Business Phone Words
WHY SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSESUSE PHONE WORDS
We already know that most words are more memorable than strings of numbers, though what’s remarkable is that consumers are 5 times more likely to remember a phone word than a traditional phone number. *
A phone word is an easy and affordable brand extension that can deliver more leads when used consistently across your advertising. Business benefits include:
- Easy to remember equals more calls. Most of your prospects can’t respond to your ads at the time when they see them. Phone words are proven to make recalling your contact details easier when they’re ready to act.
- Higher customer retention, we may not want to admit it, but customers are often distracted, rushed and forget who they used last time. That’s when being easy to remember is critical.
- Online marketing boost to both search engine optimisation and customer-initiated contact.
- More trackable campaigns with the ability to split incoming calls across different answering points.
- Improved ‘word of mouth’ advertising from signs, business cards and packaging.
With more than five times the recall rate of numbers, phone words are stimulating sales and leads for businesses right across Australia, making phone words one of the largest providers of phone words globally.
A quick testTo prove it
Here’s a quick test – glance at the following number for three seconds (or less, because most of your customers won’t memorise a lot of numbers) and try to recall it perfectly a few seconds later:
1300 476 984
How about this one:
1300 GROWTH
Much easier!
*As revealed in the Roy Morgan Phone Word Awareness, Usage and Dial-ability Report 2008
SETTING UP APHONEWORD
Our phone words are available to all Australian businesses. Depending on your carrier or telecommunications provider your business phone word services are usually connected within five working days, depending on the extra features selected and the number of answering location points required. Service costs can include the initial connection fee, monthly rental and call costs.
The use of business phone words has been prevalent overseas for decades in the United States especially, where phone words are called vanity numbers. In contrast, Australia has only recently adopted the phone word phenomenon. The popularity of phone words is growing rapidly and today 37 of the top 50 advertisers are actively using them.
HOW TO PICK THEPERFECT PHONE WORD
Choose a phone word based on your business name, service, product, category. This way it can resonate with your advertising.
WHICH IS BEST?
Make your phone word number a priority 13 number, 1300 number or free call 1800 number. Many businesses in Australia choose to have inbound numbers, for different reasons. Find out more about which number is best suited for your business.
FLEXIBLE FOR LOCATION
Phone words are beneficial for all types of business and offer the same national coverage as an inbound number, making phone words a simple choice regardless of customer or business location.
HOW TO GET THE MOSTOUT OF A PHONE WORD?
The best way to get the most out of your phone word is to use it in all of your current communications. Effective marketing of your phone word is the result of exposing your target audience to your phone word as often and in as many ways as possible.
To achieve maximum impact you should display the phone word everywhere you currently display your old number. Some obvious yet often forgotten forms of advertising are:
- Website and Social Media.
- Email Signatures.
- On Hold Messages.
- Word of Mouth
- Directory Listings.
- Stationery e.g. Business cards, Letterheads, Invoices.
- Vehicle Signage.
- Outdoor Signage.
- Uniforms
- Promotional Items – Pens, Magnets and Postcards, etc.
Think about how many ways you could use a phone word in your business. The more you use it, the more people will remember it reinforcing your strength in the market.
Business Phone words displayed online can work to your advantage. Phone words can be utilised in online strategies and easily measured for results.
Phone words are effective for social media and other online strategies including SEO.
A generic phone word can boost your SEO and helps rank as a generic term because it will be mentioned often on a website. A phone word can attract links to a website with a generic term, which is critical for SEO.
This means that if your customer owns 1300 Flowers it will be much easier to rank for the term “Flowers” which is a very popular search term.
THE RECALL RATE OF PHONE WORDS IS 45% HIGHER THAN THE RECALL RATE OF A WEB ADDRESS URL.
Recent research in the USA on recall rates and online research behaviors demonstrates that it’s essential for businesses to include a phone word in addition to their web address in online advertising campaigns for optimal lead generation.