Friday, September 25, 2009

Marketing to customers with a phone number that lacks vanity

A standard telephone keypad.Image via Wikipedia

I believe it's pretty common for companies to use telephone numbers that when the numbers are converted to letters actually spell words that cleverly help customers remember that phone number when needed. These types of telephone numbers are called vanity numbers or phonewords.

This article considers the fact that you are considering the use of your telephone phone number that DOES NOT have a hidden when translated (lacks vanity), but you want to use your telephone number to market your business.

So now you ask.
Where can you find examples of a partial word, an acronym, abbreviation, or an alphanumeric combination being used to increase memorability and increase response rates to marketing?

First you should know why so much vanity.
Many companies use these phone numbers on radio, television, print, outdoor, etc. as they are proven to increase response rates by 30-60%

So you know now that I'm talking about phone numbers like 1-800-FLOWERS or 1-800-BUSINESS or 1-800-CONTACTS... Okay... I think you've got this part down.

Now let's see how you can take your marketing to the next level. Maybe your phone number doesn't have to be so inflated pride in oneself at all.

Let's think about this a minute.
Vanity numbers or Phonewords came about before the cellular phone and the Internet. And users or marketers had radio, print advertising and word-of-mouth marketing to spread the phonewords with vanity (pun intended). Anyway, the point here is the points of contact with consumers was limited.

Here comes the whammy.
We have the Internet now and Cellular phones that do most of the connecting for us. So why not use your telephone number for your website address? Look, you may have worked or are working for a company now where half of your email address is the companies name. So?

So!
If you starting a business and everyone knows your cell phone number; use your cell phone number as your website address. Only make since. If your a Real Estate Agent with the name John and your phone number is 202-701-9393 (which has no vanity or phoneword), people would visit your website at: www.2027019393.com

Things that make you say humm?
Let's take it a step further. With regard to Realtor John... your email address would be: john@2027019393

And as normal.
Your still John now... and people call you at 202 701 9393

Where you going, there's more!
When anyone gives out your phone number, they are also dishing out your website address and part basically your email address at the same time. There are still situations where we write down information... like phone numbers and website addresses. It's also normal that you will only be able to find a small piece of paper to write on. Using your phone number as a catch-all, 3 amigo, you'll not need as big a scrap to scribe.

We only use letters (domain names) for website addresses because it makes it easier for humans to remember. However if you work very closely with clients like Real Estate Realtors, Insurance Agents, Personal Trainers, etc.; you could benefit from this marketing edge.

You may be asking, how will people I don't know find me if they don't know my phone number? The answer is; you will also register a domain name with words as normal. You could even mask your phone number url so when people go to it, the domain name with the words is displayed in the browser.

Example: you website address is www.2027019393.com but when people get your your website they would see the domain name with words that you also registered, let's say it's www.jrpremierproperties.com.

This is called masking... and there are no negative aspects to harm your website or the FCC. Just make sure you or your webguy or webgirl setup your masking properly and if you are forwarding to a different domain name... make sure you domain is set as 301 permanent redirect.Link
You've just learned how to use your telephone number to secure 3 points of contact and they are:
  1. How to use a telephone number as your Email Address
  2. How to use a telephone Number as your Web Site Domain Name with or without masking
  3. How Telephone Numbers can be your Email, Website, Phone Number that all lead back to you.
This is Gibron T. Williams, Head Honcho at Oevae Marketing Consultants and these are my opinions.
Find oevae marketing consultants on the first page of Google when you search for: the best marketing consultants or the best marketing consultants in the world
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Thursday, September 10, 2009

Hosting, Email, and Domain Names Unite

Everybody likes convenience. No brainer, right? Well this is something you’ve got to remember when managing your business on the Internet too.
Like mobile phone carriers that offer you Text Messaging Plans and Data Packages and more. The company you choose to host your businesses website should also be the company that provides your domain name and email accounts. You wouldn't use T-Mobile as your cell phone carrier then buy your Text Messaging plan from Sprint. So why would you register your domain at Network Solutions and host your website at Yahoo. Internet service providers unlike cell phone carriers, actually allow you to mix Internet solutions with different providers. What you don’t know is there 3 very good reasons why you should start thinking ahead on how you manage your business online.

