You’ve seen toll free numbers on television advertisements, in the phone book, on billboards… but maybe you’re not exactly sure what they are for or how they work. This should help you get a better understanding:
A toll free number allows people to make phone calls without paying any fees for the call. So if you dial a toll free number, no matter where the location of the recipient is, you will not be charged for the call.
Charges for toll free calls are billed to the toll free subscriber- the owner of the toll free telephone number, and are often a business or a non-profit organization. It is possible for an individual to have a toll free number as well; you do not have to be a business to get one.
Toll free numbers started with the “800” numbers, sometimes referred to as “1-800” numbers, because you have to dial a one before the three digit prefix. As more businesses and people set up 800 toll free numbers, the numbers began to run out! Now there are toll free numbers that begin with 888, 877 and 866; with 855, 844, 833, 822, and 811 reserved for future toll free numbers when the others are all being used.
Businesses commonly make use of toll free numbers because they have proven to help a business succeed. Giving customers and potential new customers a way to contact a business for free encourages more people to call; and it also presents a professional image. Studies have even been conducted to show that advertisements that use toll free numbers receive a higher response the advertisements that do not use a toll free telephone number in the contact information.
Due to the ease of obtaining a toll free number, and the ability to set it up without any hardware installation, toll free numbers are becoming more popular for home and personal use as well. Parents of college students, and families with relatives living out of the local calling area often choose to get a toll free number to make it easier and more affordable for calling them. Toll free number charges are typically cheaper than collect calls or calling card fees, so it makes sense financially to have a toll free number for these situations.
When a person or company gets a toll free number, they first select their number, then choose a phone number to have their incoming calls forwarded to. The people who dial the toll free phone number are then redirected to the chosen forwarding number- whether that’s a business office, cell phone, or home phone line. With Get800today.com, toll free numbers are pre-paid, which means there are never any surprising bills to worry about.
Posted in Toll Free Basics, Toll Free General 
No Comments »
Internet marketers and small businesses often have a need to get creative with their advertising methods. One of the most effective methods of advertising involves a two or three stage process. In other words, you aren’t trying to “sell” on your first contact with your potential customers.
In fact, people rarely buy on their first contact with a company, and this is almost guaranteed for online businesses. Most people will not buy on their first visit to your website, which is why it is important to give them a reason to return to your site more than once! Many people achieve this with an ongoing newsletter, and send out regular articles and information to their subscribers, which when done correctly, has a very high conversion rate for sales.
Another method that is use often for internet based businesses is the “free report” advertising technique. When you get people to come to your website, you would then offer them a free report of some kind, related to the topic of your site, and related to the types of products or services you sell. In order to get the free report online, people would just fill out a form with their contact information, and download the report. This is a way to build your mailing list of course, but you always want to be sure your report offers valuable information to your customers.
If you are advertising offline, you can still make use of the free report method. Newspaper classifieds and magazines targeted to your industry are good places to run an ad that offers a free report. How do people get it? By calling your toll free number, which you would have directed to a voice mail box, and leaving their contact information for you to mail them the report. The free report method will give you much higher response rates using a toll free number than using your local number, so it is absolutely in your best interest to get one before attempting this marketing technique.
It’s not difficult to get a toll free number, and you can set them up so that any incoming call is forwarded to the phone number of your choice. If you want to actually talk to the people who call, you can forward the calls to your cell phone or office phone. If you want them to just leave messages with their information, direct it to your voice mailbox on your business or home line, and you can then add their contact details into your database of people to focus your ongoing marketing efforts to.
Posted in Toll Free Basics No Comments »
If you’ve got the opportunity to travel out of the country, you don’t have to put your business on hold. Of course, there are computers and internet access just about anywhere you’d be interested in going; so you’re never too far from email access. This is a terrific way to keep in touch even if you’re out of the country for extended periods of time.
If you want to be able to accept phone calls, you are in luck! As long as you have access to a telephone while traveling (whether it’s a cell phone or your hotel phone number, or your friends phone number, etc!) you can still receive business related phone calls- as well as personal calls- from a phone number that your clients and family already know.
That is, it’s easy if you had a toll free number through get800today.com.
Before you travel, sign up for the prepaid service, and deposit some money on your account. Choose your toll free phone number, and have it forwarded to the phone of your choice. When people dial your 800 number, they get redirected to the number you’ve selected as your forwarding number.
