Prudential Case Study
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Prudential Retirement conducted LinkedIn polls to engage retirement plan participants and sponsors, gathering valuable insights about their retirement needs and strategies, particularly in light of market volatility. The polls resulted in over 11,000 responses and 230 comments, helping Prudential refine their product development and enhance their thought leadership in the financial services sector. This innovative approach demonstrates how social media tools can effectively facilitate conversations and provide rapid feedback from a targeted professional audience.
Prudential Case Study
- 1. Marketing Solutions Prudential Retirement Case Study Building thought leadership with LinkedIn polls “ With interactive polls, we’re sending a message that Prudential Financial listens to American Challenge workers, and wants to guide conversations about • Reaching retirement plan participants and sponsors their retirement needs. LinkedIn provides the right • Creating conversations about retirement planning combination of social media tools and engaged • Building a reputation as an industry thought leader professional members – which all come together to • Gathering insights in a short timeframe help us reach our thought leadership goals.” Solution Kara Segreto • Created LinkedIn poll Chief Marketing Officer, Prudential Retirement • Targeted retirement plan participants and sponsors • Currently using poll results and comments to guide product development Taking the pulse of retirement plan participants Why LinkedIn? Prudential Retirement, a business unit of Prudential Financial, • Highly engaged, professional membership offers retirement plan solutions for public, private, and nonprofit organizations. In recent years, the financial services • Precise targeting helps businesses reach the right company has focused resources on engaging plan participants audiences and their employers in dialogues about retirement planning. • Interactive features encourage conversations between businesses and members “We’re working to stay closely aligned with the wants and needs of our retirement plan participants, since this Results knowledge helps us create the retirement products they • More than 11,000 poll responses need,” explains Kara Segreto, chief marketing officer for Prudential Retirement. • More than 230 comments from LinkedIn members • Poll feedback improves product development In advance of National Save for Retirement Week, which took • Greater awareness of thought leadership position place in October 2011, Prudential Retirement looked for a new way to gauge current sentiments of people saving for retirement, particularly in the wake of a couple of years of market volatility.
- 2. The company had previously developed white papers and Conversations raise thought leadership profile surveys that highlighted consumer attitudes toward According to the poll, 46% of respondents did not change retirement financial tools and strategies, but the content their long-term retirement strategy even in response to and data for such projects took months to compile, and uncertain market conditions, while 25% said they had didn’t offer the opportunity for meaningful conversations changed to a more conservative retirement planning with Prudential customers. strategy. In addition, more than 50% of respondents said they were very interested in guaranteed retirement income For the first time, Prudential Retirement decided to use products, and 23% percent said they were somewhat social networking to gather these insights, using them to interested in these products. This was valuable data for drive development of white papers and to raise awareness Prudential Retirement, since guaranteed income products of the company as a thought leader in the financial services are significant for the business. market. A closed LinkedIn group for plan sponsors, created prior to a Prudential Retirement conference, allowed the “Not only did we receive answers to our specific questions, company to test some techniques for interacting with key but we started a conversation with people whose opinion we audiences using polls. value,” says Segreto of the discussion that resulted among LinkedIn members. “The responses we collected will help guide how we develop future products and services. It’s an Poll generates targeted, interactive results incredibly fast and impactful way to tap into the consumer mindset about retirement planning.” “We were excited about the speed at which we could get insights from retirement plan sponsors with polls,” Segreto says. “We decided to create a more widespread poll that would dig deeper into participants’ concerns about how market conditions were affecting their retirement strategies.” Using LinkedIn’s targeting capabilities, Prudential Retirement used ads to promote the poll to employees at companies with at least 1,000 employees, as well as plan sponsors – for instance, human resources and benefits executives. The poll’s nine questions addressed concerns about the market’s impact on their retirement plans, their satisfaction level with their current plans, and their interest in guaranteed retirement income products. During the seven weeks that the poll was active, more than 11,000 LinkedIn members responded, including professionals in finance, human resources, sales, and Retirement planning poll results on LinkedIn operations. In addition, more than 230 LinkedIn members commented on the topics raised in the poll, particularly questions about how retirement plans could be improved. The ability to target LinkedIn members in specific demographic groups also helped Prudential Financial reach a relevant audience. “We would never have been able to access so many retirement plan participants – not just those in a Prudential plan, but across the market – in such a short timeframe,” Segreto says. “Normally we’d have to ask permission of employers to poll their plan participants. LinkedIn lets us introduce ourselves to a highly professional audience that is receptive to our questions and our marketing messages.” The retirement poll has also set the stage for future social media campaigns with customers. “With interactive polls, we’re sending a message that Prudential Financial listens to American workers, and wants to guide conversations about their retirement needs,” Segreto says. “LinkedIn provides the right combination of social media tools and engaged professional members – which all come together to help us reach our thought leadership goals.” Retirement planning poll on LinkedIn Visit marketing.linkedin.com to learn how other marketers have successfully met their marketing objectives. Copyright © 2012 LinkedIn Corporation. LinkedIn, the LinkedIn logo, and InMail are registered trademarks of LinkedIn Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other brands and names are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. 10-LCS-068-G 0412