Episode 1 –
Introducing The Marketing Rapport with Matt Lohman, Managing Director of Verisk Marketing Solutions

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Episode Summary

Matt Lohman is the Managing Director at Verisk Marketing Solutions, a business unit of Verisk formed by the merging of Jornaya, Infutor, and Contact State. We’re also happy to have him as our very first guest on this episode of The Marketing Rapport podcast.

Matt, along with our host Zora Senat, Chief Commercial Officer with Verisk Marketing Solutions, share the story behind how this new business unit came to be and what marketers can expect from the resulting merger. Considering the company is very consumer data-focused, Matt and Zora talk about the importance of data in today’s business world and how marketers can benefit if they focus on customer data more, especially identity and behavioral.

Guest-at-a-Glance

Key Insights

• It’s well-known that data is the most valuable asset in today’s business world. Therefore companies that aspire to grow must become more data-driven. However, discussions around data are not a novelty. As Matt shares, every company he worked at grew alongside the internet. Online space and various digital platforms enabled these organizations to evolve, change and adapt as they received an immediate response to the content they shared. “As those platforms and the Internet matured, it became clear to me about seven, eight years ago that data was gonna become the critical piece of the strategy that’s gonna drive good results moving forward for both businesses and the consumers.”
• Why behavioral and identity data? You can have the best offer and a perfect marketing campaign, but the effort will not bring results if you don’t know who you want to attract. Thus, you must know your customer. Then, you must familiarize yourself with their needs, preferences, and behavior. It is the only way to connect with them on a deeper level. “What our mission at Verisk Marketing Solutions is, we want to power personalized interactions to engage the right person with the right message at the right time. And even more critically than that, maintaining high standards for data security and consumer privacy preference and permission.”
• Collecting, analyzing, and evaluating data is a complex process, but there are companies specializing in this area that can help you make the most out of your consumer data. And if you are in the insurance space, Verisk Marketing Solutions is the partner you are looking for. “Every one of our customers we work with has some understanding of their customer or the prospect they’re trying to reach. But with the luxury we have with Infutor and Jornaya, we can go very deep into insights about that person. What is their current household situation? Again, are they single individuals? Do they have a family? What’s their asset profile from property and auto ownership predominantly? What’s their risk profile or a fluency index, lifestyle choices, and things they’re interested in.”

Episode Highlights

The Story Behind Verisk Marketing Solutions

“What brought us together are three unique entrepreneurial-driven startup businesses. Jornaya, Infutor, and Constant State have distinct qualities and some capable folks that have brought these businesses to what they are today and solve problems beyond insurance. […]

And so Jornaya, Infutor, and Constant State, in a growing capacity, are all about helping the consumer match-make to services that are fundamental or staples of what you need to live, which is insurance coverage, usually lending products to own or afford your home or expensive assets like cars. […]

One of the immediate things in common with Verisk and Jornaya, the first acquisition to get into the marketing space, is this notion of a data consortium. Verisk originally got its start as a collection of all the insurance carriers at the time, deciding they were gonna share data on the businesses they serve so they all got smarter and could understand what the consumer’s needs were. […]

But the internet has further evolved and put pressure on carriers to evolve that customer experience. So it’s now possible and capable for a company like Verisk to extend the value they’re adding with their carriers into the acquisition space, as well as the bookend of how I go about retaining and renewing customers that I know we’re delivering good value to. […]

We’ve had a historical relationship with Verisk, predating the acquisition. And it only became more natural as Verisk has a good foothold, a strong reputation for helping carriers extend their value and solution set to encompass that entire customer life cycle.”

When Jornaya and Infutor Join Forces

“So for us, combining the in-market or behavioral elements that Jornaya brings to the table of understanding when a consumer’s in the market, along with the deep, rich history of Infutor being able to make sure we have the right individual from both the person and understanding the household and how to best contact that individual.

And add some important attributes to that person’s current situation in terms of property and auto ownership, owning or renting other wealth or risk indicators. That provides a thorough and deep platform to help insurance carriers truly get the personalization aspects of their interactions.”

Our Job Is to Help Our Customers Be Part of “Moments That Matter”

“You might have the greatest offer and know who you want to present that offer to or that outreach, but if your timing’s off, it’s gonna fall on deaf ears.

And we’ve proven through the years that knowing when somebody’s in the market and being respectful with that outreach with a relevant offer gets you into, what we often call, the moments that matter. And that’s what can make a difference in terms of the customer experience and engaging that customer successfully.”

Top Quotes

[09:24] “A recent McKinsey report has pointed out that personalization in the insurance market today is pretty nascent, but in other markets, the way it’s caught on and added immediate value, McKinsey would project that they could see acquisition costs for insurance carriers being cut literally in half or 50%, and carriers are trying to stimulate growth in a very competitive and somewhat commoditized space in certain insurance markets.”

[10:55] “If you want to understand […] what Verisk Marketing Solutions does, it begins with ensuring you have the right person; something we refer to as the who […], a new prospect, somebody that’s been in your CRM or customer base for a while. Examples of what that right person is, do we have the name resolved across all the touchpoints we’ve had with that individual over time? Do we have the most up-to-date and accurate phone number? […] It goes on and on from having the right who, physical address, and all sorts of digital identities from email. So if you can get that right, that’s fundamental because I can’t go ready, aim, fire if my aim is off.”

[18:50] “We’re gonna continue to get smarter at the core of how the US households are consuming, shopping, and acquiring and retaining. They’re partners from a property and casualty insurance product point of view, as well as from their mortgage needs, and that’s gonna produce a lot more insight and depth into truly understanding where you can go to that next frontier with them, with many of the customers we already have in other markets and segments of the industry. So it’s a unique perspective we’re gonna continue to hone now as part of Verisk.”