SCENARIO: Insurance marketing made interesting

17 June 2010 | With some simple planning, Ensight’s powerful eCRM Suite and the data that customers provide, you can increase your e-marketing ROI. As an example, this scenario illustrates how this can be done in the insurance industry.

Imagine an insurance company, BeSure*, that specialises in a range of short term, personal insurance products. Motor vehicle, home contents and travel cover.

They communicate with their customers and target audience via traditional media (TV, radio, print) as well as mobile (SMS, mobi sites) and online channels (web, social media, email newsletters). Our focus here is on their online marketing and how the clever use of autoresponse messages can save them time and money – and ensure that every warm prospect is supplied with relevant, personalised information to maximise conversions.

Gathering customer information

BeSure can gather valuable information online about customers and prospects in several ways, including:

Online insurance quotes. Customers supply extensive personal information in order for an accurate quote to be generated automatically.
Newsletter sign-ups. Personal and contact details are provided and customers indicate what types of information they are interested in via a preference centre.
Restricted access content. This may require clients to set up a profile/account on the site (providing specific information as a prerequisite for this) so they can view private or restricted information such as their previous claims or special offers.
Anonymous behaviour tracking. Without knowing who users are, analytics packages can track visitors’ behaviour - and should they visit in future from the same IP address, that subsequent visit data will be aggregated to previous visit analytics.
Social media fans and followers. Building communities of fans on sites like Facebook and interacting on a real-time, personal level with customers on Twitter.

Of course, BeSure needs to comply with electronic privacy and data protection laws, and must state their privacy policy clearly on their website, with an ‘I agree…’ option for any customers who supply personal data on the site.

With a database of customer information and rich analytics, BeSure now needs to scrutinise and evaluate the information available to develop and refine its marketing campaigns.

Campaign example

Let’s assume that BeSure wants to increase its sales of home contents insurance. It can promote this to several audiences:

Existing customers who have another type of insurance (car, travel, etc.) with BeSure, but not home contents insurance. For example, customers with currently valid travel insurance policies.
Customers who have requested another type of insurance quote within the last month (or other specified period) who have/have not converted into sales.
Lapsed home contents policyholders who may have gone to the competition or simply cancelled their cover.
Visitors to the site who request home contents insurance quotes or requested them in the past (say 12 months).
Visitors who requested home contents insurance quotes a year ago and bought a BeSure product, and whose policies are up for renewal.
Visitors who requested home contents insurance quotes a year ago but did not convert to a sale, whose policies may be up for renewal elsewhere.
Etc. etc.

Let’s look at the second target group: people who requested quotes for travel or home insurance within the last two months. This group can be split into two sub-groups: those who purchased a policy (C - Customers) and those who didn’t (P - Prospects).

Within each group, divide the customers into those interested in a travel policy (t), motor vehicle insurance (m) and those interested in buildings cover (b). So we now have six groups: Ct, Cb, Cm, Pt, Pb and Pm.

Targeted messages and cross-selling

Each of these groups can be marketed to with, for example, differently-themed email newsletters (assuming email addresses were captured as part of the initial online quotation):

Ct – You’re going travelling. Make sure the contents of your home are covered while you are away.
Cb – Your home is covered for fire / damage / meteor showers / etc. but what about its contents? Replacing clothing, furniture, jewellery, etc. costs a lot.
Cm – If your car is stolen, you’re covered – but what about your handbag / groceries? Our home contents policy includes out-and-about cover…
Pt – (You might have ensured you’ll be covered while you’re away on your trip but…) Have you thought about covering the contents of your home while you’re away on holiday?
Pb – (OK, so you perhaps decided not to go with us for your buildings insurance, but…) Have you checked out our comprehensive, affordable home contents cover? It covers you when you are out and about too.
Pm – (We know you have a car, so…) Did you know that BeSure’s home contents insurance will cover you not only at home, but also when you’re out and about in your car?

With Ensight’s eCRM Suite, BeSure can set up an automated cascade of messages that will ensure that customers receive relevant follow-up communications. These are based entirely on the customers’ own behaviour and choices. Using Ensight, BeSure can also use bulk text messaging to engage with these customers – or a combination of both email and SMS.

Setting up the message cascade

The first level of messaging is to send the six newsletters out to each appropriate group. Let’s look at how a message cascade could work for group Cm – customers who have motor vehicle insurance with BeSure already. Remember that with Ensight, BeSure can personalise these messages, so all can include e.g. Dear [firstname] and any other details (e.g. ‘ref. the car insurance policy you bought with us in [March]…’)

Email 1: To the entire Cm group.

Follow-up after their car insurance purchase and attempt to cross-sell. ‘You’ve got car insurance with us; how about a home contents policy too which covers your personal possessions when you’re out and about?’
BeSure’s objective, naturally, is to get customers to take action. Possible responses to the email are:

Do not open/read the email
Open email but take no action
Open email and click a link to BeSure’s website

Once a user is on the website, the system can track his/her behaviour and areas of interest.

Email 2: To people who do not open the email

This could be a follow-up message with a different subject line to try to encourage them to open it.

Email 3: To people who open the email but take no action

Something must have caught their interest as they opened it. This follow-up email could consist of a slightly different message and new subject line to pique their curiosity further. It’s also a further cross-selling opportunity – new products could be introduced to see if they resonate better with the customer. If action is taken, proceed to Email 4.
BeSure might want to follow this email with a further message a few days later, particularly if Email 3 was opened but still no action was taken.

Email 4/5/6…: To people who opened the email and clicked a link to BeSure’s site

Depending on where the user went on the site, this email should be a neat follow-up, encouraging further action and pushing for a sale.
If they visit a certain page or take a certain action, Email 4 is automatically sent. If they do something else, Email 5 kicks in. You get the idea.

Timing

BeSure know that it’s best to strike while the iron is hot, and that customers will be most receptive to follow-up emails within 3-10 days of the action that set off the cascade. The trick is to balance helpful suggestions and reminders with being seen to be hard-selling or pestering the user. Keeping the content relevant to the customer’s behaviour is vital here.

The Ensight Suite allows BeSure to set up their own time intervals and delays between each successive email – ideally for maximum exposure to the brand, with the least possible irritation factor.

Dynamic user profiling

Throughout a campaign like this, the Ensight Suite continues to build profiles of each customer in the database, integrating web data with email opens and clicks, and much more. This information is accessible in real time, meaning BeSure can see instantly which of their campaigns is working well, and which need to be tweaked. If changes need to be made, these can be done very quickly – meaning that the campaign can be refined for optimal return on investment.

Retrospective or real-time campaigns

This message cascade can be set up for a campaign like the one described above, where a retrospective list is contacted. Perhaps more usefully, it can be set up to activate automatically whenever a customer takes any actions that result in them falling into one of the 6 primary groups.

This can all happen automatically – with great results

This type of ‘re-marketing’ takes a little time to set up initially. But once it is in place, the clever use of autoresponders means that relevant, personalised messages with proven effectiveness will happen automatically.

To the recipients, this will feel like intelligent, tailored communication which they are actually interested in. To a client like BeSure, such a process saves time and money – and ensures that every possible warm prospect is followed up on.

Want to know more?

To find out more about how autoresponders can be used cleverly in your industry to maximise your online marketing opportunities, contact the Ensight team today.

* BeSure is a fictitious company. Any similarities to businesses that actually exist are entirely coincidental.

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SCENARIO: Insurance marketing made interesting