What Is A Vanity Phone Number and How Does It Work?

Ratnam Sinha
4 min readDec 13, 2019

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Have you seen advertisements on television that show you a number with a brand name or words? Even you would have wondered at some point, just what is that?

Well that, was a Vanity Phone Number.

In general words, a vanity number is a type of a free phone number which spells out letters in the phone that match the numbers on the keypad.

A vanity phone number can have any combination of words or any phrase that you would like to have. It can be your company’s name or tagline, or the industry that you work in, or something like that.

Let’s say you have a Pet store, and your brand name is not as famous as the other stores in the competition. You can use a vanity number like 0800-PET-STORE, and your customers will instantly recognize you and your service.

On the other hand, if you already have a famous brand, you can have something like 0800-ACE-FONE. Your customers will never forget your contact number as it is your brand name.

What’s More?

The benefits of a vanity number do not end at just being recognizable. Let me list down a few of the many advantages you get from a vanity phone number.

1. Free to the Customers

Yes! A vanity number is free for the customers. This is because it is a variation of a free phone number where the business is charged for the call instead of the customer.

2. Professionalism

With a vanity phone number, your business becomes much more professional than any business who uses a personal mobile number. A customer will always relate a vanity number to a big company giving you an edge over your competitors.

3. Flexibility

Not only you receive calls on your business number, but also, in case of unavailability, the calls will be redirected to your personal number or any other device you prefer. In this way, you never lose a customer, and even the customers never lose you!

4. Cloud Benefits

As a cloud-based service, vanity numbers don’t require any hardware and can be upgraded or downgraded according to your business requirements. Thus, you save money with it. Also, because it’s a cloud-hosted service, you get real-time reports of all your marketing campaigns and calls which you can monitor to improve your customer service.

But How Does It Work?

It’s common to think about how someone could call a phrase or words when you can only dial numbers?

How a Vanity Phone Number Works

Dialling a vanity phone number is as easy as dialling any other number as the letters correspond to the number on the key. Let’s say you want to dial a vanity number 0800-PET-STORE. All you have to do is dial 0800–738–78673. As you can see, PET-STORE is much easier to remember, compared to 738–78673.

Do You Need a Vanity Number?

Getting a vanity number might just be what your marketing campaign needs. A research by Marketing Charts showed that when a number popped on the television screen of users, a vanity phone number was remembered 72% of the time, while an ordinary free phone number was only recalled about 5% of the time.

This clearly shows that having a vanity number will make users not only remember you but will eventually prefer to call you too, as they don’t have to pay for the call.

This is why a vanity phone number can be crucial for any business. Providing your customers with an excellent experience will help your business stand out from the crowd. It is an ingredient for success.

Vanity phone numbers, in every way, is one of the best investments for your brand or business. A vanity phone number will reach out to your customers, and the customers will even remember it. And any customer who reaches you through a vanity number already recognizes your brand and your service, so it is comparatively easier to convert them.

So, if you are looking forward to building a brand that your customers will recall within a second, go for a vanity phone number.

So, what are your thoughts?

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Ratnam Sinha

SEO Enthusiast & Digital Marketer | Esports Athlete | Fond of Travelling and New Experiences | Huge Marvel & Anime Fan | Always up for New Adventures |