When you’re ready to travel, whether in or out of the country, you can have the incoming toll free calls forwarded to whatever number you choose- and continue “business as usual” wherever you are. Your clients will not even know that you are away (unless you tell them). Your family can call you toll free, no matter where you are. It’s a tremendous opportunity to stay in touch and you are in complete control over how much it costs you, since it’s a completely pre-paid service.
If you think the entire process would be too complicated to set up, or time consuming- you’re wrong. You set it all up quickly online, from the selection of your toll free number to the phone number you wish to forward your calls to, and even the making of your first deposit to fund your account. In five minutes or less, your toll free number will be set up and ready to go.
If you’re thinking that your trip out of the country is a vacation- and why in the world would you want to be accessible to your clients- then you would want to consider a toll free number so your family or friends could reach you in the event of an emergency, or just to say they miss you!
Posted in Benefits of Toll Free Numbers, Starting a Small Business No Comments »
While big corporations typically spend a large chunk of their budgets on advertising, it’s not necessary to have that kind of cash flow to get your business in front of your prospective customers. Here are several ideas you can use for marketing your small business, and most of them are around $10 bucks. If they work for you- then obviously you want to continue them; and if they don’t, try making a slight modification or adjustment to what you’ve done and trying it again- this is the trick to measuring your results. Make one small change at a time and then monitor the results of the change.
Give-a-ways
A time tested marketing technique is to give something away when a customer orders a product or uses your services. Each month, you could offer a $10 Starbucks card, or a $10 gift certificate to a local restaurant and pick a name from all customers who ordered from you each month. The idea is it encourages someone who is considering ordering from you to do it now, instead of later, and it encourages people to buy your items instead of buying from your competition.
Advertise a Chance to Win A Million Dollars
I know, I said $10 marketing techniques. You could give away lottery tickets to customers, or to select winners, and that is their chance to win a million dollars.
Flyers
You can plaster your town with flyers, hand them out at a busy intersection, drop by a few businesses and hand deliver them to the receptionists of your clients or prospective clients (along with a cookie or piece of candy to make sure you are remembered!) Black and white copy specials sometimes stoop as low as a few cents a copy, so get 1,000 copies of your flyer and pound the pavement spreading the word.
Drive Thru Kindness
At the drive through, ask the cashier to let you pay for the order of the car behind you. Then hand him or her your business card to give to the driver of that vehicle. Hopefully they’re just getting a coffee! You may only want to do this a few times, but who knows, one or two of the people you pay for may call you about your business and be the difference between falling short of your monthly sales goal and meeting your sales goal.
Make your Mailers Stand out
Instead of buying single 41 cent stamps to mail your envelopes; why not get a bunch of smaller stamps (like 1 cent or 5 cent stamps?) and just keep putting them on the envelope until it adds up to the right amount of postage? The receiver definitely won’t miss your envelope with all that postage, and wonder what’s inside.
Posted in Starting a Small Business No Comments »
Not all businesses require a ton of disposable cash and a master’s degree to start. In fact, there are hundreds of businesses you could actually start in a day or two, and as the business grows use the income to expand the business with some marketing. Some businesses cost more to start than others, but if you have the courage and are willing to do just a little research and go for it- you could be in business for yourself as soon as tomorrow.
First, all businesses need a way to be contacted. You can use your home telephone or your existing cell phone, but better would be to get a number that is specific to your new business. A toll free number is less expensive than you’d think and will get your business started on the right foot. You can set one up for about $25 through get800today.com, and have the incoming calls forwarded to whatever phone number you choose.
What Can You Do?
Sometimes you only need to listen to the conversations of people around you to know what type of business is needed. Are your co-workers talking about how their poor dogs are locked inside the house all day long and barely get out for a five minute walk each night? Why not start up a dog walking/exercise business? There have been very successful dog walking businesses earning $50,000 a year or more in profits. You don’t need much to get started, and chances are word of mouth will be your best advertising!
How about a personal concierge service? How many times have you heard people complaining that there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done they need to get done? You could make your business giving your clients another set of hands to help get more done in a day, including shopping, picking up dry cleaning or taking clothes to the laundry mat, delivering packages to the post office, setting up appointments- etc. Exactly what you do is only limited by your imagination and what you are or are not willing to do for your clients! You could easily expand this business to include event planning- or make event planning your entire business.
