How long have you been involved in Technology?
I actually started my first full time job at Commodore Computers in New Zealand when I was 18 and was running the technical side of the business and managing 52 service centres by the time I was 21. It was a steep learning curve, but it really set a solution foundation for me to build from. After leaving Commodore I decided to move into sales and marketing and set up my own company Visual Newmedia, which specialised in developing brand strategies and marketing technologies for medium enterprise and corporates. The passion for technology and how it could be applied to business continued with developing a range of technology tools for business, ranging from presentation tools through to marketing automation technology using mobile phones for international markets.
Why did you develop Advisor Promoter?
It came about through a personal experience. I had taken out family insurance on a range of cover options five years prior to this point. On a random phone call, another adviser called to offer a free assessment on my current policy cover to make sure it was still relevant. It dawned on me during the conversation that, in fact quite a lot might have changed since I had taken out the policy and that my adviser hadn’t communicated with me since signing the contract. On this basis, I went ahead with the assessment. To cut a long story short, the new adviser pointed out some areas that I may not be eligible to claim so I sent an email through to my existing adviser to comment. Within two days, the old adviser was on the door step with the insurer representative, trying to retain the business. I took the opportunity to present some marketing automation technology I had been developing for some time and communicated how it could apply to the sector. The feedback was extremely positive, so that was the point I started researching the requirements of advisers in the Insurance and Financial sector. What I had learnt from other sectors of the market was that the end user experience was just as important as the technical capability of the product. If it was too hard to use, or too hard to learn, people will not use it. In my experience most people only use 10% to 20% of the functionality of Microsoft Office tools such as Word or Excel so we took the view of focusing on the 80/20 rule and developed critical marketing automation functionality from the ground up, targeting the smartphone with a strong focus on compelling content and more importantly, usability. User feedback tells us that Advisor Promoter is the most advanced, yet simple to use marketing tool for Insurance and Financial advisers.
What are the main areas Advisor Promoter helps advisers?
Advisor Promoter is all about generating leads for advisers. This is done through a process called nurturing and lead generation. The nurturing side uses marketing automation technologies combined with well-crafted communications that keep and nurture the customer relationships. It may involve timely updates on products on offer, birthday wishes and renewal reminders etc. This is all done by a range of communication channels ranging from email to SMS messaging depending on the customer's preferred choice. The system keeps the customer informed and provides ways in which they can easily source further information. As clients interact with various communications, those interactions appear in real-time on the adviser’s smartphone dashboard, allowing them to easily gauge customer interest, to then take action on. From the Dashboard they have access to single click actions such as sending emails, SMSs through to booking appointments directly from the phone. Lead generation is also where Advisor Promoter stands out. With custom tools like Leverager and Social Shares, advisers can quickly leverage media articles and information to promote lead generation through social sharing across their social channels. In addition to automated social sharing any marketing initiative can be uniquely tracked so advisers and adviser groups can easily see what is working and what is not. These are some of the main areas that
Advisor Promoter helps advisers, but the system is packed with additional tools and campaigns to help advisers simplify business processes and generate leads.
What are marketing automation systems and what makes Advisor Promoter different?
Marketing automation refers to software and technologies designed to help business more effectively market their product or service on multiple channels both online and offline, this can include email, social media, SMS, websites, print, radio and tv etc. In a market that is continually changing in the way that people choose to receive information, it is important that systems continuously measure the effectiveness of each channel and adapt accordingly to their customers' communication preferences. Whilst a fundamental requirement of any automation system is to automate repetitive tasks, our belief is that for effective adoption of these systems, they need to be focused on simplicity and usability for the end user. In most cases, people are not interested in learning and managing the processes involved in marketing automation, but are far more interested in the outcome.
In the context of Advisor Promoter, we provide a done-for-you marketing service through a range of managed marketing campaigns designed for the industry. By utilising the Moberate Technology which has been specifically designed for the sector, combined with partnering with industry specialists, we are able to provide a world class real-time marketing solution for advisers through a simple to use Smartphone Application.
As part of the done-for-you service, you don't really need to worry about the technical stuff that happens in the background as our job is to continually work behind the scenes to manage the systems that deliver leads and marketing tools to you in real time, so you can focus on working with your new prospects and existing clients.
What is the key thing you have learnt over the years with technology?
The biggest thing I have learnt is that technology needs to be easy to use. The best technology in the world is no good if a person doesn’t know or can’t remember how to use it. Companies like Apple took years to learn from early MP3 players following the Walkman and wanted to rethink what a music device could deliver. The first Apple iPod revolutionised the industry in usability and paved the way for the iPhone. One of Steve Jobs’ founding principles was “You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.” We recognised that most advisers are not necessarily technology-savvy, so it was even more reason to focus on simplicity. Whilst some of the more advanced aspects of the application require more skills to learn, we take pride in knowing that 95% of the functionality is available via the Simple Dashboard of the application.
is technology becoming a critical part of business?
In this day and age any modern business needs to embrace technology and the benefits that technology solutions can bring. My recommendation for business is to focus on the 80/20 rule. Look for areas that you can get the most benefit from and make sure the systems are in place to drive the process to a conclusion. We are in an age of continual change, so business needs to be able to learn and adapt based on incremental changes in process improvement. The fact that we are delivering a fully managed service means that businesses can be up and running in days, if not hours, and immediately start to see how the technology can benefit business.
