According to a recent study, vanity numbers have long been a powerful marketing tool: An advertiser can expect an 84% improvement in the number of people who call their business if they use a vanity number.1 Why are they so effective? A few of the factors that make vanity numbers such a compelling facet of your marketing strategy include the ways in which they:
- Are easier to remember
- Help you earn high-quality leads
- Earn customers’ trust
- Help you achieve brand recognition
- Enable you to leverage a local presence
1. Easy to Remember
In a study performed a few years ago, over 33% of people couldn’t remember their children’s phone numbers or their workplace’s number and had to look it up in their phones.2 This isn’t surprising given that most people walk around with an easily accessible bank of thousands of numbers in their pocket—but it could be a problem for your business. With a vanity number, you can make it easier for the customer to remember your business phone number on the fly without checking their phone.
Often, when you meet someone and need to remember their phone number, you quickly enter it into your phone. But if you see an advertisement for a business, you may be less likely to take your phone out and enter its number. Also, if the number is hard to remember, even if you do want to enter it into your phone, you may forget what it was by the time you have a chance to put it in your contact list. This is especially true if you see or hear the number while driving or are distracted by something else.
A vanity number bypasses these obstacles because it gives your customers something as easy to remember right off the bat. If they drive by a billboard or hear an advertisement on the radio with a number such as 800-WorkOut, there will be much less head-scratching when it comes time to dial it or save it in the contacts.
2. They Help You Earn High-Quality Leads
While all leads are good, some are easier to convert into customers than others. Vanity numbers can help draw in clients and customers who may move through the marketing funnel faster.
For instance, with a number like 800-BuildNow, not only is the number easy to remember, but it also connotes a sense of intention. Someone who is ready to get started on their construction project may be drawn to your business simply because they’re looking for someone to help them “build now.” A prospect like this has more value than someone who is casually interviewing different contractors to build their home.
3. Earn Customers’ Trust
A vanity number carries a sense of familiarity as well as a personal touch that a normal number is unlikely to convey. This can help customers trust your business, feel more at ease, and be more comfortable moving forward with a purchase.
You Stand By Your Business
A business with a vanity number portrays itself as one that stands by its services and products. If you’re willing to attach a personalized touch to your phone number, such as the name of your business, you are, quite literally, putting your business on the line. When someone thinks about your number, they automatically associate it with your business, so the service they get after calling has to reflect well on what you provide and your values.
A Vanity Number Is an Attempt to Connect
With a vanity number, you’re extending a hand to your customers in a way that you can’t necessarily accomplish with a regular phone number. Instead of choosing a random number, you have gone out of your way to provide something that customers can recall easily.
Represent Your Company as a Thoughtful Business
Even though many businesses are competing on an international scale, and some have huge budgets and organizations to keep them competitive, customers often value a thoughtful, personalized approach more than the size of your operation. A vanity number tells prospective customers that you put thought into everything, including how people contact you. Therefore, you are far more likely to give personal, thoughtful care to them as well.
4. Brand Recognition
A vanity number’s power as a brand recognition tool is one of the most compelling reasons to include it in your marketing strategy. Brand recognition involves several different facets, many of which can be achieved using a vanity number:
- Remembering the name of your business. When your brand recognition strategy puts the name of your business top of mind for your target demographics, the frequency with which they reach out to you for products and services will increase. A vanity number can reinforce the name of your business in the minds of customers each time they see it.
- Remembering your services. When a vanity number includes an element of what you offer, the number reiterates that in the minds of your customers every time they see it. For example, if you teach music lessons, you could choose an 800 number like 800-ICanPlay. Each time people see, hear, or read your number, they’re reminded about where they can learn to strum, bang, or bow their way to being the next virtuoso.
- Remembering the quality of your services. You can use a vanity number to convey elements of your services or products that make them stand out from the competition. These may include the quality of what you provide or a particular element of what you do that others don’t offer. For instance, if you have a plumbing service that specializes in last-minute service calls, you can choose a vanity number like 800-PlumbingNow. When customers see your number, they’ll be reminded that they can get service right away, regardless of the nature of the job.
5. Leverage a Local Presence
A local presence is becoming a hotter and hotter commodity in a world where businesses are becoming more international. Incorporating a local element in your vanity number makes a firm statement to customers in several different ways.
You’re Loyal to the Area
Someone who expresses a sense of devotion to a specific area may be easier to trust than an outsider. Suppose, for example, you’re a garage serving the Fenway area of Boston, and the name of your business is Tom’s Garage. Even if you incorporated elements of your business name in your 800 number, you wouldn’t necessarily be appealing to customers in your specific area. On the other hand, if you were to create a 1-800 number like 800-FenwayFix, you automatically convey to customers:
- Your general location
- Your loyalty to the Boston and Fenway area
- Your loyalty to the Red Sox (an all-important detail for the Fenway Faithful)
- Your commitment to staying local
You Focus on Providing Local, Individualized Service
It can be comforting for customers, most of whom understand that you have the option to service people from various locations—even worldwide—that you’re still focused on providing a friendly, smiling, familiar service “right around the corner.”
It’s common for florists to send arrangements many miles—and even out of state—to meet customer requests coming from their e-commerce site. But if you add a local element in your vanity number, you send a message that regardless of the reach of your business, your heart is dedicated to the community.
For instance, a number like 800-NYCBloom may convey to customers that even though they live in a city that’s constantly inundated with the hustle and bustle of cosmopolitan life, a friendly florist is just a few train stops away.
You’re Close Enough to Handle Issues Personally
A vanity phone number that conveys locality can also reassure customers that in the event something goes wrong with their order or product, you’re close enough to personally take care of the problem. In the minds of many customers, this may be preferable to relying on someone in a call center thousands of miles away to address their problem.
In some situations, if you get a toll-free number with a local touch to it, customers may gravitate towards your business because they know they can swing by to chat about your product after purchase.
For instance, if you run a homebrew shop and have a localized custom 800 number, such as 800-LABrews, every time someone sees or thinks about your number, the fact that you’re in the LA area is reinforced. As a result, they may be comforted knowing they can swing by your shop to chat about the best-tasting malts and hops whenever they feel like it.
With 800.com, you can get a vanity number that’s easy to remember, gets you high-quality leads, earns customers’ trust, achieves brand recognition, and leverages your local presence. You can run your business using your cell phone, getting calls forwarded directly to you—or employees—giving you the control you need. You can also have an auto-attendant provide a polished greeting, as well as manage your extensions and account—in the palm of your hand, on your computer, or from the office. Connect with 800.com today to learn more.
