Personalised videos: AXA Affin General Insurance's trick to cost-effective marketing

It isn't uncommon for consumers to delete your electronic direct mailers (EDMs) even without opening them. According to a 2017 survey by MailChimp, which tracked campaigns sent to at least 1,000 subscribers, the open rate across all industries including beauty and personal care, insurance, e commerce, retail and PR is between 18% to 27%.In fact, it is a common problem all marketers face, said Rebecca Tan (pictured), CMO and bancassurance officer, AXA Affin General Insurance, who was speaking at A+M's Digital Marketing Asia 2018 conference, held at Aloft KL.One simple answer to this, she said, is for marketers to refrain from spamming consumers with EDMs, despite the fact that it is one of the easiest and most economical ways of targeting consumers. Additionally, she also advised marketers to personalise their EDMs to capture consumers' attention. Personalisation, according to Tan, is one of the key drivers of a customer experience strategy and its success."It's about connecting with customers in a humanised manner, and adapting the customer experience to the specific needs of the individual," Tan said. This will ultimately result in increased customer loyalty, higher propensity to buy more products and recommendations to family and friends. How Tan and her team at AXA tracks the successes of personalisation, is through the net promoter score (NPS) system, which is used to measure consumer satisfaction with a company's product or service, and customer loyalty to a brand.AXA's road to personalisationShe added that while the concept of personalisation is not new to the company, as it has been exemplified through insurance renewal notices and bank statements, AXA Affin General Insurance wanted to target consumers in an engaging manner rather than through print.As such, it launched a personalised video for about 100,000 of its consumers. The video offered information specific to certain consumers and could be used in several ways, from on boarding new consumers to engaging existing ones, as well as running thematic activities for birthdays or anniversaries, among others."More importantly, the personalised video are also used to address pain points, such as explaining the terms and conditions of a contract," Tan said. She explained that since consumers rarely read the terms and conditions, a video might make the process more interesting. The videos also ensure that it is easier for consumers to easily understand the full benefits of the insurance products they have purchased, instead of having to go through a text-filled document, she said. Moreover, they can also avoid the hassle of filing their insurance policies for safekeeping as the videos can be downloaded and saved.While some might be under the impression that it is expensive to create numerous personalised videos, Tan said that it only cost AXA Affin General Insurance a maximum of US$1 to produce one video.While she did not divulge the sales figures that came as a result of the personalised videos, she said that 96% of its consumers strongly agree or agree that they now have a better understanding of the products they purchase. Also, 86% of consumers agreed that they will recommend the product to another individual, which helps in the insurance company's NPS.When asked if chatbots are more effective than personalised videos, since consumers can also pose chatbots personalised questions, Tan said that both serve different purposes. While the aim of a personalised video is to communicate its products and services and on board customers, the function of chatbots is to address an enquiry that consumers at that specific point in time.Even so, she added that chatbots can still be integrated into the digital marketing strategy to boost engagement.