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| | THE AUTHORITY ON MEASURABLE MARKETING & OPERATIONS . WWW .CHIEFMARKETER.C OM | |
A PENTON MEDIA PUBLICATION
INSIDE: INSIDE: TREA TS FOR TWEET S P.8 // E-MAIL METRICS THAT MA TTER P. 17 // PO WER OF INCENTIVE S P. 25 AUG/SEPT
2010
ROSE CAHILL >VP/Director of Marketing, SBLI
INTEGRATING
SOCIAL, DIRECT &
MASS MEDIA INSURES
SUCCESS FOR SBLI
10|FULL COVERAGEIntegrating social, direct and mass
media insures success for SBLI
17|E-Mail Metrics That MatterWhich numbers are the most important
to your marketing ROI?
20|Fixing LoyaltyForward-thinking brands shake up legacy programs, guided by customer comments
and user data
25|The Power of IncentivesA look at the best ways to use incentives
for customers—and employees
30|CM Corner Table: The Value of Loyalty
Experts talk about what loyalty programs should be—but seldom are
FEATURES
Volume 2 Number 4
Chief MarketerAUG/SEPT
10
EDITOR’S NOTE5|Measure—But Then Cut!
CM REPORT
“FOR US TO CREATE A TRUE MULTICHANNEL PLATFORM, THE FIRST STEP WAS TO GET OUR ARMS AROUND THE DATA.”—ROSE CAHILL, VP/DIRECTOR OF MARKETING, SBLI
CHIEFMARKETER.COM | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2010 1
COVER STORY
Phot
os: J
ered
Haa
g
07| DEWmocracy in Action / NWF Moves Quickly on Oil Spill
08| Sweet Treats for a Tweet / Ben & Jerry’s Big Lid Score
09| Checking In With Top Travelers’ Needs / CM Poll: After the Party
>> Kids scream—and tweet—for ice cream/P.8
09 | Checking In WNeeds
>>
FINALISTS P.34
10 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2010 | CHIEFMARKETER.COM
BY BETH NEGUS VIVEIROS
INTEGRATING
SOCIAL, DIRECT AND MASS MEDIA INSURES SUCCESS
FOR SBLI
F
SBLI’S ROSE CAHILL, VP/Director of Marketing,
PHILIP CRAMPE, E-Commerce Manager
11
Phot
ogra
phy:
Jer
ed H
aag
When people get to
certain stages of their
time shuffling around
in this mortal coil—
say, getting married
or becoming parents—they realize that life
insurance is one thing they need to get in
order. SBLI had a similar epiphany a few years
ago when it came to its marketing database.
“We needed to build a database separate
from the one IT was maintaining,” says
Rose Cahill, vice president and director of
marketing for the Woburn, MA-based insur-
ance company. “For marketing purposes,
we didn’t have complete data, and it was
in different formats. For us to create a true
multichannel platform, the first step was to
get our arms around the data.”
Acxiom became a key business partner
for SBLI, which pulled together a team of
folks from marketing and IT, as well as reps
who worked regularly with the policy and
lead data, to look at what data SBLI had, the
condition of it, and what additional data
needed to be appended.
“It was a struggle at first,” she admits.
What was ultimately the most helpful strat-
egy was figuring out what end result SBLI
wanted from the data.
“We could tell you in excruciating detail
what policies our customers owned, how
they paid for them, all that kind of stuff—but
we didn’t have the demographic, psycho-
graphic and lifestage information we needed
for marketing,” Cahill explains.
And that was what SBLI needed in order
to move toward a multichannel strategy—
to employ not only traditional channels like
direct mail and print, but also newer media like
continued on page 12
CHIEFMARKETER.COM | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2010 11
In New England, SBLI uses beloved
former Patriots footballer Tedy
Bruschi as a paid spokesperson.
Print campaigns feature the retired
linebacker, and SBLI also displays
signage at Celtics and Bruins
games. When SBLI analyzed its
customers’ social media behavior,
the sports-related groups were
among their favorite Facebook
activities. “Well,” laughs SBLI’s
Phil Crampe, “The Red Sox and
Dunkin’ Donuts— they’re both very
New England.”
GAMEIN THEW say , getting married
or becoming pare nts—the y r ealiz e that lif e In New England, SBLI us es belo ved
former Patriots footballer T edy
FullW
hen people get to
certain stages of the ir
time shuffling around
in this mortal co il—
saygettingmarriedGAMEIN THE
coverage
PROFILEROSE CAHILL, VICE PRESIDENT/DIRECTOR OF MARKETING /
PHILIP CRAMPE, E-COMMERCE MANAGER / SBLI
e-mail (see sidebar on page
14) and social networking.
