Authors

The Four Rights

Email Summit: Allstate Email Marketing Case Study

Monday, March 16, 2009 by Jeffrey Rohrs
John Heidrich and Joe Nettum of Allstate presented a great case study this afternoon at MarketingSherpa's Email Summit '09.  Entitled "Combining List and Trigger-Based Campaigns to Fully Leverage Your Database," the session focused on how they took their email program from an inconsistent, somewhat haphazard approach to a more structured methodology that not only valued and respected email subscriber interests but also improved ROI.

An interesting point was how the team tackled what they termed "credibility gaps" between the email subscriber's experience and their desired brand experience.  Through an audit of their processes, John & Joe determined:
  • Marketing & IT owned different pieces of email process, broadcast & delivery
  • Email addresses were spread across a variety of databases and were often not up-to-date
  • Proper value wasn't being placed on the email address let alone the communication process
This story isn't so different than many I've heard from clients over the years.  And much like those situations, rather than hyperventilate, Allstate's team took a very strategic approach to the problem by:
  • Locking down processes around email address management
  • Instituting re-engagement efforts to clean up their subscriber database
  • Formalizing the email marketing production process
  • Getting marketing to collaborate to identify triggered and other automated messaging that would deliver quick wins
  • Sending email closer to moments of greatest customer influence in the insurance purchase/renewal process
The net effect of their efforts has been to:
  • Improve delivery and response rates for all email marketing communications (triggered or campaign-based)
  • Improve acquisition of email subscribers through agents (as they have seen real benefits from the changes and, therefore, what all of their customers/prospects in the email marketing loop)
A final interesting note, Allstate mentioned that it works with Pivotal Veracity to ensure that emails render as intended.  If you haven't seen the ExactTarget's Inbox Preview powered by Pivotal Veracity be sure to contact us today!

Comments for Email Summit: Allstate Email Marketing Case Study

Leave a comment





Captcha