January 15, 2021

By Patricia Kopec

Marketing Services

Intrigue began helping The Ostic Group with their marketing in 2014. At the time, the main goals of their organization were to enhance their digital marketing and increase leads year-over-year. 

Since working with our team, The Ostic Group has experienced consistent year-over-year growth in online leads and has also achieved a number of other important marketing objectives, including:

  • Measuring the effectiveness and return on investment (ROI) of all marketing channels
  • Increasing the number of referrals from current customers
  • Becoming the community leader for local insurance in the Guelph, Shelburne, Elora, and Fergus area

This case study is an update from one in 2019 – you can read it here.

Proven Results in Lead Generation

In 2020 (as of November 26), The Ostic Group had an increase of website leads by 13% year over year and received ~1,000 leads from online initiatives.

When you break down the source of these leads, ~80% of them are contact form completions on their website and ~20% were from phone calls. For their contact form submissions, we were able to identify the following channels:

  • 67% Organic Traffic — These visitors found the Ostic website after searching on Google. Five years of Search Optimization on their website has helped to dramatically increased organic website leads.
  • 23% Paid Traffic — These visitors found the website after clicking on a Google Ad or a Facebook Ad.

The Ostic Group’s digital marketing campaign includes a mix of different services, including:

  • Website Design
  • SEO Services
  • Blogging
  • Email Marketing
  • Google Ads
  • Facebook Ads
  • Local Video Advertising

Website Design & SEO Work

One of the largest pieces of work completed for The Ostic Group in 2020 was an update to their website theme. Based on current marketing trends and user data, our team made improvements to enhance the site’s overall user experience (UX), online accessibility standards, conversion rate, and search engine rankings.

Our team approached the project with the following key objectives in mind:

  • Ensure the website loads fast (under 3 seconds) and creates a positive user experience.
  • The code of the website is up to accessibility standards.
  • Ensure it is easy for users to find what they are looking for on the site and navigate there with as few clicks as possible.
  • Help improve the search visibility of individual service pages with valuable content and enhanced technical architecture.

Website Score ResultsThese improvements to the site architecture resulted in a 2.4 second decrease in page load time and 3% increase in Speed Score. These are important metrics for Google to ensure the site stays relevant and ranking highly in search results.

Overall, the SEO work completed on the site resulted in a 46% increase in organic users and a 45% increase in sessions. It also greatly increased the profile of the company’s four Google My Business listings, resulting in a high number of direct phone calls.

Blogging

Our content strategy for The Ostic Group aimed to address timeless (or ‘evergreen’) content that was engaging and fun, including questions or challenges about specific insurance situations or products. This strategy was designed to attract new visitors to their site, showcase the company’s authority in the industry, and increase traffic to their site year-over-year.

In 2020, blogging was responsible for over 7,600 sessions on The Ostic Group sitewhich was a 32% increase from their previous year.

Email Marketing

The monthly email newsletter for The Ostic Group has been a consistent source of traffic and leads. 

Their email marketing is outstanding for their industry. Their emails have an average open rate of between 20% and 30% (up to 10% higher than the industry average) and an average click-through-rate of 2%, which is also higher than the industry average.

An automated email drip campaign was created to nurture leads who submitted a request through the website. This is a series of 8 emails that are sent over the course of 6 months with valuable information and tips to help move the prospect through the buying journey building trust with The Ostic Group.

Since the automated campaign launch at the start of 2019 there has been 8,043 emails sent, 795 subscribers who have completed the automated series, with an average Open Rate of 35.5% and Click Rate of 3.8% (again both higher than the industry average which sits respectively at 21.4% and 1.7%).

Automated Email Campaign Results

Google Ads

Google Ads have been a strong performer for The Ostic Group, despite the fact that the insurance industry is well-known for its high average Cost Per Click (CPC) on ads. We use a combination of Google Search Ads, Google Display Ads, and Youtube Ads to target prospects in different parts of the buying journey they might be in. 

Our team was able to develop a successful strategy, targeting niche insurance products that were less competitive but still offered an opportunity for positive returns.

In 2020, Google Ads generated nearly 300 leads for The Ostic Group.

Over 50% of these leads came from contact form completions, with the remainder of the leads coming from phone calls from the website or ad extensions.

Compared to the previous year, their Clicks on ads increased by 163%, Impressions increased by 495%, and Click Through Rate on their Search campaigns increased by 28% to a whopping 6.47% (industry average is about 2.5%).

Facebook Ads

Our Facebook Ads strategy was designed to complement our other initiatives, by running ads that would remarket to users who had already visited a specific page or new prospects using their informational tip videos.

In total, the Facebook campaign was responsible for bringing 3,700 sessions to their website in 2020. They had 7,569 clicks, resulted in 697,335 impressions, and 14,948 ThruPlays (The number of times a video was played to completion, or for at least 15 seconds.)

In particular, Facebook Ads generated ~30 leads for The Ostic Group. Over 75% of these leads came from contact form completions, with the remainder of the leads coming from phone calls.

Facebook Video Ad for Insurance Company

Campaign Overview

So what does all of this mean for The Ostic Group?

The end result of our digital marketing efforts is that the average cost of an online lead or phone call for The Ostic Group is under ~$80.

Given the lifetime value of a customer for an insurance broker like The Ostic Group, their team will only need to convert 1 out of every 10 leads into a lifetime customer to see returns on their digital marketing investment.

Want to find out how your insurance brokerage can achieve similar results with your marketing? Contact the team at Intrigue today.

Tricia wants to ensure your experience with Intrigue is awesome! She helps non-profits, businesses, and communities grow together. Tricia assists the sales team in business development. Outside of work she is an avid tea drinker, world traveller and loves getting active and cooking healthy.

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