Comments on: Why vanity phone numbers can kill your ad copy

By: Brad Coopersmith

Brad Coopersmith — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:47:04 +0000

The era of difficulty dialing vanity numbers is over. Here is why, BB can automatically covert the words into numbers and the other major phone manufacturers are starting to do this too. Also, skype, googletalk and all the other VOIP providers will automatically convert the letters into numbers as well.

By: Dean Rieck

Dean Rieck — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:33:15 +0000

Jeanne:
This wasn’t a knock against vanity numbers. I’m simply pointing out that are designed for memory, not for easy dialing.

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:19:56 +0000

Dialing a vanity 800 number is really not that hard! If it takes longer for a person to dial 1-800-TOP-LAWN, it’s probably just milli-seconds. And, the phone pad is in fact universal in the United States, and other countries have adopted it as well.

Independent consumer research studies have shown that consumers have a much higher recall rate of vanity 800 numbers versus toll-free numeric numbers, and even over URLs.

And, from another perspective, business case studies have shown that people recall a vanity 800 number months after they see an advertisement, and they make the call! So, a company’s advertising dollars pay off even after a campaign ends. You cannot measure response rates or results only during the life span of a campaign, you have to consider that residual calls are going to come in as a result of the campaign and it’s memorability factor!

By: How to write a radio ad that generates calls or traffic

How to write a radio ad that generates calls or traffic — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:17:16 +0000

[...] numbers against ordinary toll-free numbers and says ordinary numbers work better. It could be that vanity numbers are easy to remember, but hard to dial. Or it may be that if a number seems easy to remember, there’s a temptation to put off [...]

By: Antti Kokkonen - Zemalf.com

Antti Kokkonen - Zemalf.com — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 06:11:38 +0000

I don’t pay attention to phone numbers unless I specifically need to make a phone call to someone and then I’d go and look for a number from their website — if the number was only in the “vanity format” I’d probably curse it as I’d had to look up what the heck the actual number is (what the letters goes in what number is not an universal standard).

Also note that those 1-800 numbers don’t mean anything (or very little) to the non-US customers, something which many US-based businesses forget. Online business? There’s a great chance that the customers are located somewhere else.
.-= Antti Kokkonen – Zemalf.com’s last blog … 3 Ways To Use Google Reader Like a Pro =-.