Citybond Holdings Ltd
Online Quotation Recovery Programme
The Client
Working closely with Citybond, we built a series of automated emails containing dynamic content to trigger at specific points of the online quotation process aiming to re-engage with customers and recover lost sales.
Citybond Holdings Ltd is an independent travel insurance provider based in the UK operating a range of brands including Flexicover, TopDog, Spectrum and Premium Cover. Their aim is to provide a range of travel insurance packages to suit both businesses and consumers and strive to offer the most competitive prices by quotation through each of their branded websites.
In 2011, Citybond started using Maxemail to deliver a variety of email marketing campaigns including browse abandonment, renewal reminders, and weekly newsletters. Since then they’ve taken advantage of our client services offering and regularly outsource the management of new campaigns to their Account Manager when required.
Project Objective
In an attempt to develop their email marketing strategy and recover lost sales, Citybond wanted to effectively target customers in real time who hadn’t completed a purchase following an online quotation. This new email programme needed to be automated and built to support the Flexicover, TopDog, Spectrum and Premium Cover brands.
The Solution
Citybond worked closely with their Account Manager to develop and implement a strategy for the new automated email programme. It was agreed that two separate campaigns were needed to target customers at different drop-off points of the online quotation process.
The process starts with a quick online quotation where the customer selects criteria and inputs their email address to see the different levels of cover available. The first campaign was designed to target those customers who left the website at this point, highlighting the packages and prices on offer via email.
The second campaign was designed to target those customers who had selected an insurance package and progressed through to the more detailed quotation stage. If they were to leave the website at this point without purchasing they would then receive an email to remind them to check out, with a discount for doing so.
Project Management and Testing
Due to the programme’s complexity, the implementation process was fully managed by their Account Manager who built a library of templates, snippets, and rulesets for dynamic content directly within Maxemail.
The challenge was to ensure accurate data was fed through the Maxemail’s API to select the correct branded template and populate it with content relevant to the customer. Citybond’s dedicated Account Manager outlined strict guidelines for the data and an extensive range of tests were carried out before officially launching the programme at the beginning of August 2016.
“This was a relatively complicated email initiative and we are really pleased that this continues to perform well. Our account manager was able to use two different templates styles across all four distinct brands and created a number of different rulesets and snippets to ensure all the data we send populates in the correct template with the correct brand. The testing phase ran smoothly thanks to the fact that we had a dedicated account manager who was readily available to make any necessary tweaks.”
– David Garvin, Digital Marketing Executive, Citybond Holdings Ltd
The Results
The new automated programme was successfully implemented to accommodate Flexicover, TopDog, Spectrum and Premium Cover, and Maxemail reported a significant jump in ROI during the first month with an impressive conversion rate.
“I had fun working on this project and it really allowed me to use the email builder in an in-depth way. Not only did I need to ensure the mobile-optimised templates were set up to the customer’s specifications, but I also needed to set up a number of rulesets and snippets to work together to accurately pull through the required data from the API. My great relationship with Citybond, as their account manager, helped a lot in the setup and testing process.”
– Kimber Whitehead, Account Manager, Maxemail by Xtremepush