Vontoo: Phone Marketing – 21st Century Style By Matt L. Ottinger
Although marketing and communication may seem like text-based worlds to some, an Indiana company is dialing up the heat in those sectors. And lo and behold, while they’re utilizing technology to make it happen, they’re also relying on the work of Alexander Graham Bell.
Founded in 2005, Vontoo is bringing voice marketing into the mainstream of the advertising world. The company has grown to a staff of 15, a customer base of 600 and experienced 20-25% monthly revenue growth throughout 2007.
A Kentucky native and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology graduate, Dustin Sapp founded Vontoo with veteran Indiana entrepreneur Bob Compton, who has a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School and an honorary doctorate from Rose-Hulman. Together, the two have tapped into an innovative way for businesses to advertise and communicate.
“We started in my basement, just like all good companies should,” Sapp quips.
The company’s customer base is national, and ranges from corporations to single users sending personal phone messages to their relatives.
“The beauty of this system is it doesn’t take too much time (to record a message and send it),” Sapp explains. “Little leagues and churches actually use it to make announcements. It takes a lot less time than calling lists.”
To use the system, one needs only to register on Vontoo’s web site, record a voice message in his/her own phone and input a list to call. Callers can also track statistics such as when certain people answered, if they took the call live or it went to voicemail, how long they actually listened and even if they took further action.
Power of voice
The primary theory behind Vontoo’s voice messaging system is that voice communication is powerful, and should not be ignored in the world of text-based messages. Sapp cites a study that reveals actual words are significantly trumped by voice inflection when it comes to how people interpret messages.
“There is nothing more powerful than someone telling you something,” he says.
Sapp also notes that while the Internet and e-mail can be effective means of communication, the phone is significantly more pervasive.
“Voice communication is the most ubiquitous form of communication,” Sapp explains. “There are actually more phones than households (in the United States).” According to Sapp, 80 million out of 300 million households in the United States have Internet access, while there are roughly 325 million phones in use.
Sapp recognizes that some may confuse voice messaging with something insidious like phone spam, but stresses what his customers do is a stark contrast to that type of nuisance.
“This isn’t phone spam; it’s all permission-based,” he says, noting his customers all have established relationships with their call base. “We turn away from blast calling and traditional political campaigning. People can also opt out of calls, and we’re very serious about permission and policing it.”
Sapp also explains that Indiana has the strictest Do Not Call law in the nation, so there’s little room for error in that regard.
National client base
Although the company is based in Indianapolis, Vontoo’s customers range from coast to coast. Sapp notes Boston College recently used the service to sell tickets to its Atlantic Coast Conference championship football game by broadcasting a voice message from the team’s starting quarterback.
“With the ticket sales created from that call, they earned at least a 2,500% return on investment,” he says.
Sapp also explains the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA spent no more than $700 on a Vontoo campaign and garnered $33,000 worth of ticket sales, while the West Texas A&M University football team set attendance records this year by utilizing the system.
He explains Vontoo isn’t just used for sports marketing though (it only accounts for 5-10% of the overall business), asserting it can serve a practical purpose for non-profits and government organizations. In fact, Indiana’s Public Employee Retirement Fund (PERF) recently took advantage of Vontoo’s capabilities.
“PERF uses us for announcements and to inform people of important deadlines,” he says. “They’re reaching retirees, and those aren’t people you’re going to reach with some fancy web site.”
Sapp is also proud of his company’s work with the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. Through Vontoo, the foundation sent out a message from actress Mary McCormack advocating diabetes research. The call allowed recipients to directly contact their congressional representatives upon the conclusion of the call by simply pressing a button. Sapp explains that 17% of the recipients actually did, and a relevant vote on the House of Representatives floor ultimately received 10 more votes than expected.
All told, Sapp looks forward to a bright future in an emerging niche.
“It’s an exciting product,” Sapp says. “The customers love it and employees love working here. We want to keep this energy up, impact the state and contribute to the growing economy in Indiana.”
