Channels
How to Integrate Emerging Technology into Direct Mail Campaigns
In our Anatomy of a Solution series, we take a look at some direct challenges and disruptive solutions that Amsive has driven for clients. This week, the addition of credit bureau-sourced leads drove higher acquisition for an insurance client.
The Basics
A regional property and casualty insurance carrier serving the Midwest and Southeast looked to help its localized captive agents with acquisitioniCustomer acquisition is the act of creating a new customer for a business through a trackable method such as advertising, marketing or sales. Customer acquisition transcends marketing and indicates an action was taken such as a purchase. For example, marketing might get a potential customer to click on a digital ad which creates recognition, but acquisition is the sale whi... Read More and increase opportunities to provide insurance quotes to nearby prospects. The carrier had sponsored other marketing programs previously, but participation was low and agents mostly relied on word-of-mouth, referrals, and the natural renewal of their books of business. Our client needed an enhanced strategy and increased agent enrollment to drive more leads and ultimately see an uptick in policies.
We built our solution around a powerful audience strategyiBy focusing on identifying your ideal audience instead of looking at your entire audience, you can speak to that perfect customer group at the perfect time and generate greater results. A well- researched audience strategy helps arm you to reach the best consumer with your message who is going to have a higher propensity to buy your product, click your link or sign up for ... Read More leveraging data from two lead sources:
- Life event triggers signaling an insurance need, available through our data ecosystem
- Prescreen insurance triggers indicating in-market, insurance shopping behavior, supplied by credit bureaus
The Challenge
With our program, captive agent participation, education, and awareness were the first obstacles. To enroll and engage agents, we had to make sure they understood what was being offered to them to increase all-important leads.
Another challenge with our program involved the fact that our client was not as price-competitive as the top national property and casualty insurance carriers. It was up to us to drive consumers to quote by delivering strong personalizationiPersonalization is when communication is tailored to an individual based on information a company has learned about that person through collected data and internet habits. Maybe a potential customer lives in the Arizona desert and loves long-distance running. A personalized marketing approach would be to use that data to send that consumer information about running in the ... Read More messaging through relationship-building opportunities and the value of localized agents.
We built our solution around a powerful audience strategy leveraging data from two lead sources.
The Solution
Amsive developed a web portal where agents could review campaign details, customize their marketing materials, select specific cities or ZIP codes to target, preview their orders, and learn best practices for lead follow-up activities. This helped increase enrollment by up to 35 percent.
While our program was built around the aforementioned audience strategy –targeting consumers with life events signaling an insurance need, in addition to active insurance shoppers – we also took the following strategic approaches to drive marketing effectiveness:
- Channel Strategy – Direct mail was the primary channel but executed with speed-to-market to ensure consumers received an offer in hand while it was still relevant to their situation. The letter packages were personalized and mailed on behalf of the agents. Assigned leads were also delivered to agents via our web portal so they could follow up by phone or email for an omnichannel approach that increased their opportunities to provide insurance quotes.
- Creative Strategy – Segmentation and variable content helped ensure a personalized, relevant offer was delivered to each targeted consumer. The primary messaging addressed the need for insurance but was supported by other key copy points emphasizing the local connection to the agent, ease of getting a quote, and great service value.
The entire program was managed by leveraging our supply chain control, efficiencies, and automationiMarketing automation is the technology that manages marketing campaigns across multiple channels through automated systems. Marketing automation allows businesses to target customers with messages via email, social media and texts helping with everything from lead generation to nurturing and measurement of overall ROI on a marketing campaign. Marketing automation not only ... Read More. We also performed campaign measurement and analytics to prove what worked and to help optimize every aspect at a granular level.
The average conversion for this program topped off at 30 percent, which exceeded the industry average.
The Results
A big step toward success was our funneled approach to lead generationiLead generation is a way to reach potential customers early, get them in your pipeline and then nurture, educate and communcate with them as a way to earn their trust and build a relationship until you convert them into a customer. Productive lead generation should result in increased brand awareness, new relationships, higher quality leads, and ultimately more sales. Comp... Read More, where consumers either signaled an insurance need based on their life event trigger or were actively shopping for insurance to be selected for targeting. Our strategic framework ensured the right mix of audience, channel, and creative. Through this program, we were able to deliver a quote rate of more than double the previous marketing programs offered by the carrier to its captive agents.
Another important mention and driver of strong results was the captive agents who participated in the program, provided quotes, engaged in lead follow-up activities, and provided a level of service that resulted in more new policies sold. The average conversion for this program topped off at 30 percent, which exceeded the industry average.
Here are some additional key performance metrics:
- 4.11 percent average quote rate amongst insurance shoppers
- $2,784 average premium
- $5 to $1 average premium to cost ratio
