The new business branding is your telephone number
It wasn't that long ago that securing the right Internet domain name was a novel way to protect or extend your brand. Now it's a mandatory part of business or product branding.
Once Image 7 Group has narrowed down the list of potential new business names for a client, our recommendation will be heavily influenced by the domain names we can secure. It's now very common to enter into negotiations with the goal of controlling domain names registered by someone else on behalf of our clients.
Enter the new player in the market - your telephone number. More specifically, your 1800, 1300 and 13 numbers.
The concept is called Phone Names or PhoneWord (Telstra's version) and works by turning a regular phone number into a word using the letters on your telephone keypad. The strong selling point for the service is the simple fact that words are easier to remember than numbers. Which is easier to remember: 1300 BUSINESS or 1300 287 463?
In reality, it's nothing new. Many countries have been doing it for years, but it never took off in Australia - partly because we didn't print letters on telephones and, when we did, they weren't standardised.
An example reported in the Australian Financial Review quotes Motor Finance Wizard, which offers finance on motor vehicle purchases. The company leased the number 1300 227 562 (which also spells 1300 CarLoan) on telephone keypads and made it a central part of their advertising campaign.
"Since December, call numbers increased from 445 a month to a peak of 10,000 in July, settling to about 7,500 a month since October," the article reports. The case study - which Telstra also uses in its marketing - quotes a change in the enquiry mix from a majority of walk-ins to 75 per cent by telephone. The conversion rate to sales has increased 300 per cent in Brisbane and 400 per cent in Sydney.
Of course, it isn't all down to the clever use of the Phone Name. It's about using the right tool in the right place.
Australian research has shown that advertisements with Phone Names generate a 290 per cent increase over advertisements with regular telephone numbers. If your business relies on generating telephone enquires, that has to make you sit up and listen.
Not all Phone Names need to have six letters. Phone Names that start with a 1300 or 1800 prefix can contain from 6 to 10 letters. Phone Names that start with a 13 prefix can contain 4 or 5 letters.
But of course the supply of names is finite ... and what's worse is there may be other businesses who want 'your' number ... because it is also 'theirs'.
There are three or four letters on every number key (except for the 0 and 1 keys) which means every phone number will spell from 729 to 4,096 different letter combinations.
The phone number that spells your business name will also spell many other things, including company names, brand names, generic words and word combinations. Let's look at some examples provided by Phone Name Marketing Australia. The number that spells 1300 FIND GOD also spells 1300 DINE IN. And the number that spells 1300 WESTPAC also spells 1300 WESTRAC, 1300 WEST SAIL and about a dozen other names, words and word combinations.
So, if your business generates enquiries by phone, services customers by phone or simply needs a memorable number, now's the time to decide if you should be securing the number - or numbers - that best represent your business.
Get more headlines every month - Subscribe to seven seconds