SBLI’s core products are
term life insurance, whole
life insurance and fixed
annuities. The company
offers no variable products,
“so what you see is what you
get with our products. They
are not subject to the vaga-
ries of the stock market,” says
Cahill, who joined the company
after spending over a decade
with competitor John Hancock.
Not-So-Secret AgentsIn the traditional sales model, SBLI
sells through a network of over
6,000 outside insurance brokers who
are licensed to sell SBLI products
through their agencies throughout
with young children and suburban.
They’re very involved with their
kids’ academic and extracurricular
activities (think soccer moms and
Little League dads), have mortgages
and lead extremely busy lives.
Because the company started in
New England—former Supreme
Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who
had a practice in Boston, founded
the company in 1907 as a way to
offer the average person afford-
able coverage—SBLI’s presence is
strong in the Northeast. “So bro-
kerage has been a good way for us
to expand,” says Cahill.
Products were sold through
banks in Massachusetts in the
beginning, and the direct sales
model was instituted about 20
years ago, when new management
saw it as a way to expand across
the country. Today, SBLI has over
a half million customers, and 10
million records (prospects, inquir-
12 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2010 | CHIEFMARKETER.COM
continued from page 11
the country. The other side of the
business is direct sales; SBLI has its
own internal group of agents who
sell to customers who inquire direct-
ly to the company about policies—
the marketing department sends
leads to the agents for follow-up. For
the most part, SBLI’s internal agents
do not do prospecting.
Is there channel conflict? “I’d
be lying if I said no,” Cahill chuck-
les. “Of course there is, but we
find that, for the most part, the
things we do to support our inter-
nal agents also help drive broker-
age sales. So when you net it out, it
helps the company overall because
we’re able to provide products to
where people want to get them.”
That means by calling the com-
pany direct, visiting an agent at
an independent brokerage, visiting
SBLI.com or getting a quote via
SBLI’s mobile Web site. And while
there are some slight differences,
for the most part the company’s
core prospect is the same, regard-
less of channel: age 30-55, married
e
e
d
mpany
ts,
you
hey
aga-
says
mpan y
ecade
anc oc k.
tsel, SBLI
of ove r
ers w ho
roducts
oughou t
While fairly traditional direct mail is still part of SBLI’s mix, the Woburn, MA-based insurer is taking full advantage of talking with prospects in various social media channels.
continued on page 14
-b ased insurer alking with prospects in various
“I’D BE LYING IF I SAID
WE DIDN’T HAVE
CHANNEL CONFLICT.
BUT WE FIND THAT, FOR
THE MOST PART, THE
THINGS WE DO TO
SUPPORT OUR INTERNAL
AGENTS ALSO HELP
DRIVE BROKERAGE
SALES.”—ROSE CAHILL
PROFILEROSE CAHILL, VICE PRESIDENT/DIRECTOR OF MARKETING /
PHILIP CRAMPE, E-COMMERCE MANAGER / SBLI
Rather than barge in with a
hard sell, says Crampe, he’ll just
congratulate them and send a link
to SBLI’s quote calculator, just so
they can see how much a policy
might cost. Or he’ll offer a link
to an article on planning to pay
for college tuition on the learning
center area of SBLI’s Web site.
“If you hit them with ‘buy
now,’ that’s a fast way to turn them
off,” he says. “It’s an extremely
soft sell, just a way to keep SBLI
as a point of reference.”
He also finds that Twitter can
be useful for brand and reputa-
tion management. If, for example,
there is negative press involving
other companies using
the name SBLI across the
country, Crampe can use
Twitter to clarify that the
Massachusetts firm was
not affiliated with them.
On Facebook, SBLI
created a “Smart Money
Tips” fan page featur-
ing SBLI spokesperson
and financial expert
Jonathan Pond; the page
now has more than 2,500 fans.
Pleased with the success of that,
the company began running ads
on Facebook this summer. SBLI
is currently doing A/B testing on
creative to see what works best and
then will start segmenting those
offers. “As far as how that trans-
lated to paid policies, we’ll have to
wait and see,” he says, noting that
SBLI is tracking which landing
pages prospects land on from the
ads, as well as what time of the day
the ads are served.
Back in the physical world,
ers and customers) in its database.
The average sales cycle varies
depending on the policy. Because
all products are underwritten,
people do need to have a medical
exam and, in most cases, provide
doctor’s records. People who get
paperwork done on time can
have a policy issued in as little
as 30 days, but it is all based on
risk. Individuals who do things
like scuba dive or fly airplanes,
it could take up to 90 days. Sixty
days is the common timeframe.
“In our business, customers
need multiple contacts to move
forward,” says Phil Crampe,
e-commerce manager for SBLI.
