Learn Why Telephone Numbers on the Side of Your Business Vehicles Maybe a Waste of Money!

One of the greatest myths in vehicle marketing today is for people to prominently display their phone numbers on the side of their vehicles thinking people will ring them as they drive their billboard around town. In fact very little business is achieved by having traditional telephone numbers on the side of their vehicles …

Why and How Can We Use Phone Numbers On Vehicles to Derive Business?

Most small business owners and for that matter medium business owners rush to plaster their vehicle with sign writing with very little thought on what the role of the sign written vehicle will be.

For most businesses the vehicle is simply a tool to identify that you are working in your area and what it should be is a tool to reinforce your brand as well be able to derive physical business. Many people invest thousands of dollars on vehicle sign writing only to find that they do very little physical business from the vehicle.

How many vehicles do you see as you drive around your city or town?

If it is like mine, literally thousands or if you are from somewhere like London, LA or New York, you may even be in the millions. How many phone numbers from those vehicles do you remember?

Here is a simple exercise, whilst you are driving pay attention to the number of vehicles that actually have phone numbers on them. Try to remember those numbers and see just how much work it takes to remember them.

The core role of sign writing on vehicles is simply brand recognition. That is to train the Reticular Activating System in your customers mind so that when they are looking for your product or service, their brain will remember your brand and call you.

Well here is the secret with phone numbers. For phone numbers to work on your vehicle the phone numbers must be incorporated into your brand for people to remember them. The interesting part about this is that large corporations and marketing organisations have known this for years and have slowly been securing a range of numbers to ensure brand continuity.

Let take an example …

In Australia, a well known eatery, Red Rooster has successfully over a number of years utilised a brand focused phone number to help get clients to purchase their chicken meals for major catering events like Birthdays, Christmas etc. What they have done to ensure their phone is memorable is by incorporating a 1800 or 1300 number with their brand.

For example, if you want Red Rooster to cater for your party you simply call – 1300 Rooster rather than 1300 7667837. They use the 1300 Rooster phone number in all of their on-vehicle advertising as well as in their television, radio and paper adverts, as well as on their billboards.

So the question is why?

It has been shown in studies around the world that human beings can generally memorise upto 9 numbers at a time however to achieve this you will find that you generally have to practise the number numerous times and commit it to memory. However, when you are driving or in a stressed situation it is harder to store this information and quite often you may need to go past a vehicle upto 27 times before you will know the number off by heart.

However, when you associate a number like a 1300 or 1800 number which we have already been programmed to know as a freecall number and incorporate it with your brand, customers will find that it is much easier to remember the number.

Personally, I have found that even a simple 1800 number like 1800 66 00 00 is far more difficult for our customers to remember whilst they drive past our vehicles than something like 1800 DogBathing or 1300 Justin (for example Justin does lawn mowing). The key in the last example would be for Justin’s Lawn Mowing Service, to brand their vehicle with their Justin’s Lawn Mowing Logos and then have their phone number like 1300 Justins on the side of the vehicle for people to call. The other key element to remember with the phone number is that it should be similar to the companies web address. For example Justin’s Lawn Mowing Service might have a web address – www.JustinsLawnMowing.com or alternatively you might secure the web address – www.1300Justins.com.

You will notice in my example above of how Red Rooster incorporates their brand into their phone number by using 1300 Rooster, they have also followed the sample principle with their web address which is www.RedRooster.com.au. Once again this standardised branding ensures that customers can easily remember how to get into contact with the company.

The key in business is to reinforce the customers RAS (reticular activating system) to ensure that when they need a product and service that you offer, that you are the one that they remember and looking for through consistent branding.

So what numbers can you use?

Most of the large corporations use numbers like 1300 & 1800 numbers so that their branding is consistent across all markets they are operating in and customer contact can be centralised. However, even as a small business we can use this to our advantage. For example if you were a printer and you printed business cards as a core business service, you could purchase a 1800 number that you could use in other markets to sell your business card business even if you are located in a regional city. I have seen of late many small businesses market their businesses in the larger cities by using a combination of advertising via the Internet, 1800 numbers and the Yellow Pages.

By taking this approach they can take advantage of working in areas of the country where business leases and wages are lower whilst increasing the market they service.

How Do You Secure 1800 or 1300 Numbers?

In Australia, you can secure these numbers by visiting companies like your local telcos such as Telstra or you can actually participate in the Government Auctions of these numbers. You can secure the 1800 or 1300 numbers from companies like 1300Australia which is a Telstra Partnership.

You can participate in the Government Auctions for these smart numbers by visiting the Australian Government website. The reserve prices for these numbers can be as low as $500 which makes the price affordable even for small business.

Human Beings are being bombarded with monstrous amounts of information every single day. As we drive, we are bombarded by no less than 2,000 message every day from the radio, billboards, our kids, the signage and even signage on aircraft flying above and because of this, business owners must ensure that if they want to be remembers, the numbers on their vehicles and the vehicles that are driving by must be memorable. If your phone number is not, people will simply place your number into the deleted folder in their brain and purge it. This means you will have lost an opportunity and a potential sale.