I read an article this morning entitled, “Tips for Picking a Great Toll Free Vanity Number“. Unfortunately, instead of listing realistic advice, the author chose to count down a handful of ways to make business owners rip out their hair searching again and again for unrealistic vanity 800 numbers. I don’t mean to sound pessimistic – but these weren’t tips, they were siren songs, mirages in the desert, challenges to your sanity.
So I thought I’d do my best to turn these tips on their head, and in the process leave you some practical tips about securing a great vanity toll free number for your business.
Running a business out of your home is no simple task. If you’re to have any success as a home-based entrepreneur, you must first learn to manage your time, balance your home and work lives, and maintain some semblance of health and hygiene.
But beyond your napping “sleeping” habits and your personal preference to shower/shave/get dressed, the technology you deploy also plays a big role in whether your operation gets off the ground. Here are five of the top reasons you should consider using an 800 numbervirtual phone system for your home-based business, instead of just relying on your personal home or cell phone numbers…
FreedomVoice local and toll free numbers are all about flexibility – it’s one of the many things that set us apart from the competition. Instead of a one-size-fits-some solution, we offer a wide array of features, and the availability of open-ended system customization so that you can have your service fit your needs.
One of the more popular and creative areas that our customers like to change is their system’s hold music. Today I’m going to cover two available hold music options and how each can help your business.
Whether you’re just starting a new business or looking to expand your growing business, figuring out how to get a toll free number of your own can be a bit of a mystery. But getting your business set up with a toll free 800 number is easier than you might think, and can help you immediately add to your professional image.
Getting an 800 number isn’t like setting up traditional phone service through your local phone company. Here are a few differences that make it easy to get started with a virtual toll free number…
On the eve of the 41st Earth Day, I’m going to invoke the big ‘T’: telecommuting. The benefits of telecommuting have never been more important to the health of the Earth. Each year, more cars hit the roads in long commutes, increasing energy consumption and putting out more and more pollution.
For decades, leaders in the telecommunications industry have pushed for greener solutions, encouraging and empowering business owners to create telework programs with technologies like virtual phone systems and the hosted VoIP PBX.
Recently, Google announced that a website’s speed (how fast your webpages load in a visitor’s browser) is now to be a ranking factor in determining how well a website ranks on their search engine. If your pages load very slow, you may have a harder time getting your website to rank for your targeted terms.
Here are some useful tools you can use today to start testing and improving your website’s speed…
The Census Bureau has been heavily promoting this year’s 2010 Census, securing ads in the Super Bowl and combatting both “Big Brother” fears and general apathy by trying to get across that the census is easy to complete and a necessity for local governments to get accurate funding.
But recently, some counties in Alabama have begun reporting their residents aren’t receiving their census forms and are worried about losing out on funding. So what does the Census Bureau turn to in their time of need to reach out to residents and collect their information? Why, a toll free number, of course.
You’ve heard it said about diamonds – but did you know that toll free numbers are “forever”? That is to say, you can keep a good, dependable toll free number for life.
When you secure a toll free number through a service provider, you have certain protections afforded to you by the FCC that help you keep that number in the event you change service providers, or even change businesses. Today we’ll cover that protection, some pitfalls to watch out for, and how to go about changing providers should the need arise.
I recently went over how to use vanity toll free numbers to help build your brand. In that post, I mentioned one of the trickiest parts of wielding a vanity number is finding it in the first place. The pool of available toll free numbers on the national database is limited, and many businesses before you have had a chance to comb through looking for their prized pick.
But all is not lost. Today I’ll cover one of the lesser-explored ways around available number limitations: the vanity overdial. Businesses such as 1800MATTRESS (1-800-MAT-TRES[S]) and 1800 CONTACTS (1-800-CON-TACT[S]) have been using vanity number overdial for years with great success. By stretching your vanity toll free number one or two letters over the edge, you can get your hands on coveted, high-value vanity spellings that are otherwise unavailable.
While vanity toll free numbers of that caliber are hard to come by, there are still ways that your small business can get more out of an 800 number when it comes to making a name for yourself. Today I outline three straightforward steps to leading with your toll free number and building your brand.
When it comes to advertising success, the age-old question is, “how are you going to get the phones to ring?”
