Local Number When Marketing?!?!?
When you marketing geniuses advertise the fact that you purchase houses, how important is it to have a local number?!? Is an 800 number better?
The reason I'm asking is that I have been marketing with direct mail and classifieds with my cell phone number attached to the marketing material. My cell area code is 201 and my farming area code is 908...
I am not getting many calls for my direct mailing, about .1% - yeah 1 phone call out of 1000+ mailings... I don't know if its because my marketing sucks or my phone number has a lot to do with it...
Now, of course because we are in NJ everything is relatively close and 201 isn't far from 908, but does this make a difference?
I'm debating whether or not to get an 800 number - they are relatively inexpensive and I'm hoping to get a better resdponse...
Any help here?!?
[addsig]
its a matter of personal opinion. some say 800 is more business like. some say local is more small busines like and people are more likely to call. do both and see which one produces best for you in your area........km
KM - what about a non-local/non toll free number?!? Do you think this would hinder results?
THanks,
[addsig]
You might use an 800 number, but ad "Locally owned and operated" to your information.
Jeff
i go for the local look. i deal with motivated sellers i have better luck "not" looking like a "big" corp. alot of these people have been "trashed" by big corp. or banks. i find it easier to relate............km
Why not put both numbers? This way, they will know your local, but have the option of calling toll-free if they are outside the local calling area and are programmed to only inquire about properties if it does not co$t them anything to do so. People are weird like that. I am sure there have been many deals that have been lost to something so petty as the cost of a phone call.
Good Luck!!!
[ Edited by mgraval on Date 10/07/2004 ][ Edited by mgraval on Date 10/07/2004 ]
I'm confused why you would not have a local number? Why is this even a question you need to ask? I'm sure you spend or did spend a lot of time on the wording of your ad, figuring out the best thing to say. We spend a huge amount of time trying to maximize our ads to get calls. Why would you do anything that might reduce your ads effectiveness? There is no question that there are some people who will not call an non local number for many reasons - they feel the number is going out of state, they won't call it. They think it is long distance, they won't call it. It is long distance and they can't call it because their long distance has been shut off. The list goes on and on.
I can't think of one good reason why somebody looking at 2 identical ads, one with a local number and one without would say "Oh yeah! I'm calling that non-local number over the other one."
Get rid of it. Get a local number or an 800 number. It is as simple as that.
I used to sell advertising and the published ad would cover several area codes. What you may want to consider is getting what are called Remote Call Forward numbers. Each number could be tailored for each area code, or exchange (first 3 numbers). When your sellers see the number that pertains to them, they call that specific number. The number is automatically forwarded to your main number. So you could have 3-5 phone numbers and all of them would ring into your main line. Down here in FL they run about $15 each per month, but depending on the phone co. they will also show how many calls you recieved, from where, and how long each call lasted. It's useful info to see where you are getting most of your calls.
If you are just starting out, put your local # and your toll free #. You may want to review your marketing list or the content of your mailer, .1% return seems awful low.
Good Luck
On the response rate...I am a Marketing Manager in the corp world (trying to break into RE rehabs). You should expect to see about a .5%-1% response rate on pure cold Direct Mail marketing. If these are "warm/qualified" leads (people you KNOW want your services) you should probably see more like 4-6% or better from DM.