Identity Guard Case Study

Intersections Inc. is a leading provider of consumer and corporate identity risk management services. The company has protected more than 36 million consumers since 1996. Its direct-to-consumer identity theft protection service – Identity Guard – is available for purchase at identityguard.com.

For years, the company has been using Webtrends Optimize to create a sophisticated web optimisation program for identityguard.com, helping increase conversions and revenue while continuously improving the customer experience.

The team at Identity Guard, which includes Begench Atayev, Director of Marketing, and Brandon Trautman, Search Marketing Associate, are tasked with reaching a number of goals related to the company’s website and sales of the Identity Guard service.

“We want orders, but we also want to keep our cost per order low and maintain good customer retention rates,” said Trautman. “To do that, we need to make sure we provide a great customer experience online.”

According to Atayev, who’s been with Intersections for seven years, previous decisions around web optimisation and how to provide a great customer experience were based on guesswork – and could be slowed by opinionated debate.

“We spent a lot of time discussing our opinions and sometimes arguing about how each of us believes the site could perform better” said Atayev. “From design to copy to the sales funnel and even colour choices, we all had our opinions, but no one really had any proof to show.”

Identity Guard selected Webtrends Optimize to launch a new web optimisation programme. Along with the innovative technology that offers AB and multivariate testing options, Webtrends Optimize brought a team of web optimisation specialists to work closely with Identity Guard.

“When we first started working with Webtrends Optimize, we got a full-service package to make sure we were successful,” said Atayev. “We loved the platform, but Webtrends Optimize brought much more to the table helping us to build ideas, strategies and hypotheses, and working with us on everything including design and copy. It allowed us to build solid expertise.”

Within the last five years, Intersections has run experiments on buttons, wording, “hero” images, page layout and design, buy flows and more. The results have been powerful. Data-driven improvements to the website have generated cumulative lift, best practice application and a road map for providing a first-rate customer experience.

Today, the team at Identity Guard has become so proficient in AB testing and web optimisation that they’ve developed a comprehensive in-house programme.

This has allowed the company to move to a self-service (SaaS) model of Webtrends Optimize, matching the maturity of the company’s expertise.

One of the first experiments completed by the team just after implementation of Webtrends Optimize looked at the website’s conversion funnel – with the desired conversion being a successfully completed customer enrolment in the Identity Guard identity theft protection service.

Trautman, who now leads the web optimisation programme for Intersections, says there have been a number of ‘big winner’ experiments recently, including one that resulted in a 20% lift as well as more positive customer reviews and additional enrolments.

Intersections has new websites and business ventures in the pipeline, and, according to Atayev, Webtrends Optimize will play an important role in the marketing of any new business.

“We’ve built a testing culture here,” said Atayev. “We don’t rely on opinions anymore and we don’t debate our options – we test them. It’s simply good business.”