Summary
Generating leads is critical for an insurance company and their quality is paramount. In order to target potential customers effectively and reduce the cost per lead taken, Swinton Bikes decided to take an innovative approach, to incentivise bike dealerships to refer their customers.
To get them onboard, it was important to communicate the financial benefits of joining the Swinton Bikes Dealer Scheme clearly and succinctly. Bike dealers are busy individuals so we needed to grab their attention. And we did. Our campaign launch pack used powerful direct mail techniques along with strong messages, simple instructions and clear benefits. We made it as easy as possible for dealers to refer their customers to Swinton Bikes, and they responded in their thousands.
Measured on cost per call, dealer referrals are the single most cost effective of all Swinton Bikes channels. Over 21,000 leads have been generated since the launch of the campaign and referrals continue to increase year on year.
About the client company
Swinton Bikes is part of Swinton Insurance Group and was established to provide great value insurance policies purely to bikers.
Strategy
Every company selling insurance needs to generate good quality leads. It’s the lifeblood of the business and the toughest part of the job. To target bikers, tough, savvy, no-nonsense characters, you have to do a bit more than advertise in the local paper.
Incentivising bike dealership owners to hand out our specially designed Swinton Bikes business cards meant that our potential customer was given our information at the best possible time by someone they had built a rapport with. Through a DM pack, a £10 per referral incentive, a follow up phone call, welcome pack and regular mailings, we encouraged dealers to sign-up to the referral scheme and regularly refer their customers.
Objectives of the campaign
Our objective was clear; to create as many leads as possible for Swinton Bikes. In order to do this we had to entice the dealers to sign-up to the referral scheme. Using a clear, straightforward message centred around earning ‘easy money,’ combined with striking black and orange creative, this was one piece of DM that would, and did, get opened.
Once they were signed up and ready to go, leads would be generated for us. The more dealers we sign up, the more referrals we get, and the more policies we sell.
The target audience
Reputation is everything in this business. Bike dealership owners consider themselves to be part of the wider biker community and therefore it was very unlikely that they would refer their customers, fellow bikers, to a company they didn’t trust. For that reason it was crucial we struck a chord with them in terms of the tone of voice we used, and how we conveyed our credentials and understanding of the biker insurance market.
We had to get it just right or our DM pack would be discarded along with the others. We took the same approach with our welcome pack and monthly mailings – the look and the language had to work to win them over and motivate them to respond.
Media, channels or techniques used
The campaign was launched with a DM pack outlining the Swinton Bikes Referral Scheme benefits and the £10 incentive for every referral. Every mailing was followed up with a telephone call, which allowed us to address any concerns and answer any questions directly. This approach was extremely successful and we recruited over 500 dealership owners to the scheme.
Once they had signed up, the dealers were sent their unique business cards, complete with trackable contact number plus other promotional material including a mousemat, keyring and pen. This was all designed to keep Swinton Bikes front of mind when they were completing a bike sale with their customers.
To keep up the momentum, we sent regular monthly mailings along with their commission cheques. For inactive dealers, this was also an opportunity to illustrate what they were missing out on and reiterate that they could start referring at any point and start earning ‘easy money’.
Timescales of the campaign
Launched in January 2010 with the initial DM to encourage sign up, this campaign continues to drive calls into Swinton Bikes and bike dealers receive monthly mailings.
Client Testimonial
“This dealer campaign has been an astonishing success for us, opening up a brand new channel that is generating almost 10 per cent of all our new business calls now, and at a fraction of the cost of other more traditional channels such as press and directories. The strength of the Swinton Bikes brand together with the local knowledge and expertise of our dealer partners is clearly proving a compelling combination for bikers.”
Alexandra Cooke, campaign manager, Swinton Bikes