You’ve formulated your message like a scientist in a lab. You’ve built your website. You’re on Twitter, Facebook, and every other conceivable social media site. You’ve gathered email contacts and taken a crack at a newsletter. You’ve even lovingly-crafted business cards, fliers, postcards, brochures – the works. And still, nobody’s calling.
Don’t worry, the solution may be as simple as upgrading the phone number you’re asking them to call. Today we look at the attractive and inviting features of a toll free number that can help you get your phones to ring.
While we often emphasize the power and importance of a virtual phone system for your business, many entrepreneurs instead use a toll free number simply to mask their private number.
By setting up your toll free number to skip your auto attendant greeting and immediately forward calls to your cell phone, you’re effectively adding another line to your mobile service. This line you can exclusively advertise to your business contacts, and gain several immediate benefits to both your work and home life…
With a toll free number and virtual phone system from FreedomVoice, your voicemail service goes well beyond just taking messages on missed calls.
One of our most popular voicemail features is the ability to set up automated question and answer voicemail boxes. These voicemail boxes prompt callers with a series of your pre-recorded questions, then string their answers together into a single voicemail message. For example, if your automated questionnaire involves five quick “Yes or No” questions, you might get a message in this voicemail box of, “Yes – No – Yes – Yes – No.”
Here are a couple great ways you can use question and answer voicemail boxes with your business…
A landing page is a specialized webpage that appears when a potential customer clicks on your online ads or a search-engine result link to visit your website. The page ideally displays content that is a logical extension of the ad or link by using specific keywords, phrases, and images that match the visitor’s expectations.
Properly executed, landing pages can be highly effective at improving your website’s conversion rate, or ability to turn clicks into new business. When given the chance, I recommend consulting with a good copywriter and designer for maximum benefit.
Here are the four basic elements you should look to include when building your own landing pages…
A gallon of gas, a movie ticket, even a cup of coffee – everything’s more expensive today than yesterday, and probably going to be even more expensive tomorrow. Call us crazy, but we’re going to swim upstream with this one.
800 numbers have grown increasingly scarce for a while – and for that reason every toll free number service provider values them with some kind of one-time premium. Frankly, the upgrade is worth it if the price is right – it’s sure to pay for itself. To say nothing bad about an 866, 877, or 888 prefix toll free number, for my money I’d go for the original, the true value. We think you should to, and to help you get there we’ve dropped our 800 number price to just $10.
Over the past couple weeks, we’ve covered using heatmaps and live user testing to diagnose potential problems with your small business website and how to correct them. This week is about turning those findings into positive action by using Google Website Optimizer to test your proposed solutions.
This quick, free, and effective tool helps you set up tests that distribute new visitors to your old and new pages and track how effective each is at getting your customers to complete an action on your website. Whether that’s filling out a lead form, downloading a report, subscribing to your service, or placing an order – you’ll know which version of your website does more for getting you new business.
Used properly, features like an auto attendant, call forwarding, and call queues get your callers to the right person within your business in the least amount of time. Used poorly, these features can create long hold times and frustrate your callers.
This week we’ll cover three ways the features of your virtual phone system can cut down the time between when a caller dials your toll free number and when they reach someone that can help.
We’ve all misdialed – swapping a couple digits or mashing multiple numbers by accident. We get connected to some random stranger who sounds nothing like who we were expecting, and we fumble for an embarrassed explanation before hanging up.
With 866, 877, and 888 prefix toll free numbers, the main cause of misdialing is in the prefix. 800 numbers have been around considerably longer than these other numbers, so “8-0-0″ is the default in the minds of your customers. If they don’t have your contact info handy, there’s a risk they might fill in the blank with the wrong prefix.
Here are some easy ways to prevent prefix misdials.
I’ve always been fond of the expression, “straight from the horse’s mouth.” It means, briefly, getting info from the highest authority. And if Mr. Ed taught us anything, nothing beats a horse’s mouth when it comes to munching hay and speaking the truth. This week we’ll see how to get usability data straight from your horse’s mouth: live humans tasked with evaluating your website.
Choosing the type of virtual phone number that’s right for your local business can be a tough decision. A local virtual phone number gives you a neighborly feel and can help you earn trust with your local audience. A toll free number has the opposite advantage, giving your company the immediate appearance of a larger, more established business. So which one is right for you?
