Proving the power of personalization

CenterPoint’s Home Service Plus, Minnesota’s leading provider of home appliance repair, aimed to upsell current repair plan customers to a more valuable plan covering a greater number of appliances: the Total Repair Plan. We began by identifying Basic Repair Plan customers that had also added up to 3 additional appliances to their plan. We selected this audience because we knew the incremental monthly cost of the upgrade would be minimal, making for a compelling communication.

While we’d driven upgrades successfully in the past, we wanted to prove we could strengthen the communication by personalizing our creative on a much deeper level. Instead of encouraging customers to upgrade for “up to $XX more per month,” we strove to do the math for each individual customer.

And furthermore, we wanted to show them the added value they’d experience with an illustration of their current coverage vs. the Total Repair Plan coverage. Utilizing digital printing technology, we were able to completely personalize our direct mail piece – the cornerstone of our campaign. We added a digital layer with a corresponding, personalized email plus a landing page serving as the destination for all other components.

Designed to be direct, scannable, and clear, our creative was founded in direct response best practices proven to drive response. Headlines are benefit-oriented and easy to understand. Visuals are purposeful and personalized.

The direct mail piece took on a hard-working and cost-effective format. On the front of the letter, we not only customized the appliance coverage and costs in text, but we also personalized the icons to show specifically which appliances they had chosen to cover previously and the additional appliances they’d cover with the new plan. The back of the letter reinforced that value with a personalized equation to bring the point home.

With 1,085 Total Repair Plan upgrades, we’re proud to share that we achieved a 2.71% conversion rate and a 4,977% ROI! We’re truly proud to say that the campaign was an incredible success – and that we accomplished our goal: we proved the power of personalization.