The Challenge
BHC Marketing, a leading marketer of annuity insurance products, initially launched RetirementPros.com as an educational website to attract people planning for retirement and to generate leads for its products. However, when the level of response did not measure up to its expectations, BHC sought the strategic expertise of Spur Digital to create a new branded website that would increase brand awareness and more effectively turn site visitors into potential customers.
The Solution
Spur Digital developed a new brand strategy and created a more compelling look and feel for TheRetirementPros.com. The makeover also improved site usability, which is essential to engage and capture information from visitors with varying levels of navigation skills. Spur added incentives and calls to action to channel visitor’s interest into direct inquiries and generate leads, as well as expand its email marketing list.
Campaign Overview
Spur Digital began with extensive customer research on retirement minded people ages 45 to 70. Findings from surveys and in-depth interviews were synthesized into a new reality-based brand strategy that would imprint TheRetirementPros.com in the minds of its visitors as a credible, informative and easily accessible resource for their retirement questions and needs.
Spur added features which enabled visitors to interact with real people through on-line webcasts, giving the site a highly personalized dimension. Prospects received informative email updates on topics of interest and announcements of future seminars, which served to reinforce the brand and to draw previous visitors back to the site.
Spur’s creative team redesigned the site layout and used compelling content on the homepage to highlight calls to action to create a sense of urgency. With the focus on optimizing conversion rates, processes were put in place to track key metrics and test new creative before it went live.
Results
The “Before” and “After” key metrics were conclusive that Spur Digital delivered significant improvements in website usability and lead generation:
- 20% increase in conversions (consumers requesting financial white papers).
- 15% increase in click through rates on its email newsletter.
- Decreased cost per action by 50%.
Spur Digital's Role
Spur Digital planned and managed the redesign of the new site. Specifically, Spur was responsible for:
- Conducting customer research
- Developing a new brand strategy based on the findings from the survey
- Overseeing the re-design of a new brand and a new site look and feel
- Optimizing layout and use of content on the homepage to highlight calls to action
- Re-structuring the site to improve usability and ease navigation
- Test and optimize conversion rates by tracking key metrics and testing new creative