If you have been anywhere near the United States of America for the past 20 or 30 years, you know all too well how insane the days following Thanksgiving are for retail. Horror stories of people being trampled and fistfights erupting at retail stores with door-buster deals have been woefully commonplace as the Black Friday sales earn their dark moniker. However, with the proliferation of online sales from both local and national retailers, some of the chaos that has plagued the shopping malls of America has subsided. The split in where shoppers go to purchase holidays gifts for their friends and family (or sometimes for themselves, as is the case too often in this author’s experience) has created a unique challenge as retailers have been pressed to choose which channel to focus their attention to during this critical sales period. DNIS, or Direct Number Identification Service, is a telephony technology that unifies the efforts of hybrid online/brick-and-mortar retailers and helps to track the ROI on marketing efforts at the same time.
DNIS for Holiday Sales: Two Birds, One Number
A DNIS is a number that advanced telephone service providers, typically on a hosted business phone system like Dash, offer to companies that serve a variety of purposes, but that can also track seasonal promotions for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. By including a unique DNIS telephone number (including toll-free, if desired) with all of the seasonal promotions that a company creates, they accomplish several key objectives for a successful holiday sales season.
- Cohesive Promotion Materials By having one number to use for an ad campaign surrounding the holiday sales period, a business can ensure that there is brand continuity across all platforms. Plus, because audiences to a digital ad can either click-through to an e-commerce site, call, or even inspire a visit in person, it’s important that they have uniformity in how to reach out.
- Accurate ROI Tracking Because holiday traffic can be new business or returning customers, discerning who is actually coming in as a result of your ad campaign can be difficult. DNIS allows for all of that to be easily tracked and recorded and call-volume can be pulled in real time from an online dashboard.
- Seasonal Branding Also, because DNIS numbers are made a la carte to serve your needs as they arise, this also creates a fun branding opportunity, as well. VirtualPBX owns tens of thousands local, toll-free, and international telephone numbers, any of which can be used as your next DNIS option. With that great of a pool to draw from, choosing a holiday specific and on-brand vanity number that is easy to remember and a good representation of your brand is just another benefit that DNIS provides.
Get Your DNIS Campaign Started Now
The clock is ticking and you may already begun seeing (far too many, in some cases) holiday decorations all over. That’s why securing your DNIS number now and getting your campaign started ASAP is so important. Act now and get in touch with us today to get the ball rolling on capturing all of the important holiday retail sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday that you can.