Here’s a breakdown of the benefits of each type of virtual phone number to help you make an informed choice.
You’ve done it – you’ve launched your small business website. You’ve deployed your advertising army and are ready to sit back and watch visitors come pouring in. You eagerly await that first person to sign up online, or that first person to pick up the phone and dial your toll free number. But wait, there’s something wrong… nothing’s happening! Your analytics package tells you people are coming to your website, they’re just not doing what you want them to do. Is your call to action not clear enough? Do they not see your toll free number? What are you missing?
It’s time to stop guessing and know exactly how your visitors see and use your website. It’s time for heatmaps.
A toll free number and virtual phone system are a perfect pair.
Inexpensive? Yes. Interconnect the office? Yes. Enhance your professional image? A big yes to that, sir. Toll free numbers and virtual phone systems are all the rage for small business owners. They are, essentially, a force to be utilized. Here are some reasons you’ll want a toll free number and virtual phone service if you are starting a new venture.
FreedomVoice has been bringing small businesses the best in toll free numbers and virtual phone systems since 1996. So focused have we been on improving our service and listening to our customers, that we’ve rarely taken time to pretty ourselves up.
This new site and blog were a positive first step in helping our outer image reflect our inner quality, and we’ve furthered that with a brand new logo for a new decade. Are we just trying to be more cutting-edge?
Today FreedomVoice announced the launch of a new affiliate program. The program offers affiliates the opportunity to sell three popular FreedomVoice products: FreedomVoice Toll Free Number Service, a leading virtual phone system solution, FaxFreedom, an intuitive Internet faxing service, and AdTrakker, a sought-after real estate call capture system.
Our CEO, Eric Thomas, is pretty excited about the program, as are the rest of us. Here is what he had to say.
“Our new affiliate program has it all. We have a dedicated and experienced affiliate manager ready and willing to help, our program offers competitive commissions, paying out on both leads and sales, and we offer highly optimized landing pages that have excellent conversion rates.”
Are you a web developer looking to work for a great company? Look no further, FreedomVoice is hiring!
FreedomVoice is seeking a Web Developer who has advanced skills with CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. You must have a solid understanding of our products and services as well as a passion for our technology and how it benefits our customers. Our ideal candidate will have an overall sense of marketing and be able to contribute to the team in more than just web programming.
A positive company culture can do wonders for your business, turning regular employees into brand evangelists that go above and beyond for you and your customers. But to build and maintain such a culture, you have to understand what it takes to get your employees to buy-in to your company’s core values and transcend thinking of your company as, “just another job.”
Remember when we used to dial 411 for information? When it slapped our phone bills for a couple bucks, and all you got was a lousy phone number? I’m glad those days are over.
In the wake of the tragic 7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti this past Tuesday, the US State Department has set up a toll free number for people in the United States to use to get information about family members residing in Haiti and the ongoing relief efforts.
The number is 1-888-407-4747.
Be advised that due to high call volume, you will hear an automated recording. From this recording, you can press 1 if you’re calling about information on family members or press 6 if you’re calling to offer assistance or make a donation toward the relief effort.
Texting Donations for Haiti Releif
To facilitate contributions to the relief effort, the Red Cross has set up a special text message campaign, whereby you can text “HAITI” to 90999 to make a $10 donation that will simply be billed on your regular cell phone bill. Singer Wyclef Jean’s foundation Yele Haiti has also set up a similar service to donate $5 by texting “YELE” to 501501.
A toll free number prefix has not been released since 2000, when 866 numbers joined the ranks of business toll free. But recent trending has shown a spike in toll free number usage as droves of small businesses emerge in the wake of the recent recession. This boom has lead many to speculate (with cautious optimisim) that the clock is again running as to when the next toll free number prefix, 855, will be released.
And 855 is an opportunity you don’t want to miss. Read More
Watch a webinar on the new FreedomVOICE toll free number affiliate program!
In this webinar, Candice Malmstrom, Director of Marketing at FreedomVOICE, and Tim Paulino, FreedomVOICE Affiliate Manger, discuss the program and give inside tips for potential affiliates.
