3. STRATEGY
To obtain these objectives, we needed to make a shift on two levels:
Message: what are we going to communicate and
Mechanics: how are we going to communicate.
Level 1. Message: Moving from Product to Content
Communication about USP's and other product-related characteristics of Ethias Young Driver and Rental insurances are only relevant for the target group when he/she is already at the end of the buying decision journey.
To be more relevant as from the start of the customer journey we needed to show empathy with the life stage situation of young adults standing on their own two feet for the first time: #adultingishard.
Level 2. Mechanics: Moving from Push to Pull
Instead of chasing down potential consumers or creatively/aggressively/desperately seeking their attention, we choose to attract them. We let the target group come to us.
Google, YouTube and social platforms are the real destination sites of this target group. So instead of trying to push them to our product pages we put 'digital breadcrumbs' on their own digital journey. We offered them digital content to detect 'real' interest and consideration.
When these digital content pieces were seen, and getting picked up we planned to lead the audience to an inbound platform where more similar content could be consulted and where the conversion further down the sales funnel would start.
The 'StartLife' inbound ecosystem is composed of several elements closely interacting and influencing each other. The 3 most important ones are: The Platform, The Content and The Distribution. The 4th element is the ongoing process of maintaining and optimising the content and the conversion flow of the platform.
A. The Platform
Design and development of an online platform with automated flows, retargeting possibilities, a scoring model and weekly dashboard reporting.
Given that the target group values battery time more than oxygen it is a no-brainer that the user experience design is mobile-led. The design was kept clean and compact. There were plenty of possibilities to work with images, GIF's, and video-content functioning as eye-catchers. No search function or navigation bar, but user-friendly in terms of swiping and endless scrolling. Aimed at 'on-the-move' usage where visitors can pick out what fits their situation.
Individual user behaviour is being tracked and stored into a scoring model. Depending on the level of interest the site adapts to present the user more content items of his/her specific interest and his/her level of readiness to purchase (as calculated by a score model). The same applies to our retargeting tactics on social, paid search and email.
B. The Content
We have never had the ambition to be the ultimate Q&A or Wikipedia on 'HowToAdult'. We just provide content about daily situations recognisable to young adults. Brought in an entertaining and easy-to-digest manner, but with tips and tricks to help them further. Start Life gives all the information about insurance products, but is mostly about decisions you need to make for the first time in your life such as: renting an apartment, living together or buying a second-hand car.
C. The Distribution
Set-up, develop and execute content distribution through owned, paid and earned communication channels. A monthly content calendar gives an overview of when what content will be distributed through which channels.
Social media (38,5%) and search engine advertising (13,5%) take up half of the media budget. They also generate the biggest sources of traffic to the platform. See also chart with traffic sources.
D. Ongoing Process
Once everything was built and in place we had a soft launch. But then the work just started because inbound is not a campaign, it's a marketing process.
Dashboard reporting allows to monitor traffic (visitors, bounce rate, traffic sources and their performances) and the conversion performance of all traffic sources and content pieces.
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