Summary
Our brief was to generate additional customer revenues and boost retention for Experian’s web intelligence service, Experian Hitwise.
The Solution
Our strategy was to focus most of the available budget on persuading existing customers to use Experian Hitwise more widely and more frequently. This route would potentially yield greater and faster returns.
We compared Experian Hitwise’s five modules with the daily ‘five-a-day’ regime of fruit and vegetables necessary for a healthy diet. To target the 25 most high-value and high risk accounts we created a DM containing a fresh apple, asking: ‘Web intelligence: are you getting your five-a day?’
Each module was themed as a different fruit or vegetable, and targets were invited to ‘Try our five-a-day and grow a healthier business’.
Other customers and prospects were targeted with eDM versions of the mailer. DMs and eDMs pointed recipients to a ‘five-a-day’ microsite where they could book a meeting, download a choice of ‘five-a-day’ themed pdf module guides, or order a ‘five-a-day’ desk calendar (this acted as a constant desktop reminder).
The Results
The campaign generated 45 opportunities that collectively produced £312,000 worth of revenue. This was set against a campaign cost of just £22,700.
About Experian Hitwise
Experian Hitwise is a leading global online competitive intelligence service, helping clients protect and grow their market share through the application of internet measurement data. Experian Hitwise measures the largest sample of internet users – 25 million worldwide, including eight million in the UK. This sample size allows clients to understand internet behaviour and competitive activity through data that is unmatched in timeliness, depth and breadth.
Experian Hitwise was founded (as Hitwise) in Australia in 1997. In 2007 Hitwise was acquired by Experian, the leading global information services company that provides data and analytical tools to clients in more than 65 countries. Counting over 100,000 clients and annual revenue of $3.9 billion, Experian employs approximately 15,000 people around the world.
Strategy and Business Issues
Experian Hitwise is sold as an annual licence and, prior to the campaign, was used by approximately 500 clients in the UK. Despite new business wins this tally had remained relatively unchanged in 2010 due to a rise in customers failing to renew their licences. Also a significant decline in usage had been identified across a number of high-value accounts. Typically customers were using only one or two of the available modules, and seemed to lack awareness of the full capabilities of Experian Hitwise. In addition, account managers were having some difficulty in engaging with some customers to upsell additional services.
To address these issues Experian Hitwise appointed Quick-Thinking to develop a strategy with two objectives: first to reverse the trend of lapsed usage among selected ‘red-flagged’ high value accounts, and second to encourage usage across a wider target audience of 300 customers and prospects.
Our strategy was to focus most of the available budget on persuading existing customers to use Experian Hitwise more widely and more frequently.
This route would potentially yield greater and faster returns. By structuring the messaging carefully we would also be able to use the same creative theme to target other customers and prospects, this was integral in making the campaign as lucrative as possible on the limited budget available.
Objectives of the Campaign
Primary:
– To increase use of the Experian Hitwise service among customers where usage appears to be declining – To encourage ‘red-flag’ customers to renew their licences
Secondary:
– To generate fresh new business leads and increase uptake of the Experian Hitwise service
The target audience
– 25 high-value accounts that were ‘red-flagged’ as declining users: ie completed fewer than three log-ins per month
– 300 additional customers and prospects that showed a propensity to adopt or increase usage of Experian Hitwise
– Audience to include a range of marketing job titles (both users and purchase decision-makers)
Approach and Execution
We felt it was important to encourage usage of Experian Hitwise by clearly communicating the benefits of using all five of the most essential service modules: benchmarking, search intelligence, partnership identification, audience segmentation, and website search terms.
We compared the five modules with the daily ‘five-a-day’ regime of fruit and vegetables necessary for a healthy diet. To target the 25 high-value high-risk accounts we created a mailer containing a fresh apple and asking: ‘Web intelligence: are you getting your five-a-day?’ Each module was themed as a different fruit or vegetable, and targets were invited to ‘Try our five-a-day and grow a healthier business’.
Calls to action were to either book a meeting via phone or email, or visit a themed microsite. Visitors to the microsite could make an appointment, download a choice of five ‘five-a-day’ themed pdf module guides, or order a ‘five-a-day’ desk calendar (this acted as a constant reminder). Other customers and prospects were targeted with eDM versions of the mailer; these pointed recipients to the same ‘Five-a-day’ microsite. Although budget was limited we recommended that the campaign be supported by limited online advertising on selected sites.
Timescale of the Campaign
Creative development 06.08.10
Brief signed off
Production 30.09.10
Go to print
Implementation 26.10.10
Mail out DM
01.11.10
Emails broadcast
Results
The DM and eDM activity to the 25 designated ‘red-flag’ clients resulted in eleven licence renewals. This generated £205,000 of renewal revenues and a retention rate of 44 per cent across the highest risk target group.
The wider campaign also yielded significant response and payback. The mailing of 300 desktop ready-reckoners produced 43 requests (a response rate of 14 per cent), 25 opportunities and five closed deals representing income of £84,500.
The generic eDM and online advertising activity created a further 30 opportunities and 191 downloads of the web insight guides. Six new relationships have contributed a further £22,000 of new revenues so far.
Overall the campaign has so far yielded revenues of £312,000 against a cost of £22,700, an ROI of 1300 per cent.
Testimonial
“The Five-a-day campaign was instrumental in raising awareness of the breadth of our solution and inspiring our customers to use us more widely and more often. Most significantly it gave us fresh traction within a very important group of our customers who had hitherto been using us less and less. Thanks to the creative messaging and the integrated nature of the activity, we were able to re-energise these relationships, and engage and convert new business too. Quick-Thinking’s strategic and creative input have helped us to deliver a very successful campaign.”
Jannie Cahill, head of marketing, Experian Hitwise
