The 8th IDM B2B Marketing Conference:

Understanding and Engaging Customer 2.0

Marketing metrics: How measurement can increase accountability and acquisition

Alastair DouglasHead of Marketing & AnalysisSimply Business

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Simply Business is the UK’s largest online business insurance broker

Over 170,000 businesses are currently insured with us

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We acquire all our customers online through our website

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Segmentation as a customer understanding & targeting tool

c. 1,000 classifications of business

170,000 customers

20 customer segments

Key target segments

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Use data to begin understanding: then layer in qualitative feedback

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Net promoter score verbatims

I have never had any problems and (the process) has always been straight forward and no hassle

I have regularly recommended you. I purchased it on the internet. I found that the prices were very competitive. The cover

was about the same throughout

I got no feedback from you. You didn't provide any special offers. You took the money for the year and then you just stayed quiet.

I didn't even realise my policy had lapsed

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Impressions

Clicks

Visits

Engaged visitors

Actions

Sales

Revenue

Paid search: The data and measurement arms race

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Why optimising for cost/quote and not revenue can be problematic

Ad Group CTR Click to quote Quote to sale Cost/quote ROI

Brand 21% 13% 61% £3.54 £12.06Cleaners 18% 37% 16% £6.85 £0.65

Health & Beauty 8% 31% 7% £10.40 £0.17Education 3% 25% 11% £11.12 £0.19

Entertainment 9% 21% 14% £11.52 £0.26Professionals 7% 32% 18% £17.77 £0.73Recruitment 1% 25% 0% £21.45 £0.00Tradesmen 7% 30% 24% £22.13 £0.78

Public liability 11% 35% 20% £24.22 £0.56Generic insurance 6% 26% 19% £25.20 £0.78

Construction 6% 24% 15% £28.32 £0.90Contractors 6% 35% 38% £29.11 £0.98

Advertising/Design 2% 18% 33% £29.76 £0.68

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Measure to a higher level of granularity than your competitors

One bad creative or keyword can ruin the whole ad group or campaign

CTR 14.4%

CTR 5.3%

CTR 9.8%

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Social media: Start by building an audience

• Content of interest to start-ups and small businesses who use Twitter

• Don’t try to sell too much

• Try different things

• Monitor what works and what doesn’t work using free tools such as Klout, Topsy and Tweetdeck

• Metrics: True reach, number of total shares, amount of inbound traffic

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Incorporate engagement on Twitter into your customer services team

• Tools like Radian 6 can make this process more efficient and thorough

• This is a core function and should be kept in house

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Be open and engage with customer feedback authentically

• Amplify customer testimonials

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Customer service - more transparent and more efficient

• Engage with feedback - good or bad

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Social media key points

• Be very specific about what you want to achieve - we have had success with engagement and customer service but not with acquisition

• It is a very powerful tool for advocacy

• Set metrics - but understand that social measures of influence are just that.

• Use channels such as Get Satisfaction and Twitter to reduce your cost of customer service and understand your customers better

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Affiliate marketing - you can control your own cost per acquisition

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Use affiliate platforms as a way of testing your most effective message

15% more quotes

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User testing: A platform for new ideas to solve customer problems

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Actions from a user testing day

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Prioritised actions

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Summary

• Your database is full of insight about your customers and can be used to help you understand them better

• You can use data and measurement to gain a competitive advantage

• Choose your measures carefully in social media - but be rigorous

• Make sure you have a creative and testing platform: if you can’t test new ideas then the measurements will not be actionable

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Questions?

• Simply Business on Twitter: @simplybusiness

• Get involved in the Simply Business community: www.simplybusiness.co.uk/social

• I am @alastairdouglas on Twitter

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