Wedding or event planners earn between $1000 and $10,000 per event! If you have an eye for details and organization, you could be helping people organize and plan their big events, (or even their smaller parties and dinners).
Posted in Starting a Small Business No Comments »
It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in business for a year or several years; or if you’re just coming up with the idea to have a business: all businesses should have a well written business plan. You don’t necessarily need to have the traditional, 35 page business plan that follows a very specific format; but having an outline of your basic business goals and plans is necessary to the ongoing success of your company. Why?
A business plan provides direction. Whether it’s a solo-operated business or you have a few employees, having a business plan helps everyone work towards a single purpose and goal. A business plan forces you to define your company’s goals and create your own competitive advantage- what makes you unique?
Establish checkpoints. With a business plan, not only will you know exactly what goals you are striving for, but it serves as your road map for how to get there. Many start up businesses fail because they are simply running their businesses on the initial idea and haven’t worked out the future growth and operations of the company. Without checkpoints, it’s not possible to know whether you’re reaching your goals.
Force you to research instead of guess. When you have to formulate specific information on a piece of paper in your business plan, you are forced to research real data for market, or product research. Guessing information about your target market is not going to give you the same results that actually putting in the research will give.
Show me the Money. Many businesses will eventually need some sort of financing. If you expect someone or company to invest in your business, they’re going to want to see that you’ve researched it thoroughly and have a concise plan for making the business successful.
Business plans are the foundation to your “building”. A house will not last if the foundation isn’t strong, and will soon crumble into tiny pieces of rubble. Do you want your business to crumble into pieces of rubble all around you? Of course not. Take the time to plan out your business and create a strong foundation, and like a well planned and built house, your business will stand the test of time.
Posted in Toll Free General No Comments »
Still trying to advertise your business on a shoe string budget? Here is an effective and easy marketing campaign you can implement for little money- and it has the potential for very big results.
If you try this around the holidays, you may experience a higher rate of response but it may depend upon your specific business and the products or services that you offer. What you want to do is find an inexpensive service that will let you create postcards. I like Vistaprint.com because you have full control over the creation of your post cards, can use several fonts and add clip art and other graphics for reasonable prices. If you want, you can upload your logo and fully customize everything. Vista Print also offers business cards, stationary, t shirts, you name it- they’ve probably got it.
Create your post cards. You could wish the recipient a happy and healthy holiday season, and include a special discount code that customers can redeem if they mention the post card when they call your business. You could also send out thank you notes in the form of post cards, to all of your existing customers. Include a special offer for something free or discounted, and include a phone number for your post card recipients to call in and redeem for their offer. The idea is you keep your business on their minds, and you might generate some new business from the inexpensive post card mailing.
Whatever you decide to advertise on your postcards, the most important thing to include is a toll free number that your customers or prospective customers can then use to call you back. The toll free number almost screams “professionalism!” and people will automatically associate your business with high quality. The toll free number will speak louder than the words of advertisement you include on the postcard.
If you don’t already have a toll free number, you can get one in just a few minutes at get800today.com and for as little as $25. The service is pre-paid, so you don’t have to be concerned with any surprise bills. You can also set up a toll free number that is specific to your postcard advertising campaign, so that you can measure the effectiveness of the postcards. How many calls did you get on the campaign? Was it worth the money it cost to create and mail the postcards? This information is important to understanding which advertising campaigns you want to repeat again in the future and which ones you need to avoid.
Posted in Starting a Small Business No Comments »
Non profit organizations are almost always struggling to pay their expenses. They’re intent is to spread the word about a charity, or help a group of people or another organization (like the environment, humane society, children, etc) and whatever money the non profit brings in is put back out to support their cause or pay their expenses for operating.
Non profit organizations are operating often at minimum financial levels; making just enough to get by and very little else, as that is the nature of an organization that isn’t functioning to make a profit. What usually happens is the person in charge of sending out payments waits until the last possible second, hoping to get some more money in from donations and fund raising events, and sometimes the result is late fees, which of course isn’t helping the situation any!
A non profit organization must still present a professional image, particularly those that are working to raise money to support a cause of some kind. While many non profits are small and aren’t able to shell out a lot of money on their advertising or image; one thing that just about every non profit organization can afford is a toll free number. This will instantly help establish a professional image for the non profit, and may help people have the ability to call the non profit who otherwise would be unable to dial because of long distance rates.
