Conseco uses 5Buckets to further engage its agents
Automated communications help Conseco with agent engagement and retention.

CONSECO — An Overview

Founded in 1979, Conseco, Inc., is the holding company for a group of U.S.-based insurance companies. Headquartered in suburban Indianapolis, Indiana, Conseco is one of the leading sources for supplemental health insurance, life insurance and annuities for middle Americans. Conseco insurance Companies (a subsidiary of Conseco, Inc.) sells through a nationwide network of independent agents.

Conseco Performs Internal Analysis of Agent Behavior

In 4Q07, Conseco initiated an agent behavior analysis to determine how to better engage agent distribution. The objective of the study was to identify key touch points during an agent’s relationship with Conseco that best identify an agent’s propensity to become more or less loyal to Conseco.

The Findings of the Study

Conseco was able to gain valuable insight into agent behavior and performance. Some key findings included:

• The most productive agents sold their first policy within the first 90 days after appointment.
• The number of sales and the timing of those sales were key indicators as to whether an agent would become more loyal.
• The number of days an agent was inactive corresponded to the degree of risk of losing that agent.

Conseco was able to devise a strategy that would positively impact agent behavior.

Acting on the Findings

Armed with this new information, Conseco deployed a behavior based marketing automation program designed to continually move agents along the relationship continuum—toward advocacy. The agent engagement program is designed to assist the sales team in moving an appointed agent to loyal producer with an overall goal being to keep agents engaged, educated and incented to strengthen their relationship with Conseco.

The Challenge: To automate agent communications based on information in a centralized database

The difficulty of personally communicating with individual agents was apparent, especially since there were hundreds of them. First, Conseco needed a way to automate subsequent communications to avoid the time consuming process of manually sending/scheduling personalized agent communications (print, email, and phone calls) each day.

Second, Conseco needed to be able to take immediate action based on the specific activity (or inactivity) of its agents, so it was important that they were able to access the most up-to-date and relevant information in the database of record.

Third, Conseco uses an array of technologies to support its overall marketing efforts. Conseco uses Salesforce.com as its centralized database of record and ExactTarget for its email marketing platform. It was imperative that these solutions integrate seamlessly.

The Solution: To Utilize 5Buckets for the automation and integration of marketing systems with Salesforce.com

Conseco chose 5Buckets to seamlessly knit together an automated marketing system that faithfully executes its new agent engagement strategy.

5Buckets was able to easily connect Conseco’s existing marketing platforms so that the agent data within Salesforce.com drove personalized ExactTarget emails on a weekly schedule. In addition to email communications, 5Buckets automated fulfillment of Conseco’s “Welcome Kits” with its distribution center.

Automated Communication Example

Conseco’s agent engagement program was created as the foundation for other marketing programs, whether it is as simple as automating an email to agents who have not accessed the agent portal in 90 days to tell them that their access is about to expire – to the more elaborate campaign to begin a customer loyalty program.

Simple and Easy to Use

Since Conseco was already familiar with the technology it employed, the marketing team was able to deploy a sophisticated automated marketing strategy in a fraction of the time. With 5Buckets’ ease of use and straightforward implementation, Conseco is now entertaining adding more data sources and marketing devices to the mix - including survey and web analytics data.

Stephanie Jenkins, Senior Director, Marketing Communications for Conseco, is very happy with her choice.

“With 5Buckets, we can easily schedule and deliver a series of actions or events, such as sending ExactTarget emails, printing and mailing direct mail pieces, or creating tasks for sales-team member follow up,” Jenkins said.

Results

Conseco’s marketing team is no longer limited to manual marketing campaigns and is freed-up to spend their time planning and testing – and creating more relevant communications.

At the end of the 2nd quarter of 2008, Conseco is now up 17% over last year in the number of new producing agents for its supplemental health business (its most profitable line). This is a good sign that things are working with the new on-boarding process!

The greatest benefit 5Buckets delivered to Conseco was the ability to link all of its marketing tactics together. This process resulted in substantial time savings, increased efficiencies and improved agent communications follow-through.

“5 Buckets marketing automation software has allowed us to combine both on-line and off-line communications to Agents during the ‘onboarding’ process,” Jenkins said. “We have become more efficient with internal resources and have increased agent engagement during this critical period of time.”

Why Marketing Automation Works

In Conseco’s case, automation enabled the marketing team to increase the number of touches they made with their agents while keeping the load on internal marketing resources as light as possible. Conseco can now communicate more frequently and in much more relevant ways – which in turn increases effectiveness.

About Right On Interactive

Right On Interactive is an interactive marketing software company dedicated to helping companies build better relationships with their constituents. Right On Interactive's "5Buckets" software, an on-demand subscription service, enables marketers the ability to automate the sophisticated and time consuming tasks associated with customer lifecycle marketing. In addition, Right On Interactive offers a range of professional services that complement its online services including CRM implementation and optimization, email marketing production services, customer data analysis, data integration, and automation alignment. Some of Right On Interactive's customers include Marsh Supermarkets, Conseco, Wild Birds Unlimited, Colliers Turley Martin Tucker, National Pork Board, and ExactTarget. For more information please visit www.rightoninteractive.com.

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“With 5Buckets, we can easily schedule and deliver a series of actions or events, such as sending ExactTarget emails, printing and mailing direct mail pieces, or creating tasks for salesteam member follow up.”
– Stephanie Jenkins
Senior Director, Marketing Communications
Conseco Insurance Companies

“Instead of manually pulling Salesforce data and sending daily emails, 5Buckets allows Conseco to automate the entire process and to spend that time engaging their agents.”
– Troy Burk
President, Right On Interactive