The beginning of a calendar year is the traditional time when many hospices start thinking about how they will boost referrals and meet year-end goals. Imagine being able to change one little aspect of your business and rapidly boosting your brand value, memorability, and the effectiveness of all your other advertising. What’s more, if you do this, no other hospice in your region will be able to do the same thing. One of the things you can add to your marketing mix this year is a meaningful, memorable phone number (commonly known as a vanity number). Yes, discharge planners, doctors, and families could be able to reach you at the most memorable phone number in hospice: 1-800-HOSPICE.

Increase Conversion Rates

Mix Networks reports on an industry study in which vanity numbers created higher recall and conversion rates than domain names. There was a 45% higher recall of vanity numbers over web addresses. This was especially true in outdoor (e.g., billboards) and radio advertising. 

What is a Conversion Rate?

In marketing, a conversion is when someone encounters an ad and acts on it. For instance, if a discharge planner sees your agency among a list of choices in referral software and clicks to send you a referral specifically, that “ad” made a conversion. Or, if a family searches “hospice agencies near me” in Google and clicks on your Google ad to visit your website, that Google ad converted the Google user into a website visitor. Furthermore, if the visitor reads your website and then calls you, your website converted that visitor into a caller.

Instant Credibility

Few companies offer 1-800 vanity numbers. Those who do tend to be large, established, organized, and reliable companies. Having a 1-800 vanity number instantly puts your hospice agency in that league.

Turning the History of 1-800 to Your Advantage

Part of the instant-credibility factor in 1-800 vanity numbers stems from their history and exclusivity. Dating back to 1967, 1-800 was the first toll-free number. They are largely sold out and hard to come by for new businesses. Good vanity 1-800 numbers prove especially hard to come by. Most businesses must pay tens of thousands of dollars to secure the rights to a quality vanity number. They often hire agents who specialize in securing these assets. These costs could put a vanity 1-800 number outside the reach of most hospice agencies.

However, a communications company named RingBoost has leveled the playing field for hospice agencies. They manage the number 1-800-HOSPICE in such a way that multiple hospice agencies across the country can use it at a fraction of the usual cost. Hospice agencies sign up for their service area with geographic exclusivity. When a call comes in from that service area, it automatically routes to the local/regional hospice agency.

Advantages of the Vanity 1-800 Number in Hospice Marketing

• Increases memorability and response rates.
• Conveys credibility.
• Can be used across almost all advertising to boost effectiveness.
• Tracks incoming calls for marketing accountability. It can also record incoming calls for coaching and more detailed analysis.
• Proves more portable. If an office’s area code or exchange changes, the number patients and referral sources remember and use can stay the same.
• Can simplify referrals. Instead of asking discharge planners to figure out which of your offices to call for each referral, a 1-800 vanity number can be used to centralize your referral process.

To learn more about how to leverage a better telephone number in your marketing mix, visit RingBoost.com.