A Case Example

Here is a case example of how integrating marketing strategies can work for you. Let’s say you’re an insurance company that is currently using five different lead-generation tactics: direct mail, e-mail marketing, SEM, display advertising, and occasional cold calling. You want to coordinate these tactics so they can work together.

You develop a special campaign for advertising a new insurance plan called Platinum Choice. This plan is designed for luxury car owners (e.g., Cadillac owners), and it includes a number of perks to help them save money on car insurance. As part of this campaign, you plan to advertise a special offer: “Act now, and get a 25% savings on your premium for one year.” All of your lead-generation tactics for this campaign are built around this product and offer.

You put together and execute a direct mail campaign, sending out a direct mail piece to 100,000 luxury car owners. The piece explains the Platinum Choice program, gives details about how the program saves money, and includes the special offer.

At the same time, you coordinate with the post office to find out the expected delivery date for the direct mail piece. On that day (or the day before), you send out an e-mail notifying the target customers to be on the lookout for the direct mail piece in their mailboxes. The e-mail tells your target customers that, in addition to the special offer, the direct mail piece will have full details about how they can save money on insurance by switching to your Platinum Choice plan.

A few days later, your sales representatives make follow-up calls to the target customers who received the direct mail piece. “Hey, I know you just received our special offer. I wanted to know if you had any questions about the Platinum Choice plan?”

At the same time, you are also using SEM and display advertising. When potential customers search for “Insurance for Cadillacs” on Google, they see an SEM ad about your new Platinum Choice plan. Potential customers click on the ad, read the details about how the plan saves money, but don’t sign up for it then. They decide they will check other options for car insurance.

But thanks to display advertising, you are able to track potential customers’ click trail, using a cookie they downloaded while reading about the Platinum Choice plan on your website. You can now use redirecting technologies to present that potential customer with display ads about the Platinum Choice plan. Your Platinum Choice ads will appear to them on other websites.

The more your potential customers learn about your Platinum Choice offer and the more they see it advertised, the more it will be in their consideration set when they are looking for luxury car insurance, or if they are thinking of switching to a better car insurance plan. The more you advertise your Platinum Choice plan through different lead-generation tactics, the higher your response rate to those tactics will be.