“It’s not like waking up and
thinking ‘Oh, I’d like to buy an
iPad’ and you just do it. You don’t
wake up and think, ‘I’ll buy life
insurance today.’ You know you
need to, but no one really wants
to do it. The process scares peo-
ple, so it takes multiple contacts
before people move forward. And
today, because people are educat-
ing themselves online, they want
more information, and there are
more touch-points.”
Softly SocialThose touch-points, natural-
ly, include social media. SBLI
started out slowly in the social
realm, using Tweetdeck to moni-
tor conversations about term or
whole life insurance. Not sur-
prisingly, these often occurred
among folks just getting married
or expecting their first children,
who were asking for recommen-
dations from friends.
14 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2010 | CHIEFMARKETER.COM
continued from page 12
profile
When SBLI began revamping its marketing database, it realized that a glaring flaw in its customer information was up-to-date e-mail addresses.
At the time many of the insurer’s customers had first signed on the dotted line for their policies, getting an e-mail address wasn’t a top priority for SBLI, simply because e-mail marketing wasn’t yet an important part of the marketing process. “We weren’t yet using e-mail to communicate with our customers, so we didn’t bother trying to update that information,” says Rose Cahill, vice president/director of marketing.
SBLI contracted Fresh Address to help it append e-mail informa-tion to its house file. “When we started, we had maybe 10% to 15% of our file with e-mail addresses—and when we looked at what was actually valid, it was even less than that,” Cahill notes.
Today, of course, capturing e-mail at the first point of contact is a clear priority for everyone in the organization, from customer service reps to brokers and agents.
E-mail is used for both prospecting and reten-tion by SBLI. One e-newsletter features advice from financial expert Jonathan Pond, who updates recipi-ents on what is happening in the stock market. “We repurpose his content every two weeks and send it out to customers and prospects,” says Cahill. “It’s a good way to keep our name in front of them and provide value-added information, in a soft-sell way.”
SBLI had in the past contacted people who had inquired about insurance via a solicita-
tion e-mail every two weeks. But the company realized that the audience soon became immune to the pitches, and the strategy stopped working. Now, SBLI is focusing more on marketing auto-mation and lead nurturing, looking at stats like what landing pages a prospect has most recently arrived at on the company’s site. “We’re finding its better to focus on segmenting our e-mail file into core segments based on things like lifestage or where they are in the buying process,” she says.
Once SBLI has looked at this data, it sends different segments a series of messages targeted to their specific situation over a period of, say, two and a half weeks.
“Each e-mail they get depends on how or if they answered the previous e-mail, so it’s all response-based and much more targeted to where they are in the process and what they need,” says Cahill. “We’re finding that approach works much better, because you’re get-ting people information they need when they’re looking for it.”—BNV
ROSE CAHILL, VICE PRESIDENT/DIRECTOR OF MARKETING / PHILIP CRAMPE, E-COMMERCE MANAGER / SBLI
E-MAIl POlICy CHAnGE
CHIEFMARKETER.COM |AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2010 15
SBLI still uses traditional media
such as print targeting publica-
tions reaching the core lifestages
of new marriage and parenthood.
As for direct mail, Cahill estimates
that SBLI’s volume is probably
75% of what it was five years ago.
“If direct mail was still driving
great response rates for us, we’d be
doing more of it, “ she says.
What is really driving the shift,
of course, are budgets and what
the customer wants.
“When we think about who is
to be able to try tactics used by
retailers, like discounting. “But the
insurance industry is so regulated
that you can’t do anything that
would be perceived as a rebate to
entice someone to buy. So we have
to provide valuable content.” n
in our sweet spot—Gen X is there
now, Gen Y is approaching it and
the Millennials will be there next—
they do everything digitally,” she
says. “And I can tell you we’ve
doubled the number of leads that
come from online initiatives.”
When SBLI does mail, pieces
are fairly straightforward and not
heavily designed: #10 envelopes
with strong copy are the winners.
“Especially in this economy, any-
thing that looks too promotional
will just be thrown out without
being opened,” says Cahill.
The SBLI.com address is
included in all communications
both online and off as a response
mechanism, but a fair amount
of folks still like to pick up the
phone and call. And all direct mail
pieces still have coupons, even in
this day and age. “We tried doing
pieces without and response fell,”
she says. “Sometimes people even
hold on to the mailings and send
in the coupons a year later.”
Cahill notes that she’d love
“In socIal medIa, If you hIt people wIth ‘buy now,’ that’s a fast way to
turn them off. so we keep [our communIcatIons] extremely soft sell,
to keep sblI out there as a poInt of reference.”—phIl crampe