Custom «Allstate Insurance Company» Essay Paper Sample

Allstate Insurance Company is the second largest company situated in the United States. The company specializes in personal property lines, and casualty insurance issues. The insurance company came into operation in 1931, and it became a public company in the year 1993. The company maintains a sustainable network of agencies approximated to be almost 12,800. The company has intensified in maintaining its business image as being reliable, well established with their long well articulated slogan.

Firstly, the objectives of the campaign strategy were to retain the customer base by ensuring that they buy their product regularly. They also wanted to sustain the new customers who get attracted by the product, which was of lower rates compared with other insurance agencies around the globe. The campaign was to develop a long term and comprehensive policy, which could balance the Allstate Company’s objectives and the needs of consumers. Secondly, the company aimed to help their agents stay in touch with customers to strengthen the customer’s relationship with the company and reduce customer abrasion. This was done through availing world class and culturally relevant products, which will provide adequate online experience for its customers.

The strategy, which the company should adopt, is the use of series of emails. This will not only provide the market for their products but also provide a sustainable platform for authentic dialog with the consumers. This strategy will see the company also build an emotional bond with the customers, which will go beyond the initial idea of buying the product to the subsequent idea of renewing the product. The strategy of using the emails will provide an opportunity for consumers to be educated on matters, which will make them avoid the situations, which will bring problems to them. To the company, this will be an advantage since they will pay fewer claims thus boosting the company’s profits. The email strategy was to provide the customer with information on the monthly basis, which aimed at building strong rapport with the potential customers in the market. The email will enable the customers build the necessary confidence and constancy to the company thus; this will make the customers renew their policies.

In each package of delivery, it was in such a way that the delivery confirmed through real time notification on the email. Upon receiving email notification, the Allstate Company would get an opportunity from the Fresh Success media to place a follow up sales call keeping in touch with the message. This will now involve either the Allstate Company securing an appointment with the potential customer or book the customer for the sale. The most noteworthy thing in the email strategy is the message deliverability. The sent messages by the FreshSuccess needed to meet certain prescribed standards as outlined in the CAN-SPAM. This was to avoid the messages from getting into spam filters and ensure that the messages reach all the potential customers. (Plunkett, 2006). The media company on behalf of the Allstate Company measured the deliverability rates and found that it was as high as 99% compared to the set threshold of the CAN-SPAM standard of 85%. To increase efficiency and the legibility of the email messages, the company designed an HTML used to scan the messages to avoid the internet providers from blocking the messages

The results were particularly inspiring and it hit 165% rise in the email click –through rate from the year 2006 to 2007, and in 2007 alone, it accounted 125% in the email marketing strategy campaign. Some of the results posted by the company in 2007 include the 72 % email open price and the 13.3% CTR that enabled the company to win the ECHO award prestige in the year January 2007,”Insurance Quiz”.” The “Lower Your Insurance Premiums “email generated email click-through, which was four times the company’s average. In July’s “Summer Drive” email sweepstake enabled the company to win the Rand McNally Road Atlas, which have entries of 42% of new customers to the site. The results were encouraging, but these worried the company’s management on which step to take next. Despite the high figures of the click-through rates, it did not directly translate into immediate renewals (Plunkett, 2006).

What unique advantages and challenges do email marketing offer for a campaign like this?The email campaign had advantages to the company. Firstly, the email campaign will maximize the relationship between customers and the company. The campaign also will offset the attrition problem and ease the tradition of cross-selling strategy initially employed by the company. it will guarantee the company to be in touch with customers and bring in the element of dialogue. This will in turn create a strong business bond between the customer and the company. The campaign strategy will educate the customers to avoid the circumstances, which may lead to problems thus benefiting the company in paying less claims. The campaign will also increase the trust and confidence of the customer on the company’s products.

The Allstate Insurance Company faced many challenges in the implementation of the new campaign. There was the challenge of the weakening economy of the United States, which hit the country in 2008. These will result in low sales in the company thus will necessitate reducing a number of policies in the company. The rising prices of mortgages also posed a risk to the company’s policies and it affected some of the policies. The company also faced the problem of increased investment income. This was due to the reduced source of financial strength for all the insurance companies resulting in economic problems in financial markets. Another challenge, which threatens the, implementation of the email campaign, was the rise in the internet usage by the customers. This means that the middlemen or agents are left from the market equation because the customers will buy the insurance products from the company directly.

The agents had the responsibility of ensuring that there existed strong ties between customers and the company. The agents carried the image of the company and had an obligation of marketing the company’s products. They had the task of providing the company with the relevant information on the customer’s needs and the improvement needed to keep the market relevant. They also had a duty of spearheading the newly launched campaign on the use of the email to reach customers of the company.

Some of the challenges on the side of the agents were that most of them were skeptical about the campaign. Most of the agents were familiar with direct marketing plan and not the use of the email. They believed that the effective method was cross -selling a variety of the insurance product to already existing customers. In the new email campaign, the agents did not comprehend fully on the marketing strategy. On the question of the next course of action on the corporate campaign, the individual agents were not united for the idea.

The newly launched strategy is to communicate with customers in monthly basis. The program will improve the working relationship of the agents and customers. This relationship with the customer will enable the agents sell more policies because through the campaign, it builds customer’s trust and loyalty. This new relationship between the customer and agents will influence the customers to consider renewing the policies.

The best approach for the company is to engage emails from a reliable sender. This approach will directly engage the customer and the company agents. The approach will enable the company to effectively reach greater number of customers and sell their products. This strategy provided a platform for the company to get feedback about the customer’s feel on the services of the company. The company will also be in a position to carry out follow up regarding the sale of their products. The objectives of the email campaign are that the company wanted to come up with strong marketing campaigns, which will be of customers’ interest. According to the management, the new brand would cement the customers’ link to the company and assist the agents stay focus with the customers. Furthermore, the company’s objective was to develop a reliable mail interchange, based on strong customer involvement and provide a search mechanism, which will elevate the sales of the company.

For the effective implementation of the campaign, the Allstate Insurance Company sought the services of the Fresh Success media. The regional manager concerned with sales fed the FreshSucess media with the required database, which comprised of 50 target customers. Then the media company proposed high value messages that reflected and completed the Allstate marketing strategy. The messages, which were in the form of emails, were on well- articulated, focused message reach, and high frequency using the specialized and effective system of communication which fully supports the Allstate Company’s brand (Plunkett, 2006).

The company in measuring the success of the email campaign used the technique of the click-through rates (CTR). The Company also participated in the website-based tasks. To enable the success of the campaign, the agents would have to engage directly to the customer and answer any question. This in turn, enables the customers build the element of security on the company thus having confidence with the agents of the company.