Risk Management and human capital consulting firm Aon wanted to move beyond their time-consuming newsletter delivery service that kept their clients and prosects up to date. So what did they do, and what rewards did adopting a more sophisticated system reap?

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Challenge

For Aon, a world leader in risk management, insurance brokerage and human capital consulting services, regular communication with clients and prospects is essential to keep them up-to-date with the latest risk management and insurance thinking.

Historically, the company has produced a bi-monthly newsletter, containing information, analysis and comment on emerging risks, which was distributed by post. Every month each member of the team found that most of their time and resources were taken up in drafting, designing, laying out, printing and assembling the newsletter for posting. It was also a very costly means of communicating with their customers and whilst Aon wanted to keep the content of the newsletter topical, copy had to be written several weeks in advance in order to get each issue out on time.

Solution

The solution was found in Premiere Global Services’ email distribution services. Aon’s direct mail and e-marketing manager, Catherine McMenamin, explained: “A colleague within Aon had heard of Premiere Global Services and the work they had been doing in marketing communications for the investment banking sector. After initial consultations it was agreed that taking the newsletter online would be more cost effective and a lot less time-consuming.”

Premiere Global’s MessageReach system was initially implemented to enable Aon to distribute the bi-monthly newsletter, along with invitations to seminars and other corporate events. MessageReach is an email delivery, collection and tracking service that allows the company to create and send HTML or plain text messages to a large distribution list.

Last year, when Premiere Global launched Campaign Management, Aon moved over to the enhanced system. “The new system has a number of enhanced features,” explained Catherine. “It is based on an advanced CRM database engine, so we are actually able to segment our readers’ preferences and the new subscription management function means our clients can keep their own details up to date, which in turn means our database is kept clean and we can learn more about individual subscribers.

Results

“Issuing the newsletter via email has been a huge success,” continued Catherine, “not least in the amount of time it has freed up for the staff involved. The whole process can be handled by one or two individuals now, freeing up the rest of the team to concentrate on other business activities. The cost savings over post have also been quite substantial.”

Aon has also benefited from Premiere Global’s dedicated web interface, which provides all clients with round-the-clock support, including advice about list maintenance, encryption and anti-spam protection.

About Aon:
Aon has built broad global resources to create innovative solutions in insurance and risk management, human capital consulting, and insurance underwriting to help clients. Our name is Gaelic for "oneness." We live by our name by bringing together top professionals who work across hundreds of disciplines in a seamless, integrated fashion designed to serve our clients in the most custom-tailored manner possible, virtually anywhere in the world. This focus and dedication has made us a world leader within our industry. www.aon.com