I often see signs, trucks, apparel and other marketing materials with multiple phone numbers on them. Why? Are you not organized enough to set up call forwarding? Perhaps you have a partner and you are hoping half the call volume goes to her. Maybe you just plain don’t like phone calls, and you are hoping that your confusion with what phone number to use will carry onto the customer and get them not to call you.

There is only one reason why you would want two numbers on the side of your truck, if you have two locations in different area codes and you want to offer the customer the option to call their local number. Even this is sitting on thin ice with me - get a toll free number.

The truth is, you want your customers to call. How do you get them to do that? Most importantly is to make it easy to get your number. When you give them an option you do two things:

1. You make the number smaller. This is both literal and figurative. If you have limited space on a vehicle for example, you must make the numbers smaller to fit them both on there. It also shares the importance of your phone number - therefore making it less.
2. You may confuse your customer. They may not know which number you want them to call. A confused customer will not open their checkbook.

So what do you do? Pick one number.

• Pick a number and have it forward to whoever can answer the phone at that time. You might change where it forwards depending on who’s available.
• Put the second number in the voicemail of the first. Give customers the option to call down the phone list after they have written down and tried the “main one”
• Use a service like phonepeople.com and get a toll free number with a virtual pbx.
• Hire an answering service to answer your main line and text you when you have a message.
• Use the easiest to remember number. Zeros and repeating digits make a number easier to remember.

These are just a few ideas. Get creative, but stop using two phone numbers. I promise you, it’s not helping your business get double the calls.

When a customer decides to use your company for the first time they get a first impression, but it’s not your voice or how you answer your phone. It’s your phone number. Your phone number is part of your brand. It defines who you are in many respects. You wouldn’t give your customer your Yahoo email address, nor would you give your new customer a hand written business card. Why would you give your customer a phone number that is hard to dial, confusing or doesn’t mean anything? Take a few minutes before you start your next business, or order a second phone line to ask the phone company for an easy to remember phone number. They usually don’t charge for this.

And for those of you with a Yahoo email address, I’m not sorry for offending you. If you can’t put the $10 into a .com with a free email address, why should a customer think you would spend any extra time or money to make their experience worth while?

Hand out your business card to everyone and everything you know. You couldn’t give me a good reason why all your friends and family don’t have one in the bottom of their purses or in their car cup holder. Don’t be stingy. Order a ton of them, and give them out like they didn’t cost you a thing.

I once heard that a good Real Estate agent could be measured by how many business cards they handed out in a year. The best go through hundreds, if not thousands a month.

Don’t forget to use the back. “We Love Referrals” goes a long way.

The only way to get someone to listen is to tell them about something they are interested in or thinking about. How many ads do you ignore in a day? Thousands. When you use yard signs, keep to the point, don’t waste your money with long descriptions or laundry lists. You have 432 square inches of real estate to get ONE point across. Don’t hide it amongst a plethora of other information.Thanks to Seth Godin’s Blog for the info.

  I was talking to a client of mine a few days ago when she started talking about post cards for her bookkeeping service. Generic, first time customer post cards tend to have a success rate of 2-3%. The problem with post cards is most of us throw them away without even looking at the offer. So, to make a long story short, I suggested writing her potential customers a letter with a hand written address on the envelope instead.

For around $600 you can blast 1000 potential customers with post cards, or send a letter to around 300, but the number of people that will read your “handwritten” letters are going to be nearly 100%.

I challenge you. The next time you get a hand written envelope in the mail, don’t open it. Throw it away. You won’t do it.

Call the local high school and tell them you are looking for a student to come by the office after school for administrative work or post an ad on craigslist. Pay them ten cents per address, and you will have the most effective “post card” campaign you have ever seen.