• by Drew Neisser , April 1, 2010

In October 2008, Barbara Goodstein, CMO of AXA Equitable, was only slightly nervous as her company launched an unprecedented customer retention program called MyRetirementShop.com. Creating a "retirement portal" more focused on "value add" than lead generation, Goodstein was moving her company into uncharted territory, delivering a "marketing as service" program that became far more successful than even she had anticipated.

Since its inception, MyRetirementShop.com has attracted over a half million visitors who spend a whopping 11 minutes browsing highly relevant content from experts like Kiplingers and MyRecipes.com. Current customers were quick to thank AXA for this resource with not just words of praise but also by buying more AXA products, generating revenue far beyond the program's cost. The press voiced its approval with over 200 stories that yielded an equivalent of $4 million in paid media coverage.

After an interview with Goodstein, in which she reviewed the development process, it became clear that her journey provided a textbook case on innovation, yielding the following seven critical elements of success.

1. Innovation Starts at the Top
Goodstein is no stranger to innovation. Having guided the highly effective "800-Pound Gorilla" advertising campaign for AXA into being four years ago, she knows a big idea when she sees one and she knows how to stretch a budget for maximum impact. But she is also the first to acknowledge that "innovation, more than anything, starts at the top" and that if her CEO, Kip Condron, didn't encourage and support innovation, her efforts would never see the light of day.

2. Listen to Your Customers
The impetus for MyRetirementShop.com sprang from an annual study AXA conducts among its customers. According to Goodstein, "We built MyRetirementShop.com on years of data that revealed the topics that were most relevant to pre-retirees, so we just had to take all of this content and make it accessible." Pre-retirees noted a broad range of interests so it came as no surprise to her that these topics gained traction with their target once they aggregated them on the site.

3. Make Sure It's Truly Innovative
Before developing MyRetirementShop.com, Goodstein and her team did an extensive review of retirement portals and competitor's websites. When it was clear there was nothing like it out there, the AXA team then "did our own screening to find the best possible content providers." To insure relevance, they insisted that all the content had national reach and users could even "drill down by ZIP code." And for further differentiation, it became the only retirement portal without highly intrusive advertising.

4. Service First, Then Branding
The intention of MyRetirementShop.com from the beginning was to be a service that would help retain existing customers drawing upon the deep expertise of AXA Equitable and its sincere commitment to help consumers with retirement planning. "We wanted the site to be value-add," notes Goodstein, "and we didn't want it to be a commercial for us." Thus the only AXA identification on the site is its iconic "800-pound gorilla" who serves as "branding anchor and host."

5. Service First, Then Sales
Once the site was launched, AXA representatives used direct mail, email and brochures to invite customers to visit. Then, the unexpected happened: This so-called retention program started generating sales. "For $40 worth of DM, our reps generated an incremental $60,000 in sales," says Goodstein with glee. At that point, the sales team fully embraced the site, acknowledging its power to increase sales among existing customers and even to attract new ones.

6. Innovation Requires Perseverance
MyRetirementShop.com took over two years from conception to launch, with multiple hiccups along the way. "It took us a while to get it right," acknowledges Goodstein and, not surprisingly, she didn't have "universal support initially." She ultimately gained support by outlining a clear vision, defining the content with crisp wireframes and by providing prototypes that fueled expectations.

7. Don't Rest on Your Laurels
Despite exceeding expectations on every metric, the AXA team continues to seek ways to improve the site. New content is in the works that will enhance the visitor experience and improve performance on the search engines. "We are also going to change the enroll button so interested visitors can reach us more easily" adds Goodstein, who marveled at the unexpected benefits of a true "value add" program. "Because we are willing to work so hard, people want to connect with us."

Bottom line: Marketing innovation is neither easy nor linear, requiring support from the top, a clear vision from the start, steadfast determination along the way and ultimately a desire to do right by people, people who will thank you many times over with not just words of praise but also their pocketbooks.