Top UK Insurer Increases Open Rates by 50% with autoGraph

“By using autoGraph, we were able to design and deliver effective customer communications and deliver return on marketing investment in less than a quarter.” - Director of Customer Value.

Situation

A top 3 UK insurance company embarked on a project to reduce churn by better understanding their customers and providing emotionally engaging digital experiences that enhances their customers’ lives.

“Our objectives were to understand customers motivations. For example, we know whether you have a pet but we don’t know how you feel about your pet. That emotion is what drives uptake and retention of pet insurance,” said the Director of Customer Value. “We want to be more than a ‘utility’ to our customers. We want to add value outside of the claims process.”

The company had permission to deliver monthly emails to their customers. This communication route allowed autoGraph to deliver an end-to-end solution that was delivered to customers within three weeks of the contract signature, allowing the company to improve retention and cross sale of products delivering return on marketing investment within one quarter.

Benefits

Loyalty Investment Case

This insurer was investigating a loyalty program but the business case was stalled as key items such as which brands and rewards would drive participation were unknown.

“With the understanding of our customers that we have achieved using autoGraph, we are now equipped to deliver an effective loyalty initiative,” said the Director of Customer Value Management. “AutoGraph helps us understand which brands we should partner with to deliver rewards that truly endear the customer to our insurance brands.”

50% Increase in Email Open Rate

The insurer was delighted with the results which showed that by adding interactivity the email open rate increased by 50%. The call to action allowed customers to build their personal profile and be entered into a competition, demonstrating that 90% of people who clicked created a profile.

“We also reduced our print costs and became a ‘greener’ company as a result of autoGraph,” the Director of Customer Value says. “The autoGraph profile allowed us to pinpoint which of our brands was most preferred by the customer for specific types of insurance. In the past, we would send a separate communication under each brand hoping to engage the customer but now we have a much clearer idea of how the customer will respond and that has made us more efficient.”

Segmenting Based on Data

At the same time, the insurer had engaged an agency to create buyer personas. These were well received, but mapping the personas to the customer base to deliver better communications was a challenge.

AutoGraph was enlisted to combine the autoGraph profile with other third party and first party data held in the insurer’s databases. With autoGraph providing a view of brand preferences, motivations and aspirations, the personas could be enhanced and validated. This approach provided an additional ROI as it became a core part of the customer acquisition, retention and brand advertising plans.