Niva Bupa: Increasing customer acquisition and ROI with a rich, omnichannel marketing strategy
75%
ROI on RCS Business Messages
31%
delivery rate for RCS Business Messages
Challenge
Increase acquisition, retention, and ROI on marketing campaigns
Niva Bupa, a leading health insurance provider in India, has always been recognized for its innovative approach to customer experience. However, as customer expectations shifted and the digital landscape evolved, Niva Bupa knew they needed to adapt their customer acquisition and remarketing strategies to stay ahead.
Some of the challenges they faced were:
- Limited reach: Traditional channels like SMS and email, while still important, weren’t enough to capture the attention of today’s tech-savvy consumers. Niva Bupa needed to explore richer media channels to engage customers in addition to SMS and email.
- Retaining customer interest and acquisition: Acquiring new customers, retaining existing customers, and driving repeat business is crucial. Niva Bupa’s existing remarketing efforts needed a refresh to resonate with customers and keep them engaged.
- Improving ROI: Measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns is essential. Niva Bupa sought a solution that would provide clear metrics and demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) of their marketing efforts.
- Positioning themselves as innovators: Niva Bupa recognized the potential of conversational channels like RCS and WhatsApp to personalize interactions and set themselves apart as innovators in insurance customer service.
To address these challenges and achieve their goals, Niva Bupa decided to partner with Infobip, a leader in conversational and omnichannel experience solutions. By leveraging our platform, Niva Bupa could reach customers on their preferred channels with rich media content, personalize interactions through conversational messaging, and gain valuable insights to optimize their marketing efforts.
Solution
Leveraging conversational channels, data-driven insights, and seamless integrations to acquire and retain customers
Niva Bupa recognized that a single-channel approach wouldn’t suffice. They needed a robust and versatile solution that could integrate seamlessly with their existing systems and support a variety of communication channels. Infobip emerged as the ideal partner due to our:
- Omnichannel expertise: We offered a comprehensive suite of communication channels, including SMS, email, RCS Business Messaging (RCS), and WhatsApp. This allowed Niva Bupa to reach customers on their preferred channel and tailor their messaging accordingly.
- Seamless integrations: A key factor for Niva Bupa was seamless integration with their existing CRM platform. Our solution ensured a smooth flow of data and eliminated the need for complex integrations.
- Data-driven insights: Our platform provided Niva Bupa with valuable customer data and campaign analytics. This allowed them to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns, identify areas for improvement, and optimize their strategies for better ROI.
Since Niva Bupa needed to address concerns across the customer journey—from brand awareness to acquisition and retention—they decided the first step was to revisit what wasn’t working in their current marketing strategy. They needed a strategy that encompassed the channels that most appeal to customers in the region.
Although Niva Bupa was already using SMS, email, and WhatsApp to communicate with customers, they needed a more innovative channel that would capture their attention but was still cost effective. With the reach of SMS and rich functionalities of chat apps, Niva Bupa decided RCS would be a perfect fit.
Adding RCS to their communication strategy enables Niva Bupa to:
- capture attention by adding rich media such as images and videos to messages
- leverage features such as carousels and buttons to reduce time to purchase
- add an extra layer of trust and familiarity to its marketing messages through a conversational approach
- craft messages to better fit the stage of the customer journey, designing them to be more informative, action-based, or resourceful depending on the customer
Customer acquisition via omnichannel communication
Connecting RCS, in addition to WhatsApp and SMS, to their customer database enabled Niva Bupa to segment and target potential customers with relevant health insurance offers. The insurance company then broadcasted personalized messages across each channel depending on the audience and channel preference.
This approach increased the likelihood of capturing customer attention and generating leads – giving tech-savvy customers a more captivating message enriched with media and links, and more traditional communicators a simple, straight-forward view of what Niva Bupa has to offer.
Customer retention through remarketing and personalization
Still, Niva Bupa needed to come up with a strategy to win back visitors who abandoned their website at different stages of the purchasing journey. To do this, they built a remarketing strategy using the same channel mix, with RCS in the lead for:
- Website drop-off: If someone visits the Niva Bupa website and enters their phone number but doesn’t complete the application, they receive an automated message thanking them for their interest. This message could highlight premium plans and encourage them to return and explore further.
- Premium quote drop-off: For visitors who generate a quote but don’t proceed with the application, Niva Bupa sends a personalized message reminding them of the saved quote. This message might include their customer care contact information and premium amount, making it easy for them to resume the application process.
- Payment page drop-off: If a customer abandons the application at the payment stage, Niva Bupa sends a targeted message reminding them of their incomplete purchase with their chosen plan and payment amount. They receive a personalized rich media message on RCS that enables them to find out more information within the channel. When they are ready to complete their purchase, they’re taken to the payment page via an automated, event-triggered flow.
Additionally, to further optimize their campaign spend and conversion rates, the insurance company implemented automated channel routing and failover. In other words, messages are now automatically routed through the most cost-effective channel with the highest conversion rate, prioritizing RCS, followed by SMS, and then WhatsApp.
Brand awareness with email marketing
Niva Bupa also decided to build a brand awareness campaign, using our Email API to:
- highlight the benefits and importance of insurance plans
- advocate for health insurance
- distribute newsletters
The insurance company then used analytics derived from our Email API to optimize its email composition. The team could see what formats and content were getting higher engagement and click-through rates and then adjust future campaigns to yield results.
Result
Achieved up to 75% ROI with RCS Business Messaging
Implementing an omnichannel acquisition and remarketing strategy with rich messaging channels led Niva Bupa to its desired results. The insurance company’s customers now open, read, and click-through the messages they receive, resulting in up to 75% return on investment for RCS messages, compared to 60-70% ROI on SMS and WhatsApp messages.
75%
ROI for RCS messages
By providing a conversational experience on customers’ preferred channels, Niva Bupa gives customers a trusted and familiar way of staying connected with them, increasing brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. And by setting up targeted omnichannel strategies throughout the customer journey, the insurance company’s customer acquisition and retention rates increase as well.
The results from email optimization for their brand awareness campaigns were also rewarding. Previously, emails were 100% HTML images. Now, Niva Bupa uses a more balanced approach with 80% text and 20% images, optimized for dark mode on digital devices.
This has led to increased click-through rates, improved domain reputation, and a deeper understanding of user engagement based on geographical open rates – allowing Niva Bupa to explore the use of multi-lingual communication for even better engagement in specific regions.
As consumer habits and preferences change, and as the brand grows, Niva Bupa will use our scalable platform to adapt to new trends, add new channels, and experiment with new use cases.
Infobip enabled us to build an omnichannel communication strategy that enhanced our marketing campaign results. RCS Business Messaging powered by Infobip has allowed us to position ourselves as innovators in CX. The seamless integration with our CRM platform helped us start sending personalized and targeted messages in all regions within a few days. Thanks to the data-driven insights we receive for channels such as RCS, we’re able to send captivating marketing messages that increase our acquisition and retention rates, while experiencing up to 75% in ROI.
Akshat Mishra
VP and Head of Growth Marketing at Niva Bupa
Discover more ways to improve your insurance business
Company Profile
About Niva Bupa
Niva Bupa Health Insurance Company Ltd. is a joint venture between Fettle Tone LLP (a leading Indian private equity firm) and the UK-based healthcare services expert, Bupa. With six decades of experience in the healthcare industry and a customer base in over 190 countries, Niva Bupa has 10,000+ network hospitals across India that facilitate cashless claim processing in less than 30 minutes. The company caters to families, individuals, and senior citizens with customized health insurance plans, 24/7 Insta Assist, and a health app.
