Agents Market Directly to Prospects
Situation
At a time when new legislation restricting telemarketing is forcing insurance companies to ramp up direct mail efforts, an effective direct marketing process is more important than ever. For one of the largest U.S. insurance companies, meeting ongoing revenue goals required finding a more efficient—and profitable—way for its thousands of brokers across dozens of branch offices to market directly to prospects and customers.
The organization wanted to streamline the process of creating and executing its direct marketing campaigns. Issues that needed to be addressed included:
:: Regulatory compliance. The company needed a better way to manage the daily logistics of ensuring that its thousands of agents complied with state-by-state regulations for its diverse product offerings.
:: Territory management. The company required more efficient methods for dividing prospect pools among its distributed agents.
:: Extended campaign length. Creative development, approvals and other steps in the company’s centralized direct marketing process were difficult and time-consuming. Brokers typically received leads more than 60 days after a campaign was initiated.
:: Impersonal communications. In the company’s centralized model, agents were not able to customize messages for their customers and prospects.
:: High error rates. The typical error rates for traditional direct mail processes were compromising ROI. Despite substantial investments in database marketing systems, errors due to list management, lead capture and reporting problems persisted.
:: Production chaos. The production process was frequently interrupted or stalled at several points of interaction between external and internal personnel.
:: Inadequate results measurement. Erratic reporting made it difficult for the company to assess campaign success.
With new customer growth frequently falling short of targets, the company asked Click Tactics, Inc. to help it transform its direct marketing process.
Click Tactics Solution
The Click Tactics solution makes it possible for the company to get qualified leads into the hands of its agents quickly and efficiently. Encompassing execution, production and delivery, Click Tactics’ comprehensive direct marketing platform automates and centralizes agent-focused direct marketing.
End-to-end campaign management. Click Tactics aggregates all the complexities of customer data, creative content and business processes into one uninterrupted process. For the first time, branch managers can initiate and manage corporate-approved direct marketing campaigns on their own. The solution’s Web-based interface makes it easy for managers to view creative templates for letters, postcards or other materials; customize content if necessary; and place campaign orders, 24 hours a day. The solution automatically responds to the order, pulling customer information from the corporate database, digitally printing all materials and taking care of all labeling and mailing.
Business process support. The Click Tactics solution was customized to align with the company’s existing business processes, which minimized disruption during the quick integration process—and ensures ongoing support for key business challenges. For example, all regulatory and access controls are incorporated as a set of business rules, providing corporate headquarters with compliance assurance while enabling branch offices to avoid lengthy corporate approval cycles when implementing campaigns.
Database integration. Similarly, the solution is tightly integrated with the company’s centralized database. Branch managers can easily specify lists based on territory configuration, modify prospect pools for individual agents by zip code, and receive real-time counts of prospects and projected leads based on demographic parameters. The system automatically enforces corporate business rules on record availability and invokes suppression rules as necessary. At the same time, it cleanses and updates customer records to ensure accuracy and relevance.
Facilitated response collection. Just as the system streamlines the task of getting communications into the hands of prospects and customers, it also eases the task of response collection. Each business reply card or similar response vehicle is tagged with a unique bar code, which links customers’ responses to their customer records. Agents use bar code scanners to quickly access customer information and record responses into the central database. Agents can also use Click Tactics’ solicitation history as a lead management application to manage calls from the branches to responders.
Fund management. In addition to providing instant access to creative templates and the latest customer data, the new system allows branches to easily access their prospecting allowance funds and apply them to various marketing efforts. Administrators in the corporate office manage these funds online.
Results
Through the Click Tactics solution, the insurance company has established an easy-to-manage, efficient process for quickly executing customized campaigns. Key benefits include:
:: More profitable, successful campaigns
:: Better campaign ROI
:: Optimized direct marketing
:: Corporate control over branch office activity
:: Improved testing and measurement
