800 Response and Infosurv recently commissioned a study that looked at the habits of 1,000 consumers when they were presented with an advertisement that contained a toll free number and a web address. They found that consumers were 45% more likely to remember the vanity toll free number of a company rather than its website. In one instance, a fictional ad for an auto dealer called Bayside Auto Sales presented a vanity toll free number of 800-new-auto and a website of baysideautosales.com. Respondents were 52% more likely to remember the vanity number over the website, even though the website reflected the exact company name of the auto dealer.

This study was carried out across multiple industries: automotive, home improvement, wireless,
education, and health care, using both visual and audio advertising.

Even though Vanity toll free numbers are becoming a little more difficult to create, it still makes good business sense to include them along with a website in advertising. And remember, this study applies to vanity toll free numbers only. The same statistics do not apply to digit-based toll free numbers. The meaning is clear: if you want to maximize leads, your business needs a vanity toll free number.

After Google Voice from last week, I wanted to get back to the basics and describe some of the uses, both standard and more complex, that consumers and businesses can put to toll free numbers. I’ll touch further on consumer use of vanity toll free numbers in a future article, but first, let’s discuss what toll free numbers can do for your business.

First thing’s first: the Wikipedia article has all kinds of esoteric facts about toll free numbers. As you might have guessed, they were initially employed by businesses through AT&T. In fact, a specialized company formed to host numbers from rental car and hotel chains. Once that company went under, these businesses realized that they needed to continue their toll free operations regardless, and the toll free number was born. But I don’t want to give you a history lesson.

Let’s take a look at a company whose entire brand has revolved around their toll free number. I’m speaking, of course, of 1-800-Flowers, probably the dominant case study in what a toll free number can do for a business. Don’t get me wrong; Jim McCann, founder of 1-800-flowers, already had a thriving business encompassing 14 retail stores in the New York metro area. But once he got his iconic toll free number in 1986, his business became national virtually overnight.

And he’s not the only one. Other direct sale businesses like Dial-a-Mattress have also thrived thanks in no small part to their toll free numbers.

Other types of businesses have been fixtures of the toll free number scene, such as Fidelity and East West Mortgage. All of these businesses got their start before anyone had ever heard of the internet, when word of mouth and catchy advertising jingles were the primary ways to attract customers. You don’t need a multi-million dollar advertising budget to successfully deploy a toll free number. With the web and local business listings growing at a frenetic pace, all it takes is a solid business model and a toll free number that sticks in customers’ brains.
To see if your dream number is available, pay us a visit at Custom Toll Free.com.

New products, new competition, new mailing lists, new government regulations — there are always reasons why you should be updating your direct marketing materials.

One of the best ways to test and compare the effectiveness of new materials is by using toll-free numbers. That way you can tell immediately which offers are getting responses. Plus, response rates can be tabulated automatically through your phone system.

Direct response consultants will tell you that you need to be constantly testing and refining. Here are a few of the ways you can test your materials:

• Test your new campaign to your current customer base. Mail to existing lists, or advertise in the existing channels. See how the new campaign compares to previous ones to the same lists.

• Test current directing marketing campaigns to a new customer base. Try a new mailing list, put your ads in a new periodical or on a new radio station. See how the new customer lists responds.

• Try out preliminary versions of a new campaign, testing to sub-sections of your existing customer list. This will help you determine which version of the new campaign to roll out to your full list.

When you sign up for toll-free numbers with Custom Toll Free, you get access to an online management tool that assists you with direct response tracking. There’s even a free campaign analysis tool included; input advertising costs and see your return-on-investment expressed in terms of cost per call.

Find out more.

Did you think Google Voice was simply a tool for professionals who had entirely too many ways for people to get a hold of them? Well, it is that, but it’s also an opportunity for you to get the word out about your business. With a little ingenuity, you can create your own “Google Voice 800 number” that will go a long way toward helping your prospects find you.

