It’s an advertising tradition to include your phone number, regardless if you’re utilizing radio advertising, TV, or the internet. The “Call Now” call to action is as old as marketing itself.
But the question is, will anyone remember my phone number? And even if they do, will they actually give your business a call? Unfortunately, the answer is: probably not. That’s not to say it’s never the case, but in today’s world of instant gratification, a human’s attention span is compared to that of a goldfish.
Unless you have an easy-to-remember phone number — like 1-888-8888 — your advertising needs to be memorable and your call to action needs to be clear. But, in today’s marketplace consumers don’t want to call your business immediately, they prefer to do some initial offline research before engaging with salespeople.
But fear not, there are options other than promoting your phone number in your ad and they can be very effective to get potential customers engaged with your brand. Here are just a few:
A Memorable Jingle, Slogan, or Tagline
One or any of these in combination with your radio advertising can set you apart from competitors and become highly recognizable for your brand. They’ll help reiterate what you’re known for and what the key differentiating factor is for your business. If you need help developing your slogan or jingle, Zimmer Communications can help. We work with outside experts from around the country who have helped many of our clients out in developing the perfect jingle for their business.
Memorable URL
Just like a phone number, the more unique and easy to remember your URL the better it is for your prospects. Optimally your URL will be something like “www.yourcompanyname.com”, but if that’s not available you can try other domains such as “.net” or “.co”. You’ll definitely want to avoid strange spellings or abbreviations that are hard to remember, as these are definitely not the best options and will be more difficult for consumers to recall.
Hashtags
A hashtag's main purpose is to aggregate specific topical conversations into one place. Topics and comments are tagged in order to be a part of the conversation and are searchable based on each hashtag. Instead of a phone number, try to utilize your own, custom hashtag in your advertising so that people have a different avenue to engage with your business.
Social Platforms
Social media platforms are another great alternative to leaving your phone number. This can take the form of letting people know how to search Facebook to find your business, or on Twitter as “@YourBusinessName”, for example. Similar to hashtags, your social media names will be easier for people to remember than a phone number and will give your customers a place to go for more information and to engage with others in a conversation.
If you’ve been wondering if anyone will remember your phone number in your advertising, by now you should realize that even if they don’t, you do have other options to engage your audience in a memorable way. By leveraging things like jingles, hashtags, and social media, you can get people to engage with your brand even if your phone number isn’t the most memorable on the planet.
It is important that you don't take all of these tactics and incorporate them into one ad. It's still crucial that you drive people to one point of contact and have one call-to-action because you’ll confuse your audience on what you actually want them to do.
