staying in touch with your clients, prospects, visitors etc. Knowing where visitors or prospects have questions, needs or problems is crucial to keep your business on the right track and growing.

1. ADDITIONAL SALES AVENUE - One of the most important benefits of a good toll free vanity number is that it gives you an additional channel to reach more customers and close more sales.

Unfortunately good vanity numbers like .COM domain names have always been hard to find, and like domain names, once they're gone, they may never be available again. The bottom line is that anyone that does business or deals with customer over the phone can reap huge benefits from a great vanity number.

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What is a “Vanity” number?

We’ve all seen vanity numbers, or numbers that spell things in every industry. 90% of the TV commercials during the super bowl that contain a toll free number were vanity numbers because advertising without a vanity number is like running the air conditioning with the window open. You lose a significant amount of your potential responses when you require prospects to remember a series of unrelated mostly random digits in order to be able to reach you. Some will still get through to you of course, but not nearly as many as you’d get with a memorable word or phrase.

The whole purpose of your advertising is to create a lasting connection with potential customers. A vanity number will make your commercial more memorable. And the most important part of your advertising you want to be memorable is your call to action which is generally a phone number or a domain name. But beyond that you also want the prospect to remember who you are, what you do, how to reach you on the phone and/or the internet.  A vanity number that is attached to a product or service can greatly increase your company’s brand recognition. Your company gains an edge over the competition when customers can identify a vanity number with a brand.

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What is a Toll Free Number?

A toll free number is a telephone number that can be called at no cost to the caller, because the recipient pays for the cost of the call. Also referred to as ‘800’ numbers after the original area code, although toll free numbers today can start with the area codes, 800, 888, 877, and 866. The area codes 855, 844, 833, and 822 have also been reserved for toll free activation in the future if and when necessary.

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How Do Toll-Free Numbers Work?

A toll free number just forwards to or points to a regular local number. No special equipment or additional line or installation is required. When a call is placed to a toll free number, the Local Exchange Company (LEC) queries the SMS800 Database to determine the inter-exchange carrier (long distance company) responsible for carrying the call. The inter-exchange carrier then picks up the call, applies the appropriate features or routing, creates a call record for billing, and routes the call to the terminating number, trunk ID or circuit ID to which the toll free number is programmed to ring to. This entire process takes milliseconds and is virtually transparent to the caller.

In plain English, it’s free for the caller and whenever anyone dials this number, it’s routed via the long distance company the owner selects to the local number they have programmed or chosen and the owner pays for the cost of the incoming call, basically as if they had made it themselves.

All features such as caller id, call waiting, call forwarding or roll overs, voicemail or any answering equipment or service all work the exact same as if the caller had dialed the local number. This doesn’t affect the local number and the incoming toll free calls can’t be distinguished from regular local calls which still work the same too. That is unless you use distinctive ringing, or an enhanced toll free service that announces the calls before connecting the call. The simplest way to think of a toll free number is as a remote call forwarded number, that doesn’t have any physical location, but just forwards into where ever it’s pointed.

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Some Facts about Toll Free Numbers

• 90% of Americans say they use toll free numbers.
• More than one-third of Americans estimates that they make 60 or more toll free calls per year.
• Demand for new toll free 888 numbers for business and personal uses averaged above 238,000 requests per month, since introduction of the 888 code on March 1, 1996. That's in excess of 2,800,000 new 888 numbers per year.  This led to the creation of 877 numbers.
• Toll free calling generates an estimated $157 billion in annual sales of goods and services in 1997. In addition, experts say that 84% of current Internet users rely on electronic media to search for product or service information in order to make a purchase (Source: InternetTrak). Being able to locate the 800 number on the Internet greatly improves the success rate of any Internet ad or Web site.

Sources: Individuals, Inc.; PR Newswire; Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions

• The average phone order from a catalog can be 30% to 70% higher than the average mail order.
• As telephone buyers generally use credit cards, they will order more merchandise and higher ticket items 95% of the time.
• Productive ads featuring an 800 number can generate approximately 30% more orders.
• In a study accomplished by Bellcore, paper ads that were almost identical were displayed and monitored. One group had an 800 toll-free number and the others didn't. The toll-free number ads received six times the number of calls as did the regular long-distance listings. It also seems that this will hold true regardless of the socioeconomic level of the caller.

(Source:"Zip Feature Article")

• If you want to decrease returns by as much as 50%, use an 800/888 number on product literature. This encourages customers to call in and resolve difficulties with a trained expert. (Source:"Telephone Marketing Report")
• Fund-raising organizations have increased their response approximately 25% by adding that 800/888 number in commercials, print ads or direct mail pieces which previously used only addresses. (Source:"A.I.S.800 Report")

There are some additional studies but they are produced by companies which market toll free vanity numbers and are not as credible as I believe these statistics to be. Some of these show up to a 1400% increase in response rate using a memorable vanity number, but this is certainly not characteristic or an appropriate expectation for many applications.

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