Why it’s a good idea to bundle your businesses Internet solutions?
I know the answer to this based 10 years of experience at helping clients do everything from creating, registering and retrieving domain names to hosting and managing multiple email accounts. My findings will give you good reasons to pick one safe, reliable and affordable Internet services provider to help you manage your business. You will have solid reasoning to integrate Hosting, Email, and Domain which will enable you to make webmaster like decisions when managing your business online. It's not only smart for your business it could mean tainting your brand.

I’ll tell you upfront that I can be long winded on purpose, which I hope will help you examine my opinions and point of view from a chicken-eye-view and eagle-eye-view.

Okay, here’s the beef:

Let’s start with Passwords.
These little jumbled letters, capital letter, lower case letter, no special symbols, limited numbers and sticky phrases are sometimes remembered and often forgotten, can be a stinker to keep up with and record. Don’t be in a hurry or have a type-o in your password. No, this will most likely get you locked-out of whatever website you are making an attempt to sign into for a few hours or have you dialing technical support listening to music and artificial intelligence. So what do you do? Create fewer passwords. Simply put: fewer passwords equal fewer headaches.
The same goes for managing your Internet services. With multiple Internet service providers you can bet you last dollar that each will have its own uniquely safe password that you are supposed to create according to the rules they provide and never share this with anyone. This mean having your hosting, email, surveys, email marketing, and domain name divided amongst different service providers, you will also have an equal number of passwords to retain. That’s bad news. So remember to use one Internet service provider that with everything you need.

Now let’s talk Email.
You should be using business email to do just that – business. And when it comes to keeping commitments and communicating with your prospects and clients, you better make sure you email and website are properly aligned. If you don’t already know, email is one of the easiest ways for outsiders to interfere with your business operations. So you might choose to separate your hosting provider and email because you think one company offers more safety than the next which might be true? If and when you have a technical problem with your email, hosting or domain; having the same technical support for all three keeps you from dialing three different numbers searching for the answer that fixes your problem.
If you have hosting at provider A and email accounts at provider B, each will have limited ability to track activity from beginning to end. So you are left with trying to balance who’s right and who’s almost right with who doesn’t have a clue which is normally you at The End. The thing here to remember is the benefits of learning the habits, abilities and response time of one Internet Services provider Technical Support Team rather than spending half your day stitching together the suggestions of multiple representatives.


Let’s move on to Domain Names.
Your URL aka Domain Name, aka Website Address is the single most important part of your business online that keeps you in the know. No domain name. No online business. Failure to keep up with renewal dates. Somebody new becomes the new YOU. When you’ve registered your domain name with a different company than your hosting provider or email provider, you have more email notifications to monitor. You have or will most likely acquire your domain name, hosting account, and email provider all on different dates. Rest assured that your renewal notifications will respect these dates. This means you could miss important email and kiss a great domain name goodbye if you miss the renewal date. Limiting your online business solutions to one provider means you get one consistent billing system, using one credit card with a company you trust.

My clients have come from all walks of life and made the best decisions based on the information provided to them. I help my clients integrate Internet services that make it easier for them to manage business online. I’ve made dozens and dozens of phone calls to various companies registrars, hosting plans, and email plans and I have found that it’s imperative that you find 1 secure, reliable, and affordable Internet services provider where you can bundle your needs or move your business to a new company that helps you eliminate the headaches of managing your business online.

This is Gibron T. Williams, Head Honcho at Oevae Marketing Consultant and these are my opinions. You can find oevae marketing consultants on the first page of Google when you search for: the best marketing consultants
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