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Dial 800 empowers DR brands through a set of marketing optimization
tools including memorable toll-free phone numbers, and call routing and
tracking software that puts the client in control.
By Jackie Jones
When do you know you have a message worth marketers’ attention? When it’s one with such far-reaching influences that it could have even changed the outcome of
one of America’s highest-rated entertaining pastimes.
During the second season of “American Idol,” only
130,000 votes separated the two finalists: eventual winner
Ruben Studdard and runner-up Clay Aiken. Yet the television show — which uses an 866-prefix when asking viewers
to vote — saw 240,000 misdials to the 800 prefix, a clear
sign of just how paramount the toll-free number can be to
brands, according to Scott Richards, CEO of Dial 800.
“Ryan Seacrest said the same 866 numbers over and over
again, yet there were more misdials by those who dialed the
800 prefix than the difference in votes that seperated the
two finalists,” says Richards of Dial 800, which provides direct marketers and agencies the tools to optimize conversion
and sales.
“The 800 prefix is just so ingrained in consumes’ mind-
sets that people automatically make that substitution
regardless of the prefix you advertise,” adds James Diorio,
COO of the Los Angeles-based Di-
rect Response Marketing Alliance
(DRMA) member. “People don’t
even think about it, so that’s why
it’s really essential for marketers to
avoid running anything but 800-prefix
Dial 800 knows the value of a good
number, and the complementary call
routing and tracking tools necessary for effective DR cam-
paigns. The company was founded in 1989 as a collection of
vanity phone numbers, built up a solid reputation through-
out the 1990s with big-name clients such as 1-800-COL-
LECT, and began developing in-depth software for the DR
industry about four years ago.
View the video interview online
at ResponseMagazine.com or in
Response’s February Digital Edition.
