The AA’s jumpstarted e-marketing increases online sales by 525% within 2 months

Background

The AA wanted to use their website and email communications more effectively as sales channels. Their existing site was not social media friendly – dialogue with members and content publishing was cumbersome and time-consuming. They were unable to ‘catch’ potential customers who abandoned the registration form.

e-Marketing turnaround

To solve these problems, the AA commissioned their agency partner, Ogilvy Interactive, and Ensight, who provide a sophisticated electronic customer relationship marketing (eCRM) software suite. Improving the AA’s online membership registration process was the priority. A reworked sign-up process now enhances the user experience and lost leads can be captured. These conversion opportunities are fed through to the AA’s call centre for telephonic follow-up.

A wider range of membership payment options and upgrades was also introduced. Streamlining the payment process and increasing choice removed barriers for customers and made purchasing easier. And automating this entire process has reduced the AA’s administration.

Social media integration, analytics and easy publishing

Initial integration with social media has been very straightforward and effective, again using the Ensight eCRM Suite. The AA’s Facebook page has numerous links to their website and even a dedicated "Join" tab that links to the sign-up form with a predefined discount. The AA can now segment users who come from their Facebook page and offer them relevant "social media friendly" benefits and offers on the AA’s website.

The Ensight eCRM Suite provides the AA with powerful and insightful data and analytics about customer behaviour and which areas of the site are most popular. It also lets the marketing team update and manage their e-marketing content themselves, without having to call on their IT department. The marketing team can now respond and act quickly to capitalise on tactical marketing opportunities.

“With Ensight’s eCRM Suite, the AA marketing team has more autonomy and control over our website and electronic communications. We can now do things like test concepts and run our own campaigns – fast and efficiently,” says the AA’s Divisional Manager: Strategic Marketing & Product, Evan Lockhart-Barker.

Impact on the business

These e-marketing upgrades have had an extremely positive impact on the AA’s business and website and related IT costs have reduced. The web is now the AA’s most profitable and efficient medium – surpassing traditional marketing channels.

Lockhart-Barker is thrilled. “We’re expecting the online renewals to rise further once our new renewal system is in place. Once this is done, we will roll out a renewal reminder email campaign, replacing our current snail mail membership reminders.” This will alert AA members that their membership is up for renewal and make it quick and easy for them to take action online, rather than having to contact the call centre.

Ensight’s Chief Marketing Geek, John Ginsberg, is justifiably proud of his company’s involvement in this project. “We are thrilled that the solution and its delivery have achieved the AA’s goals. This is, however, only part of a larger project to get the AA’s online presence to where it should be, and both companies are looking forward to working together to achieve this.”

The AA and Ensight are continuing to work together to integrate the eCRM Suite with more of the AA’s core systems. They are looking at how to give customers the information and tools they need, based on sophisticated customer profiling for an even better user experience.

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