If you haven’t heard of Google Voice, it’s a service from Google currently being tested that gives you a single point of contact and has a number of neat features as well. One of these, and perhaps the most important one for a small business, is call routing. This will allow you to answer only those calls that come in on your forwarded toll free number and route other calls to different locations. For example, if you’re in your home office, and someone calls your cell number, which rings through to your Google Voice number, you can route the call to any of the numbers in your Google Voice profile, such as your main home number, where someone else can answer the call. If you’ve got a bigger operation, you can even have calls from your 800 number forwarded to other parts of your business or to the phones of individual employees. The possibilities are endless.
Of course, there are some down sides as well. You’ll just have to decide whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks in your particular situation. One thing’s for sure, a Google Voice toll free combination could be a life saver for a small business.

To get things up and running, you’ll first need a toll-free number that you can forward to Google Voice. After that, you’ll need an invitation to join the service, at least until Google launches the full version later this year. I’m working on getting an invitation for myself, so I hope to have a first-hand review of Google Voice in the near future. I’ll also be highlighting other features that small business owners will find particularly useful.

We’re pleased to report that as of Friday, customer record updates (required for service changes for toll-free numbers) are once again being processed through SMS/800, the central administration system for the toll-free number industry.

SMS/800 had announced Nov. 30 that requests from Resp Orgs would not be handled until after Dec. 8. However, on Dec. 1 SMS/800 sent out an second announcement saying that it would resume handling customer record updates on Dec. 4.

Both the original long delay, and the later short one, are of great concern to us. Customer record updates are required before service changes, such as the re-assignment of a toll free number to a new customer, or to a different account, can “go live.” As a rule, these updates happen so quickly that our customers think of them as almost automatic.

According to the original announcement from SMS/800, the processing of service changes was being delayed so that four service control points in the AT&T system could be decommissioned and replaced by new service control points. The means, essentially, that AT&T was replacing older, less reliable systems with new systems.

“We’re deeply concerned about any halts or slowdowns in the industry infrastructure that could affect our customers and the quality of the service we provide to them,” said Chris Rugh, CEO of Custom Toll Free. “This is a particular problem if the halts are not announced in advance.”

“I’m glad to say that service is now restored and customer record updates are being processed speedily,” Rugh said.

He added that Custom Toll Free is looking at the steps it can take so that it, and other Resp Orgs handling toll free numbers, will be notified well in advance of any activities that might cause future delays.

In the current economy customers are slower to spend. So now, more than even, marketing messages need to include key phrases that make the customer pick up the phone and call now. That’s why it’s important to tell people in your ads what’s new and different about your product or services — and why they should pick up the phone and dial your toll-free number right away:

The two most obvious phrases are:

• On sale
• Limited-time offer

But there are some other attractive phrases that command attention and inspire action. They include:

• Overnight delivery

• More style options in stock

• New, improved design

• Free estimate (or free sample)

Make sure your toll-free number appears prominently in your ad, paired with your special offer:

• “Call 1-800-BIZ-NAME today to arrange a free estimate.”

• “Call 1-800-BIZ-NAME today and your purchase can be delivered to you tomorrow!”

Need a distinctive toll-free number that matches your new campaign or product? Get started right away with our Toll Free Number Search. We can also help you get a great customer toll-free number that’s coming available.

One of the fastest-growing segments of marketing communication is outdoor advertising. Traditional billboards are benefitting from fast, lower-cost ink jet printing technologies, and new forms of outdoor ads are proliferating. These include electronic billboards, bus signs and bus wraps, kiosks, giant banners, LED message reader boards, and even taxi tops.

Studies of advertisers reveal that they choose billboard ads for their superior abilities to communicate effectively, to attract new customers, and to increase sales. eMarketer Digital Intelligence predicts that US outdoor advertising revenues will rise from the $7.4 billion posted in 2007 to more than $10 billion in 2011.

