Why Are Reverse Phone Lookups Used?
There are numerous reasons you may be wanting to utilize a reverse phone lookup these days. Whether you are checking up on someone, checking on your employees or business associates, or even looking for a number to acquire and use for your business, a reverse phone lookup is often the best and most revealing way.
Why Use A Reverse Phone Lookup?
- Finding the owner of a number that you would like to acquire
- Finding out who your business partner or associates are talking to? Are they being headhunted by competitors? Providing corporate intelligence to other companies?
- Seeing if your employees are actually being productive or may be considering cutting out to start their own enterprise and crippling yours
- Finding out who is really behind your competition and their advertising
- Tracking individuals or businesses
- Seeing if it is creditors calling and someone is incurring extra debt that could be a liability to you
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There are many other tools for both private and corporate spying and intelligence, however properly using reverse phone lookups is the cornerstone of any such operation. With the advances in technology and huge growth of the Internet this has become much easier to do, however finding a reliable tool or source for doing your reverse phone lookup can sometimes be challenging when bombarded with dozens of junk sites that waste your time or require payment and do not provide the data you need. The solution for this is that you need to find one provider for your reverse phone lookup needs that can not only provide free or low cost searches with access to the most current data, but also have the experience to investigate who a number's owner really is and are able to help you cut through all the red tape.
ShareThisThere are a wide range of ways that a 1800 number can help you with differentiating yourself from your competition. Those businesses and business owners who do not see the value and need for a toll free 1800 number are doing themselves a great dis-service. These 1800 'vanity' numbers aren't just about ego - studies have shown that selecting the right toll free number for your business can increase the response rates of your advertising efforts by 300% and can increase your sale between 20-200%!
It doesn't take a math genius to see that the value and increased revenue and ROI from having the right 1800 number for your business, could easily be the best investment you could make.
Having a 1800 number for your business sets you apart from your competition. It says that you are a real company and you know what you are doing - you aren't just a local one man band. A 1800 number or vanity number that spells out your business or industry can launch your company to stardom, make it easier for clients to reach you and help you retain clients. Think about flowers - who do you call when you need flowers? 1-800-Flowers of course. What if you need to make a collect call? 1-800-Collect. Just think what a number like 1-800-Success, 1-800-The-Boss or 1-800-Cash-Now can say about you. In the current market 1800 numbers are not only for big businesses, many people are going into business themselves or are job hunting. Using your own personal 1800 number you can position yourself to be the top choice and stand out from everyone else.
So obviously it is a 'no-brainer' that having a 1800 number is a powerful marketing tool and a great investment, but how do you choose the one that is right for you? A quality 1800 number provider can assist you in your search for a good number, but you also need to put in a lot of thought yourself. Choosing the best 1800 number for you is as important as choosing your business name and domain name. Ideally these will all mesh to promote a stronger brand. And certainly any new start up companies should be sure to check the availability of not only proposed business names, but matching domain names and 1800 numbers as well.
When running an ad campaign it's easy to grab any readily available number, but have you thought about the effect this may have on conversion rates? In this economy conversion rates are becoming increasingly important. Conversion rates measure each campaign's effectiveness and more importantly the effectiveness of each marketing dollar spent.
To squeeze the most return out of each dollar spent you need to make it as easy as possible for your target audience to order your product or service. One often negelected way of doing this is by utilizing a memorable toll free number. If you listen to the radio you'll hear commercials that mis-manage the short time frame alloted by repeating a random toll free number time and time again. You might even be guilty of this faux pas. But think about it just a moment and you'll see what I mean. Many radio users are on the go and need to literally memorize your number until it's safe and convenient to write it down or to place the order. Even after several repetitions, some more talk radio, 3 more commercials, a stop light, 2 freeway exits, grueling traffic, a quick jaunt into the grocery store for some milk on the way home, and soon your number is long forgotten even if the consumer really had an interest in buying. But how can you combat this information overload?
Simple, choose a memorable 800 number. The more memorable the number the higher your conversion rates and 20% of consumers are going to dial 800 no matter what prefix you use so don't fight the current. With over 90% of Americans using toll free numbers according to studies reported at Inter800, conversion rates have increased anywhere from 14%-to over 600% when using a memorable 800 number. Another benefit of a memorable toll free number is the time you get back for your radio spots. Use that time to sell your product and inform your prospects instead of having to repeat a bad number time and time again. In this one example you get two ways to make your marketing dollar work smarter and get the most of each marketing dollar spent. Bad economy or good, that just makes cents.
Custom Toll Free recently announced the appointment of Rick DeCamp as vice president of business development. In his new position, DeCamp will lead product marketing and business development for a new line of business centered on e-commerce technology solutions."We’re excited to have a marketing and business development executive of Rick’s caliber join our management team," said Michael Evans, president and chief operating officer of Custom Toll Free. "Given his deep and highly successful experience, we know Rick will make a significant impact on our business and product strategy, and help us continue the company’s rapid growth trajectory."
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.
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.
