After you’ve searched and searched and come up a couple different options for numbers how do you decide? First of all, don’t go too crazy. Sometimes people get so caught up in this that they really drive themselves crazy with this. It’s not rocket science and by the time most people are at this point they’re deciding between a couple choices, all of which are pretty good.

Here are a dozen factors you can use to evaluate a number or decide once you’ve narrowed your options down.

1. Take a test drive putting them into your advertising
Pretend that you already have the number or numbers and put them right into your advertising. Make a mock up business card or whatever type of advertising you’re going to be doing and look at the numbers in context. This isn’t usually hard to do but sometimes makes it more obvious which one or ones to use.

2. Does it reinforce the right message?
If someone says they want a memorable toll free number, they also want it to be the right message. 1-800 DISH-RAG might be memorable but if it doesn’t have the right message or connotation and isn’t related to the rest of your advertising, it’s not as good. Look for a benefit oriented 800 number.

3. Will it still fit your company years from now?
Sometimes a number may fit a specific product or relate to the current promotion for that product, but after this promotion is over or when you’re focusing on other products will the number still be relevant and appropriate?

4. Can you make it into a jingle?
The right jingle can make any number more memorable. Are you ever going to forget Jenny’s number, 867-5309? That’s an extreme example and words actually work better which is why doing it with digits is even more impressive.

5. Yell it out.
Be careful where you do this, but go someplace that you won’t disturb anyone and yell the numbers. You’d be surprised how some energy and volume can affect it.

6. Count the number of syllables required to say it
Someone doing radio advertising suggested this. There are multiple ways to say any number and sometimes changing how you say it makes it much easier to remember. And the quicker you can say a number the more time you have in your advertising for the rest of your message or annoying fine print.

7. Count the number of spaces your finger has to move
This is probably a little extreme but the fewer spaces your finger has to move the easier, especially if your audience is using cell phones which have smaller keys.

8. Look for a pattern on the keypad
You don’t often remember pattern numbers from hearing or seeing the digits in advertising, but this can definitely help make a number memorable in a repetitive use situation.

9. Leave yourself a message on your voicemail and listen to it.This tends to automatically put yourself in the other person’s shoes which definitely helps. Does the number sound clear and professional over the phone.

10. Can you adjust the advertising to tie in one of the toll free numbers into the message better?
The best way to turn a single into extra bases or even in some cases a home run is to tie the number into the message but if you can’t do that, the next best thing is to tie the message into the number. Find a number you can get that has a theme or word you can use in the advertising. Sometimes you don’t have enough flexibility to change things, but if you do and you’re creative in your number search (as our search engine tries to be!) a little tweak of your message can make a good number into a great one.

11. Look for past users
You can do this by Googling the exact number with quotes around it. About 30% of ‘800’ numbers have some real information and probably less for 866s & 877s. But if you’re trying to decide between a couple numbers you might get fewer wrong numbers on a number with no Google results. That’s not a guarantee that it won’t have a lot of wrong numbers but it might help to see any potential issue.

12. Matching domain names.
Can you get the matching domain name? You may not think you need it, but it’s worth it, even if just to keep your competitor from getting it. You might want it for tracking purposes or to use in conjunction with the number in the future. And if one of the numbers has a matching domain name available, that might be a reason why to use the one with the name available.

13. Check for common Misdials.
Here’s a extra bonus point. Some numbers have a greater likelihood of misdials. Os can be mistaken for zero’s. Some older phones don’t have Qs or Zs. Some words are harder to spell than others. Abbreviations tend to be easier to confuse, especially when they aren’t common. There are ways to minimize or handle wrong numbers, but these can be something to consider in evaluating a number.

I wrote this because I really want to help people that ask me to help them decide on their number or pick a number for them. I want to help these people but I all have to sau that I don’t know your product, your message, your audience or your business as well as you do. Nobody else knows or cares about your business as much as you do.

That’s why I’ve done my best to find all of the options and provide all the best information about the toll free industry but it’s ultimately YOUR business and your decision. You have my best insight and information and my best research tools here on the website too. So we’ll look forward to helping you get any of the options we can find for you. We look forward to helping you get a great front door to your business.