Octane Magazine recently published an article by Custom Toll Free CEO Christopher Rugh with strategies for selecting company names that attract business. Not surprisingly, many of the tips Christopher has for naming a company also apply when you’re selecting a vanity toll-free number. As you look for a number, aim for one that meets one of these criteria:

• Easy to pronounce. This is particularly important if you will be using radio and television advertising. Plus, easy-to-pronounce words are easier for people to remember. If your business name is difficult to pronounce, consider choose a vanity toll free number than focuses on your product or services instead. An example: 1-888-Pet-Walks.

• Easy to visualize. People are far more likely to remember a business concept that they can “see.” Think 1-888-Red-Paint. Or 1-866-Big-Boat.

• Distinctive. In recent years, there has been a trend in the technology and consumer products sectors toward colorful “nonsense names” — such as Google, Yahoo, Zappos (shoes) and Talking Rain. The best of these are highly memorable. If your business or service has one of these unique “nonsense” names, you may find yourself way ahead in the vanity toll free number game. Your custom toll free number will not only be memorable — it should be relatively easy to acquire.

A toll free number is a key marketing and sales tool, and selecting that number is a major business decision worthy of a strategic approach. We invite you to get started exploring the databank of available toll-free numbers using Custom Toll Free’s powerful automated lookup tool.

If you need a more customized approach, or want to inquire about getting a number that is not currently in the available pool, please contact us. At Custom Toll Free, we have experience helping companies find exactly the right vanity toll-free number — and the toll-free services that match their business needs.

Let’s start with a little history: Toll-free numbers first appeared in 1960, introduced by the US Post Office. But they really began to change the shape of business calling in 1967, when they were adopted by the old AT & T. In those days, toll-free service was known by the name of IN-WATS (Inward Wide-Area Telephone Service). You might remember hearing someone refer to a “WATS line.”

It didn’t take long for major companies to see the advantages of using toll free numbers to make it easy for customers to reach them. Not surprisingly, the early adopters included companies in the hotel and car rental industries. They set up call centers serving customers who were away from home and facing long-distance calling from a relative’s phone, an expensive hotel phone, or a cumbersome public pay phone. Customers loved the convenience, and companies found that toll-free numbers generated substantial ROI.

In the 1980s, vanity toll-free numbers (spelling a phoneword like 1-800-COMPANY) appeared on the scene, and companies clamored to get the best numbers. Today some vanity toll-free numbers are valued in the millions.

Custom Toll Free has experience in helping businesses select not only a powerful custom toll-free number, but also the toll-free services that best fit your company’s budget and business model. An entire suite of basic services is yours for free when you activate a toll-free number with us. In additional we provide an extensive choice enhanced services including virtual PBX, hunt groups, call announcement, call recording, and VoIP termination.

We make the entire process of getting a custom toll-free number convenient and fast. Contact us for more information, or get started researching a vanity toll-free number using our Available Tollfree Number Search.

Radio advertising accounts for just under 10 percent of all advertising dollars. It’s effective, universal, and mobile. That’s why many Custom Toll Free clients do direct response marketing over the air waves.

The folks at Radio Lounge USA are in the business of producing direct response ads for their clients. They advise companies to make the call to action clear and give listeners a URL or phone number that’s memorable.

“If you are driving users to a toll free number, make sure you are not advertising some random ten digits that are difficult to remember. Use vanity phone numbers,” is their advice.

Here are a few general tips for using radio advertising with your custom toll free number:

Know your audience. Pick stations and time slots that best match your audience demographics.

Repeat, repeat, repeat. Once you’ve chosen a particular time slot or show, stick with it. That guarantees enough repetition of your ad and your toll-free number with a particular audience (morning drive time, gardeners, talk show fans) that your information will be remembered.

Try “roadblocking.” The term “roadblocking” means running your ads on several stations during the same weeks. Businesstown.com explains why roadblocking can be highly effective.

You’ll also find some great advice for successful radio advertising here.