My talk at the IDM B2B conference on May 19th 2011 about some of our experiences at www.simplybusiness.co.uk www.theidm.com/marketing-events/b2b-conference/

1. The 8th IDM B2B Marketing
Conference:
Understanding and Engaging
Customer 2.0
Marketing metrics:
How measurement can increase
accountability and acquisition
Alastair Douglas
Head of Marketing & Analysis
Simply Business
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2. Simply Business is the UK’s largest online business insurance broker
Over 170,000 businesses are currently insured with us
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3. We acquire all our customers online through our website
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4. Segmentation as a customer understanding & targeting tool
c. 1,000 20 customer
classifications of segments
business
Key target
170,000 customers segments
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5. Use data to begin understanding: then layer in qualitative feedback
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6. 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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7. Paid search: The data and measurement arms race
Revenue
Sales
Actions
Engaged visitors
Visits
Clicks
Impressions
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8. 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 £12.06
Cleaners 18% 37% 16% £6.85 £0.65
Health & Beauty 8% 31% 7% £10.40 £0.17
Education 3% 25% 11% £11.12 £0.19
Entertainment 9% 21% 14% £11.52 £0.26
Professionals 7% 32% 18% £17.77 £0.73
Recruitment 1% 25% 0% £21.45 £0.00
Tradesmen 7% 30% 24% £22.13 £0.78
Public liability 11% 35% 20% £24.22 £0.56
Generic insurance 6% 26% 19% £25.20 £0.78
Construction 6% 24% 15% £28.32 £0.90
Contractors 6% 35% 38% £29.11 £0.98
Advertising/Design 2% 18% 33% £29.76 £0.68
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9. 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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10. 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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11. 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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12. Be open and engage with customer feedback authentically
• Amplify customer testimonials
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13. Customer service - more transparent and more efficient
• Engage with feedback - good or bad
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14. 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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15. Affiliate marketing - you can control your own cost per acquisition
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16. Use affiliate platforms as a way of testing your most effective message
15% more quotes
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17. User testing: A platform for new ideas to solve customer problems
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18. Actions from a user testing day
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19. Prioritised actions
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20. 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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21. 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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