Toll free phone numbers are so affordable now that even a struggling non profit can benefit from having one. Thanks to Get800today.com’s prepaid service, the organization can take just $25 to fund their toll free number, activate their service, and set up their incoming toll free calls to forward directly to their main phone line. As people call in, a few cents per minute is deducted from the deposit, and when the balance gets low- the person in charge of the non profit organization will be notified and can decide whether or not to make another deposit to keep their toll free number active. With no contracts to sign or hardware installation involved, it makes sense for non profit organizations to try out a toll free number to see if it helps increase the number of incoming calls their organization receives.
Boost your non profit organizations professional image with a toll free number, and see if it doesn’t also help support your cause. Image is everything.
Posted in Toll Free Basics, Toll Free General No Comments »
Small business owners are busy, there is no doubt about it. Often, the owner of a small business is also the prime employee- carrying out the day to day operations and business functions. At the end of the day, the last thing you want to do is think about marketing or writing newsletters.
But that’s exactly what you should be thinking about. Even if you are enjoying a busy season now, if you don’t keep up with the marketing, you could wake up one day soon and realize you don’t have any work lined up.
Any study will tell you that it is far less expensive to keep an existing customer than to find a new one. You can easily focus most of your marketing on your existing and previous clients in order to keep your business on their minds and ensure that they come back to you when they need what your business offers. Newsletters are an effective way to do this, not to mention a cost-effective solution for on going marketing.
You might dread newsletters because you don’t consider yourself a writer. This should not be a reason not to create a newsletter, however. You can just jot down ideas for tips or information relevant to your business products or services that you believe your clients could benefit from, and send them out on a bi-weekly basis. It can be that simple! As long as you include your business information, your toll free number, and perhaps a special offer in each of your newsletters along with your tip of the week, your customers will look forward to reading their email newsletter, and it will have cost you only a few minutes of your time to put it together and send out.
If you don’t believe you can do that; or you want to offer article-style information, you can hire a ghostwriter to put your newsletter together for you, and ensure your contact information is displayed prominently, along with your special offer or discount or that particular newsletter. Ghostwriters, like www.reliablewriters.com, are often less expensive than you think, and if you use a toll free number for your contact number for your newsletters, you can easily track the effectiveness of your newsletters over time by keeping track of the number of calls that come in on that toll free number. Chances are, the ghostwriting service will more than pay for itself.
Posted in Starting a Small Business No Comments »
There are virtually countless ways to use a toll free number for personal or business purposes. Here we will give you five ways to use a toll free number that you may not have thought about before now!
1. Give your college students a way to call home for free. When your teenagers grow up and go away to college, the last thing you want to worry about is whether they have enough money in their pocket or a calling card available if they need to call home! Setting up a toll free number that forwards to your home phone or cell phone will give your away from home students a no-cost way to call home whenever they need to, and it will save you considerable amounts of money over using collect calls.
2. Measure results of advertising campaigns. As a manager or owner of a business, you know how important it is to be able to measure how well your advertisements are performing in order to determine where your advertising dollars are well spent. With toll free numbers, not only will your advertising results increase, but you can use a different toll free number for each of your advertising campaigns in order to monitor the number of responses you get from each campaign.
3. Become a Fortune 500 Company! I know that a toll free number doesn’t magically create a fortune 500 company, but I also know that every company on the list has a toll free number. If you get a toll free number you will suddenly look more professional, and create the image of a large corporation in the minds of consumers.
4. Become fully portable. With a toll free number and forwarding service, you can have incoming calls find you wherever you are, whether you are a traveling sales person or a stay-at-home mom. You simply set up your forwarding number to your cell phone or any other phone number you choose (and change it whenever you want) and your incoming calls will find you, in your house, in your car, or across the country.
5. Control your long distance bills. If you (or maybe your teenager?) has friends out of the local calling zone, you could be spending a fortune on your long distance bill. Set up a toll free number with a prepaid service, and have the friends call you. You’ll be in complete control over how much you spend on the calls and can make deposits at any time- but no more surprise bills showing up in your mailbox.
Posted in Benefits of Toll Free Numbers, Toll Free Basics No Comments »
November 22, 2007 | Toll Free Basics, Toll Free General | 
AlyssaMay 
