11 ways to promote your business phone number

Registering your own Premium-rate or Freephone number is the first step to getting your business noticed and remembered. Even more so when your business registers a vanity number.

Maybe you have just registered your own number, or maybe you are about to take the decision, it is good to think about what needs to be done to communicate your new number to curent and potential customers.

In an earlier article we already talked about how to promote Freephone and Premium-rate numbers, today we would like to provide you with a short and simple checklist that might help you in making sure you don’t miss an opportunity to let the world know about your new number.

- Business cards
Striking out and adding a new phone number on your business card with a pen does not exactly look professional. That is why, when you get a new phone number, you’ll want to order new business cards. Not just for yourself, but for all employees in your organisation.
Billboards
It is difficult to ignore a billboard, but make sure your phone number is printed large enough to be seen from a distance. If need be, request your marketing agency to make the necessary adjustments. Having a memorable vanity number makes it easier for potential callers to read and remember your phone number on a billboard while speeding by in a car.
Flyers and brochures
A new phone number calls for new flyers and brochures. The fact that a business phone number, especially when it is a vanity numbers, is usually easier to remember than a local number, can help those brochures generate more calls – but only if that Freephone or Premium Rate number is easy to find and read. How about placing it in a large enough font on each page of your brochure?
Directories, paper and online
White Pages, Yellow Pages, online business directories; whatever medium your potential clients use to look up companies is where you and your new phone number will want to be featured.
Discount vouchers and loyalty cards
Loyalty cards give clients a reason to return, while discount vouchers create goodwill. If you have not yet changed your phone number on any vouchers or loyalty cards your company issues, now is the time to do so.
Price quotes and invoices
It is easy to overlook price quotes and invoices once you have reeled in a client. More often than not, updating these to include your new phone number is a breeze because they are digital files.
Vehicle stickers
Vehicle decals and stickers are a great way to take your company to the road. Whether you are parked or moving around, it definitely helps if your new phone number is easy to spot and memorise.
Signboards
Those notice boards or signboards really help pedestrians, cyclists and motorists notice your business. Most of them will be on a mission to elsewhere, so make sure your phone number stands out.
Workwear
Uniforms, polo shirts, work trousers – why not include your business phone number on them? This is a great occasion to renew or upgrade your workwear. And remember: repetition is advertising’s biggest strength. When your phone number is everywhere, new and repeat clients will be more inclined to call you first.
Radio commercials
If you have an existing radio commercial, you may not want to make sure it mentions your new phone number. Fortunately new recordings generally are not expensive. Why not take advantage of the need for a new radio commercial and update your message?
TV commercials
Not every business will be in the position to advertise on TV. However, if you are, a new TV commercial can work wonders in terms of telephone traffic. The features of our IVR allow you to handle the resulting extra calls efficiently.

We know this is a long checklist, but it helps your company transition from the old phone number to that beautiful new Premium-rate or Freephone number. Identifying calls that do not come in through your new number is easy with our Whisper feature. You can then tell customers who did not call you through your new number about the new number and ask them to use that number from then on.

We would like to close this article with a last suggestion. Since not all media have the same impact on inbound calls, remember to ask callers how they found out your new number. This will help you focus your future marketing efforts on the channels with the highest return on investment.