What is local presence?
Local presence is a caller ID strategy that aligns your outbound phone number’s area code with the location of the person you are contacting. This approach can improve answer rates during outbound calling or SMS campaigns because people are more likely to respond to calls from familiar, local area codes.
Why use local presence?
When making outbound calls, a local presence caller ID displays an area code that matches the recipient’s region. Research and real-world usage show that prospects are more likely to pick up calls from local numbers rather than those from out-of-area or toll-free numbers.
Key reasons to use local presence:
People are generally more likely to answer calls from numbers within their own area code.
Matching caller ID to a local area code helps reduce the chance your call is ignored or marked as spam.
Local presence also applies to text messaging: the system selects the closest area code for outbound SMS.
For more tips and best practices about caller ID strategy and using local presence effectively, don't miss our latest blog: Connect like a neighbor, no matter the distance
How local presence works in Aloware
Aloware’s local presence engine automatically selects a phone number with the appropriate area code each time you make a call or send a text. For example:
If your team is located in Los Angeles but contacting prospects across the country, Aloware adjusts your caller ID to display a local number to the person you’re calling.
Calls to Los Angeles businesses will show LA area codes (818, 310, 323, 424).
Calls to Salt Lake City, Utah will use an 801 area code.
The same system applies to SMS: recipients see a nearby area code to make your communication appear more relevant and familiar.
Want to see it in action?
Check out our interactive walkthrough on setting up Local Presence in Aloware to follow along step-by-step.
Setting up local presence in Aloware
Our local presence package is a set of phone numbers bundled together, plus automated logic to find the nearest area code when calling out. Currently, we offer our local presence package in 3 forms:
Nationwide: around 300 phone numbers across the US -- for nationwide callers
Major cities: 1 phone number per major city in the US (about 90 phone numbers)
For clients operating in a single state specifically (for example, a legal firm or an insurance agency licensed in a single state), we can prepare a package with all area codes in that state.
How to add local presence
To add a local presence, go to your Aloware Admin account and access the Lines menu.
Click the +Add Local Presence button, which is only visible to Billing Admin roles. Other roles cannot see this button.
The Local Presence Wizard appears and requires you to select the region and LP cities, then click the next button.
Click the Confirm button to purchase a local presence package. It will populate a list of numbers.
Your newly purchased local presence package should appear in your Lines dashboard.
Checking the Lines in the local presence package
Navigate to your local presence line in the lines menu > click Settings.
In the General tab, navigate to the phone numbers section, and see all the listed phone numbers of your selected region.
Pricing
In collaboration with our vendors, we price local presence packages separately from your plan's phone number rental fee. Also, each set of local presence phone numbers is sold separately, for example a Canadian local presence is separate from a USA Major City package.
Please get in touch with your account rep to see our latest pricing and packaging options.
Numbers coming out as spam
If your calling volume is high (more than 500 calls a day in your account), you've probably heard that your phone number has been shown as spam on your prospect's phone. This is due to the new regulations and conventions put in place by carriers. As a result, all local presence phone numbers must be fully registered and compliant for appropriate use.
Utilizing our local presence packages, you can distribute your calls across a larger pool of numbers and alleviate the problem. Get started today!