Increasing Leads Is As Easy As 1-800-SIMPLIFY

It’s 2010 and that old warhorse of a quote attributed to John Wanamaker, who died in 1922, is still apt, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”  The reality is that a deep recession, coupled with a reduction in consumer response to ads, have conspired to put even more pressure on marketing executives to deliver ROI.

One way that marketers can create accountability for their advertising campaigns is to use highly memorable toll-free numbers.  Take loan advertising as but one example.  Loans are a product that most everyone is in the market for at a given time – they just might not be in the market at the point they hear your advertisement.  There are essentially three types of occurrences where a consumer will call:

1. Immediately:  A direct response to your ad.
2. Delayed:  For example the consumer heard your ad on a.m. drive time radio and call later that day.
3. Long-term: heard today and call next week or months from now.

By using a highly memorable number such as 1-800-BANK LOAN, 1-800-280-LEND or 1-800-940-0000 a marketer can gain benefit no matter when the consumer calls because you’ve made it easy for them recall your number and respond.  Even if they aren’t currently in the market for your product or service, the number will be easy to rememberwhen they are ready to buy.

Take Southern California mattress retailer Sit ‘n Sleep and their ubiquitous 1-800-FREEEEE. It matches their famous tagline “We’ll beat anyone’s advertised price OR your mattress is FREEEEEEE.   Like loans, not everyone is in the marketplace for a new mattress every day, let alone every year.  But by consistently ADVERTISING 1-800-FREEEEEE, owner and CEO Larry Miller has created an indelible impression in consumer’s minds. Learn more about how toll free numbers work.

Similarly, loan advertisers can use combinations of numbers that spell out key words such as LOAN, LEND, or even complete phrases such as 1-800-BANKLOAN or 1-800-ANY-RATE (as in, we’ll beat anyone’s rate).  There’s a reason Lending Tree uses the toll-free number 1-800-555-TREE – it’s consumer friendly.

A strategy the includes several highly memorable numbers, as opposed to just one, enables marketers to track which ads are working best and gives the consumer an easily memorable number to call.  If you are using a high profile number like 1-800-FLOWERS there is even a way to track the effectiveness of different media buys using geo-routing and other sourcing toll-free numbers. You can contact us for further explanation.

Leveraging memorable toll-free numbers may sound simple, but then to reference another quote – this one from no less a Renaissance Man than Leonardo da Vinci, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”