7 Reasons Why You Need an Inbound Number As a Digital Marketer

Digital marketers should use every resource in their toolkit to bring attention and awareness to their brand. An inbound number is one effective tool that helps in that respect as it acts as an easy point of contact for customers and inquirers to reach your company.

But don’t be fooled: an inbound number does much more than just handle calls. Unlike personal phone numbers, there are a plethora of advantages that marketers can utilise with an inbound number. 

From enhanced customer reach to access to metric dashboards, businesses that use an inbound number have a significant advantage compared to those without it.

Ready to see why having an inbound number is such a game changer in more detail? Take a look at these seven reasons below on how you could benefit greatly from this often overlooked tool.

Let’s jump right in.

1. Enhances Company’s Professional Image

One of the primary perks of owning an inbound number is its air of professionalism. Everyone has personal numbers, and using one for your business can diminish its credibility and give off the impression that it’s nothing more than a small-scale enterprise.

On the other hand, using an inbound number reinforces a business’s image and legitimacy, regardless if you’re a one-man team or a large-scale enterprise. This is due in part to the exclusive nature of these numbers, like a 1300 or 1800 number for Australia-based businesses.

By using a business number as your main means of answering calls, you can convert more leads into clients or customers and score more opportunities due to its professional image. 

It can help you stand out against a sea of competitors, or allow you to level yourself with other businesses using inbound numbers as well.

This, in turn, prompts business growth—the underlying goal of both marketers and businesses.

2. Streamlines Campaigns With One Number (or Multiple)

Another perk of an inbound number is its ability to act as a cohesive point of contact across all marketing channels. You don’t have to sign up for multiple phone numbers and create different marketing materials for territories across different area codes. 

With an inbound number from Telcoworks or other providers, you can use the same one across all regions without putting off potential customers with excessive call fees. 

This reduces the time and effort of creating more complex marketing campaigns, both physical and digital, that contain different tags and variables.

However, the opposite won’t pose a problem either. 

If you’d like to test different campaigns and conversion strategies, you can acquire multiple inbound numbers under one account and A/B test them. All numbers you own come with analytic features that track historic calling data, so you don’t have to track manually.

By using different inbound phone numbers, you can determine the most effective marketing strategy or channel, which can prompt your business to allocate resources to that respective channel.

3. Increases Your Call Handling Capacity

One of the reasons why most businesses seek an inbound number is its enhanced call-handling capacity. With a personal phone number, your business’s availability will rely entirely on your (or your staff’s) availability. 

If you just so happen to be in the other room from your phone, or if someone else is on the line, that caller’s query will go unanswered, which can leave a sour taste in their mouth and potentially sever the business relationship.

However, by owning an inbound number, you can scale your call-handling potential and let multiple agents handle incoming calls without much friction. This is because of the inherent and customisable call-routing infrastructure found in these numbers.

Businesses with multiple callers benefit greatly from inbound numbers since they permit every customer query to be addressed promptly, granted that you have enough customer service agents taking calls as well. 

These numbers can also be configured with interactive voice response systems, allowing your customers to connect to the right department more seamlessly by clicking menu options.

If an agent’s line is occupied, the caller automatically gets transferred to the next open line, granting smooth and seamless communication to everyone.

4. Shows Data Analytics

Another perk of an inbound number is its comprehensive metrics dashboard. 

With a personal phone number, marketers only have limited information to work with before and after a caller interaction. However, with an inbound number, the wealth of information marketers can obtain is significantly higher. 

To name a few, an inbound number allows you to gauge a caller’s geographical location, previous call history, and other detailed customer data.

Besides that, inbound numbers also track key metrics and the call information itself, noting metrics such as average wait time, average handle time, call resolution time, and the current amount of available agents. It also allows the business to record calls.

These pieces of information are crucial for marketers to track as they can help them find trends and adjust their approach to improve their odds of achieving customer success.

5. Allows Nationwide Reach

Calling an inbound number like a 1300 or 1800 number in Australia is more enticing than calling a phone number with a different area code for one main reason: lower call rates.

A 1300 number charges both the caller and the business, but the caller is only charged their local call rate—which is a fairly negligible amount if the call time is short. An 1800 number is even better for customers as they don’t get charged at all.

This is unlike personal numbers, wherein callers get charged a higher rate if they’re calling a number from different territories. This extra charge can dissuade them from contacting your business altogether, which can lose you a customer.

Furthermore, 1300 numbers work across different states, allowing your business to operate on a nationwide scale. If you want to relocate offices from Sydney to Melbourne, for instance, you don’t have to change your number. You can simply retain the same inbound number—which is highly convenient for your business and contacts.

6. Improves Customer Satisfaction

Every marketer knows that customer satisfaction is key to continued patronage. An inbound number achieves just that. With all its benefits, this number removes many obstacles in the calling process—like busy lines, long wait times, and missed calls, sealing customer retention in the process.

Satisfied customers are more likely to spread the word about your business to other people, which can boost your business’s reach and increase its revenue stream overall. And as an outbound marketer, there’s no better feeling than having to produce less effort as your customers are doing the bulk of your work for you to increase business growth.

7. Scalability and Flexibility

While it may seem like inbound numbers are expensive tools, they really aren’t. Inbound numbers can be relatively cheap, even with all the benefits still attached.

Think about it: if your idea of increasing your call capacity is by buying multiple phones and subscribing to multiple phone plans, then you’re looking at hundreds of dollars spent annually for just a single additional number.

Conversely, you can easily scale up your operations with an inbound number that’s connected to multiple devices. Furthermore, you can also adjust your inbound phone plan as needed, as many providers offer customisable and flexible rates depending on your business needs.
Even the more expensive plans come at a smaller cost than owning a limited-feature and dashboard-less personal phone number. So if you’re looking to bring your business to the next level, then consider getting an inbound phone number plan. Even the cheapest one can bring you a tonne of benefits already.