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.
Bad Tip #1: Avoid Number Hybrids
This tip points out that numbers like 888-444-BIKE aren’t as valuable as, say, 888-FIX-BIKE for a bicycle repair shop. And they have a point – the latter definitely is more valuable. The problem with this argument, though, is that there’s only one 888-FIX-BIKE. That vanity spelling translates directly to 888-349-2453, exactly one phone number out of millions of toll free numbers. Care to take a guess whether or not it’s reserved already or in use? You’re trying to find a needle in a haystack with a pair of tweezers.
Meanwhile, a vanity search for 888-***-BIKE has hundreds of numbers that will match any 3 digits into those wildcard *’s. So you might end up with 888-444-BIKE or 888-345-BIKE, which isn’t exactly the same but is still wildly effective. To minimize any drawback of using matched numbers and letters, try to find repeating or sequential digits like in these two examples (444 & 345).
Bad Tip #2: Don’t Limit Yourself to 7 Digits
This proposed tip is really just an extension of the previous, but going beyond 7 letter vanity spellings with the addition of overdial. Overdial is the practice of using a vanity spelling that extends beyond the end of the actual phone number in order to complete the spelling. Like 888-MATTRESS. Really this number is 888-628-8737, and the extra ‘S’ is just a disposable digit.
Overdial itself isn’t really the problem. Going over a digit or two (preferably just 1, though) isn’t the worst thing in the world, such as locking in a number like 888-***-HOUS(E). It really goes back to the fact that finding an 8 digit vanity number is effectively finding a 7 digit vanity number, which again has you looking for exactly one number on every search. There’s only one 888-MATTRES(S). But hey, maybe you’ll get lucky?
Bad Tip #3: 800 vs. 866, 877, and 888
In this misleading tip, the author says you should aim for 800 over 888, 877, or 866. It’s true that 800 is a more easily recognized prefix, but 888 isn’t far behind. 888 numbers, after all, have been around for over fourteen years. By now, most people get it.
Also, this tip fails to mention the fact that SMS/800, the governing body over toll free numbers, has largely disabled the ability for vanity search tools to query the national database for available vanity numbers with an 800 prefix. Why? Because 800 numbers are so increasingly scarce that 99.99% of vanity searches would return no results and simply waste resources. Stick with 888, only going to 877 and 866 if you can get better vanity spelling availability out of those prefixes.
Bad Tip #4: Vanity Name Choice
Here we have some advice to be selective in what you say with your vanity spelling. Pick words that relate to your business, avoiding ambiguity where possible. Sounds great, with the exception that they again focus on whole number and overdial spellings like 888-LAWNCARE. No chance.
Vanity toll free numbers have been around long enough for a large percentage of the more popular spellings to be taken. To find a vanity number that fits your business, you’ll need to get a little creative and shorten up your vanity spelling to 4 or 5 letters at the most to give yourself a better chance to find some results. You still want to draw some kind of mental connection between your number and your business, like my 888-444-BIKE example above, but not at the cost of setting unreasonable expectations and not finding any numbers with which you’re happy.
Bad Tip #5: Avoid Q & Z
This one may be my favorite. Three years ago next month, the patent for an international standard for phone key pads went on the books. This is what you’ve likely come to think of as common on desk phones, home phones, and cell phones, with the 7 key representing “PQRS” instead of just “PRS” and the 9 key representing “WXYZ” instead of just “WXY”. Despite this change being over three years old, and the fact that it has become a widely-accepted international standard for new phones with English characters, you still see people advising to avoid vanity spellings with these digits.
The simple truth is, you shouldn’t go out of your way to avoid these letters if you feel they’re necessary to get the vanity toll free number spelling that you want. And just to be on the extra-safe side, if you feel so inclined, get in the habit of spelling out the digits of your vanity number anywhere that you display it. This is a good general practice already, something like “888-444-QUADÂ (888-444-7823)”.
Bad Tip #6 Good Tip #1: Put Your Vanity Number Everywhere!
Finally, a tip that has some meat on it. Once you’ve actually found a vanity toll free number, it’s time to plaster it everywhere you can. Get it on your business cards, your website, your company vehicles, your letterhead, your tv spots, your radio commercials, your billboards, your office door, etc. Anywhere that you would reasonably place your company logo or slogan, pop your vanity toll free number there also. The value of your vanity spelling only gets better with repetition.
Looking to get vanity toll free number service for your business? Check out our free vanity search tool.
I just used my new toll free number! Thanks for the awesome service. This is sooo much easier.
It’s true and useful–unless you were the very first, the ‘perfect’ vanity number is already taken more likely than not. But there’s many other valuble combinations.
I have had my vanity number for many years, I thought it was a great idea, however I found in my business (Real Estate), people did not know what to do with the extra (disposable) digit and with the cell phone craze, many do not reflect the correct letters with the corresponding telephone digit/number. Example letters A-B-C are the #2. On many phones especially black berries and PDA’s with full key board, each alphabet letter has its own key and do not share keys with its corresponding # of 2 for example. Therefore, when looking at 1-877- Leo-Slade… they do not know what numbers correspond with the letters of the name.
Good point Leo. A common practice nowadays is to display the actual number in parentheses after the vanity number. This way people who don’t know how to use vanity numbers or people who own PDA’s can still reach you.
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