With the increase of natural disasters and terrorist threats over the last ten years, business continuity has increasingly become a bigger concern for companies of all types. So are 855 numbers an effective form of business continuity insurance?
Most brick and mortar businesses have business insurance already. However if they read their policies or have been through a disaster already, they know they will be left uncompensated in most cases despite having forked out large sums of money in premiums. A few emerging companies provide information on protecting your business continuity and can create elaborate plans for all types of contingencies; however, such extensive planning isn’t always needed or the best use of capital for many organizations. So how can 855 numbers provide a superior level of business continuity that is far more affordable?
Business continuity planning's purpose is to ensure that despite a natural or man-made disaster, whether hurricane, earthquake, or bombing, your business can continue to operate. Even when the economy was at its most buoyant for most companies, just missing a few days of business could be ruinous. What plans and safeguards do you have in place right now? Imagine what would happen if all of your business phone lines were down for a week, your month’s marketing budget was completely wasted, and you lost 25 percent of your current clients because they couldn’t get ahold of you? Your organization may be able to survive, though it would certainly mean a massive loss of market share and leave you struggling to catch up for at least a year while your competition fed off of your demise.
855 numbers can enable your business to set up emergency forwarding plans in advance so, should your main place of business or any branches be affected by a disaster, incoming calls can be immediately routed to preset alternative numbers so you never have to miss a beat. 855 toll free numbers, together with outsourcing and cloud-computing, document-sharing tools, can help you seemlessly to keep your operations running and revenues coming in.
1. Missed Branding Opportunities
Whatever type of marketing campaign you are launching, a vanity number offers instant branding. Even if your prospects do not take immediate action, an easy to remember vanity number will stick in their minds until when they do need your product or service. This truth applies to PPC advertising, direct mail, email marketing, and display ads.
2. Increased Response Rates
It has been proven time and time again that toll free vanity numbers consistently provide significantly higher response rates. So, considering the small investment it takes to get a winning vanity number, why anyone would ever dream of running an ad campaign without one is a mystery. Otherwise, you are not just throwing away money but handing those prospects over to your competition.
3. Improved Closing Ratios
Vanity numbers not only help increase the response rates to your advertising, but more importantly, they also improve the actual closing ratios from your campaigns. That is where you really put profits back into your pocket. Ask yourself how much a closed deal is worth, not only now but also in terms of the value of a lifelong customer and the referrals you will receive. Easily in the tens of thousands. So with some shared use, vanity numbers are available for as little at $19 a month. That small amount can provide at least two or three times the closed deals from a campaign. It is really a no brainer.
4. Tracking & Testing
Toll free numbers offer the ability to track and test easily all types of metrics and variables involved in your marketing. Those tools mean the ability to identify easily what is working well and what you can improve on so you can hone your marketing into a well oiled money making machine.
5. Maximizing Marketing ROI
These compounding factors of increased advertising effectiveness through better brand recognition, higher response and closing ratios, and well-tested campaigns means being able to see the maximum return on investment from your marketing budget. What you do with the extra profit is entirely up to you, whether it is expanding your marketing efforts, handing out bonuses, donating it to charity, improving your products or services, or just treating yourself to a well-deserved vacation in the sun. Going to the market without a vanity number is the equivalent of handing over large slices of market share to your competitors. Win or lose - it is all up to you.
Image Credit: © Vladimir Mucibabic | Dreamstime.com
Toll free numbers have always been one of the most powerful marketing tools available for businesses; however, the upcoming release of the 855 toll free number prefix offers even more opportunity to grab market share from competitors using new 855 numbers.
