In his Party Conference speech yesterday The Prime Minister said that you can’t get out of debt by spending more money.
Of course, I’m paraphrasing, because a) party conference speeches are long and boring and b) in business, you are already well aware of this and that’s why in times of recession businesses seek to reduce costs wherever possible.
In many cases, the marketing budget is often the first casualty, but this has a negative influence on sales and profitability. So although there is some sense in what David Cameron said, we believe you have to cut the right costs and spend your remaining money in the most effective ways.
Marketing should never stop altogether but cost effective measures should be taken; the challenge is choosing which types of marketing activity to keep and which to cut and the key to this is knowing how effective each campaign, activity or channel is in terms of generating results. So how do you do this?
The internet has revolutionised marketing – instant insight into how many people are visiting your website or opening your emails is easily accessible and you can track everyone online right through to their purchase.
But what happens to the people who don’t buy anything from your website or decide to contact you by other means? How did they find out about you? A brochure? A leaflet? An advert? If so, which one? Newspaper, magazine, online, billboard, Yellow Pages?
One of the best small business marketing tips, although many people do not realise, is the use of non geographic numbers, in particular the 08 number ranges.
Choosing an 08 number is a great small business marketing tip and will instantly make your business seem larger, giving you a national presence and greater potential client base. It is a small difference that can make a real difference as many consumers associate 08 numbers with larger corporations.
It is then important to select the correct 08 number for your business.
0844 – Charged at low-call rate (5ppm) your customers’ call charges will be consistent with those of a geographic number. You could even earn a rebate from your inbound calls, helping to cover some of the cost of your marketing
0845 – Work in a similar way to 0844 numbers.
0800 – If your business is able to stand the cost of the call then a freephone 0800 is great for your business marketability as it encourages customers to call you.
With every number you register with 08 Direct you will also receive a full call management package completely free of charge. Included is Welcome Message, Voicemail, Call Whisper, Fax to Email, Call Forwarding and our unique online Call Statistics.
These Calls Statistics allow you to monitor your inbound call trends. So by assigning different 08 numbers to each marketing campaign you can track the effectiveness of each campaign through the amount of calls received for each one.
This will allow you to assess your business marketing and make more informed decisions in the future.
With 08 Direct everything mentioned above is completely free of charge so your advertising potential could increase within 48 hours, without you having to spend a penny.
Tags: 08 Direct, 08 number, 08 Number News, 08 numbers, 0800 free phone number, 0800 freephone number, 0800 Numbers, 0844 number, 0844 numbers, 0845 numbers, 08direct.co.uk, auto attendant, Budget cuts, business advice, business startup, Call Forwarding, call management, Call Routing, Call Statistics, call whisper, David Cameron, fax to email, freephone number, Freephone Numbers, Interactive Voice Response, IVR, marketing effectiveness, marketing tracking, national 0844 number, non geographic numbers, non geographical numbers, non-geographical number, number translation services., Services, small business, small business 0800 number, Small Business Advice, telecoms, voice to email, Voicemail, welcome message
