Client: Ivy Tech Community College
Industry: Education
Goal: Increase enrollment and communication

Ivy Tech Community College sets spring enrollment record, crediting Vontoo voice marketing
School reaches prospective students effectively and decreases marketing expenses

ABOUT Ivy Tech Community College
Ivy Tech Community College is the nation’s largest state-wide community college with single accreditation. It is Indiana’s second largest public post-secondary institution serving more than 120,000 students a year. Ivy Tech is also the state’s most affordable college. Students can earn a degree for less than $6,000.

THE SITUATION
Ivy Tech was looking for an affordable way to communicate with prospective students, letting them know the great value the school provides and especially why it’s a great option during difficult financial times. The school had previously used a voice messaging service to send reminders to students and prospective students but was looking for a more user-friendly and cost-effective means of contacting them.

In July of 2008, Ivy Tech’s Assistant Regional Resource Director, Matt Diuro, discovered Indianapolis-based Vontoo voice marketing and decided to use it as a partial replacement for paper mailers that the school had traditionally used.

THE CAMPAIGN
Ivy Tech started using Vontoo in many levels of their marketing – from recruitment of prospective students to keeping existing students informed. On the recruitment side, Vontoo has helped enhance the process. Manually recruiters could only reach around 15-20 prospective students per hour. Now, Ivy Tech recruiters can send a Vontoo message to 15-20 thousand students.

But keeping existing students informed is equally as important to Ivy Tech, so they use Vontoo regularly to remind students of upcoming events, orientation, and deadlines for payments due and class enrollment.

THE RESULTS
By switching from their prior phone service to Vontoo, Ivy Tech was able to save $15,000 per year and also enjoy the user-friendliness and detailed reporting provided by Vontoo. The school also recently set a spring enrollment record and is currently about 13% above its targeted enrollment growth. Additionally, Vontoo allowed Ivy Tech to attach their name to outgoing calls, unlike the service they had used in the past. This way, when a call comes in on a recipients’ caller ID, it says “Ivy Tech,” instead of appearing to come from an unknown, out-of-state number.

“To say we are thrilled with Vontoo would be an understatement. They help us keep our costs low and our communication high. And our record enrollment is icing on the cake .”
-Matt Diuro, Ivy Tech Community College
Assistant Regional Resource Director