Point It

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing project manager of a mutual insurance company founded nearly 70 years ago in Seattle, Washington. We currently sell preferred property and casualty insurance. This includes home, auto, boat, and excess liability to preferred customers, specifically good drivers, in Washington and Oregon.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Point IT?

We needed to generate online sales. We have a website, but we had just recently developed the capability to buy a policy completely online, which eliminates the need to talk to an agent or come into the office. We needed someone to help us funnel that channel, and also to attract customers into making online purchases. We’ve worked with digital agencies in the past for lead generation and awareness, but not for the sole purpose of creating online sales.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We needed to develop an integrated marketing campaign designed to identify and target individuals to buy insurance from us. Insurance is very competitive, and there are a lot of companies who outspend us, so this is easier said than done. We wanted to find a way to differentiate our company and find a way to identify people who would benefit from buying a policy from us. We turned to Point IT for an integrated digital marketing campaign. We wanted search, social, and SEO to all work together, with search being the most vital aspect.

We had used some enterprise-wide analytic tools that helped us capture keyword research, including some generic phrases such as “auto insurance” and “home insurance.” However, with Point IT’s experience and guidance, we were able to find keywords and phrases we hadn’t thought of before. This ultimately gave us the ability, with the exact and broad match, to help get cost down and performance up.  

Point IT didn’t make changes to our website, but they did have some recommendations. We didn’t allow others to do these types of things for us because we wanted to maintain control of our properties. However, their recommendations for changes actually resulted in a shift for us. I was surprised that our organization accepted their recommendations so quickly, because this shift was quite large. It involved unbundling a lot of our content that we had around insurance-related issues to make it more searchable.

As an insurance company, we value being the knowledge leaders and experts in the industry, including auto insurance, safety, and claim mitigation. We had tons of information all locked in PDFs or other unsearchable formats. Point IT identified those and told us the changes that needed to be made for search efforts, which was a huge testament to their work.

We had Facebook and Twitter accounts before, but they were used for talking to people and being present in the community concerning current insurance-related events. We didn’t use theses platforms for lead generation or purchases. Point IT helped us realize a different mindset and objective revolving around likes and comments, which is a lot different than trying to get someone to make a purchase.

What is the team dynamic?

We have the project broken down by discipline, including search, SEO, social, and display. Point IT manages all of these areas, and search receives the most resources.

How did you come to work with Point IT?

Seattle’s becoming more digital even though it’s a small town. Point IT is a local agency that’s been around for about 15 years, so our paths have crossed in past events. I’ve known them for a long time, but I never had the opportunity to work with them. When this initiative became a full project, I started managing it. We did an RFPs with both Point IT and a global agency outside of Seattle that is well-staffed and resourced. We made a point to consider opposite ends of the spectrum, and then they both came in and gave their presentations. Point IT proved to be the best fit for us and our needs.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent seven figures.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2016, and then spent the first few months transitioning, coding, and tagging everything. In April-May 2016, we were in the deepest depths of the project. We’ve been working together ever since.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I judge the success of this relationship by the amount of money flowing into our organization. We’re getting results and people are noticing. The executives like what Point IT is doing, so we continue to fund their efforts and move past traditional marketing. When I say traditional, I mean mass media, direct mail, and other things we’ve done in the past.

We’ve had record flow through our quoting tool month over month. We’ll be setting a record for auto policy sales, and then a month later, there will be another record. The ROI just keeping going up, which is fantastic.

How did Point IT perform from a project management standpoint?

They were fantastic. When you have an old, stodgy, conservative insurance company paired with a young, vibrant digital agency, friction is expected. However, it’s been just the opposite with Point IT because of their attentiveness and responsiveness.

We have standing scheduled meetings every week for an hour, a bi-yearly in-person review, and a sub-team meeting as needed. The communication and attention have been phenomenal.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Point IT stands out compared to other companies because they are very smart, and they have the right balance of initiative and ability to push past the status quo with new ideas. Some vendors we work with agree with us no matter what we ask for, but Point IT pushes back and gives suggestions on how to do things better. It may make us uncomfortable at times, but we know it’s necessary and we trust their judgement.

They did an SEO audit that showed where our keywords and phrases were ranking compared to our competition, which highlighted where we were being outranked and what was needed to do to change it. People didn’t want to hear this because our website was beautiful, which it true, but it wasn’t designed to optimize search capabilities. Point IT challenged us to make changes that yielded positive results.

They’re viewed within the industry as experts and leaders, and they often speak at industry events, so it’s great to be able to have that knowledge working for you.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could learn to say no to us sometimes. Everything we ask, they do, which can sometimes overload them. If 5-6 people from my team are asking for things, it can cause Point IT to get overwhelmed. They’re far too professional and courteous to say no to us.