Virtual Office Featured Article

The Power of Customer Local Phone Numbers

January 19, 2016

Like any business owner, you want customers to think of you first and call you before they call your competition. One powerful differentiator is the custom phone number —also known as a vanity number.

Vanity numbers have nothing to do with vanity. Instead, they make it easy for your customers to remember your phone number and call you FIRST. For example, when you think of ordering flowers, 1-800-FLOWERS probably goes through your mind!

Sue Walsh Phone (News - Alert).com


Toll-free vanity numbers have long been popular with companies wanting to promote their brands. But this past year at Phone.com (News - Alert), we began offering something we believe to be even more powerful: Custom Local Numbers.

A custom local number is a vanity number that makes it easy for callers to remember your business, but it uses a local area code, grounding your company where your customers live and work. Think 1-your area code-FLOWERS. You become synonymous with buying flowers in your neighborhood.

In Corona, California, for example, there are more than a dozen florists, all with standard (951) area code phone numbers. Imagine if one of them purchased the custom local number 951-356-9377, giving them the power to advertise their number as 951-FLOWERS. For around $100, that florist corners the local market.

Over the past year at Phone.com, we've seen the benefits of using a custom local number, benefits our customers are beginning to see too:

  • Custom local numbers are available! Unlike 800 numbers, you can likely find a local area-code number that spells out exactly what you do.
  • Custom numbers are not only easy to recall, but easy for customers to share with friends.
  • The ROI is instant. Using custom local numbers in marketing materials is shown to boost response rates by around 24 percent. And calls into your business have been shown to convert to revenue 10 times more than web leads.
  • A local vanity number is just so marketable. Use it in a radio jingle and get everyone singing your number. Add it to a window banner, your store packaging and your signage at community events. A custom local number makes it so easy to build your brand!

Phone.com’s inventory of custom numbers (local and toll-free) is substantial, and 2015 saw strong sales of custom local numbers for us. Based on the benefits listed above, and the large inventory of numbers available, we look forward to setting up more of our customers for success with custom local numbers in 2016!




Edited by Maurice Nagle

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