On the Joys of “Boring” Industries — and how Marketing can drive their Digital Transformation
Steve Backhaus is VP, Customer Engagement & Technology at Liberty Mutual Insurance. His team is responsible for direct-to-consumer communications for Liberty’s personal lines business in the US. Steve also led Liberty’s drive to dramatically accelerate paperless adoption and digitize consumer experiences.
Steve has more than 25 years experience in marketing and market research. He is passionate about building a team culture of testing & innovation and operational excellence.
Steve lives in Boston’s South End with his partner Jay. A self-described pickleball addict, Steve balances a busy schedule of pickleball, tennis, hiking and visiting family back in the Midwest.
Author’s Note: Steve and I first met in 2008, when I joined Staples in their Corporate Strategy group after business school. Then, he led Product Marketing for Office Supplies — critical, core categories that were responsible for the bulk of profit for the company. In the years that followed, he and I had the opportunity to collaborate on a number of important demand generation initiatives for the Retail and E-commerce businesses for the company. In every case, I found him to be an extremely thoughtful and supportive partner — with an understated and inclusive leadership style. Years later, when we had both moved on from Staples, we ran into each other at a Marketing Technology conference in Boston. Ever kind, Steve was open to reconnecting. Through subsequent conversations, we found that our interests have converged once again — and look forward to opportunities to collaborate in the years to come. Most recently, we spoke on March 15, 2024. Below are excerpts from our conversation.
What do you remember about how we met?
We met when you were in Merchandising and I was in a Product Marketing role supporting Office and School Supplies.
“Office supplies — a mature, old-school category that isn’t growing — doesn’t sound very exciting. But I absolutely loved it.”
An important part of my experience was the people and the personalities. I felt like every meeting was like a graduate school seminar! People were very passionate and it could get very heated, which I always enjoyed. But I always remember you being the calm, thoughtful voice in the room.
I remember that we collaborated on two innovative tests during the back-to-school season to drive sales. The first was “The Wave” — we matched the timing of our biggest loss-leading offers — with shopping peaks in different parts of the country. The second was the “BTS Savings Pass” — a season-long discounting offer intended to increase purchase frequency. I remember being recognized for our work — the company did a great job of saying “Really nice work here — even though we’re not going to scale the test!”
What do you love about what you do?
When I told people I was leaving to go to Liberty Mutual, a dozen people said to my face… “Insurance? That sounds so boring.” Insurance IS a highly regulated space. I can’t play with the price of my product. I can’t run a weekend flash sale. I can’t drop a coupon.
“You have to drive sales and consumer behavior by sticking to the brand, the product features — and the customer experience. As a marketer, that is actually a blessing.”
I just hit ten years here. I have been here through the company’s digital transformation. When I arrived here, a lot of our e-mail communication looked like a letter. A small minority of our customers were paperless. This year, we did the highest rate of testing within our email, ever. A majority of our customers are paperless. And — I’ve been here for the launch of LiMu and Doug. It has been anything but boring!
What is something cool you are working on now?
Liberty Mutual has a partnership with the MIT Quest for Intelligence. At the highest level, it is an initiative to apply machine learning to real world problems. We’re partnering with them to improve our digital communications strategy.
To start, we’re taking our years of learnings from our communications — and determining, as a human, what kind of communications journey we might create for a customer. The machine model is using the same portfolio of communications — but it tells us how to segment the customers, whether or not we should communicate, and if so, what we should communicate.
“It’s fascinating to see the segments and communications (the model) recommends. There have been cases where we as marketers think we should send a communication — but the model says no. That has been humbling.”
Why does this work matter now?
AI is all anybody can talk about right now. It’s exciting to actually be doing some hands-on work on it. It’s going to disrupt everything we do — I think everybody sees that. The great thing is that AI is going to result in a better customer experience. It’s also going to result in better employee experiences — but it is going to disrupt us in ways we don’t yet completely understand. My job is going to be different even just a couple years from now versus what we do today.
“It’s your choice — dig in, learn it and figure out how to maximize it — or fall behind.”
What helps to maximize the impact of the work you do?
You really have to understand that it’s not just the customer — but also the employees — who are in the mix. In the digital adoption space, if I think of projects or initiatives that have gone really well from a marketing standpoint — one of the biggest variables is the employees who are in the mix. I’ve seen this both in retail (at Staples) and insurance (at Liberty Mutual).
“If your employees don’t buy into something, all your best efforts in Marketing are not going to work.”
Normally you put out a digital tool and you’re begging people to try it — and it takes forever to be adopted, right? Sometime ago we launched two-way SMS — where customers and employees can text back and forth. With a home insurance claim, for example, often a customer and an adjuster have to communicate extensively over a multi-week period. For our employees, getting the customers on the phone was a real pain-point. Two-way SMS perfectly addressed their need. I’ve never seen a digital tool get adopted so fast!
How will this change the world?
2023 was tough for the insurance industry. We had the highest number of catastrophic weather events ever recorded in our history. That meant more storms damaging homes, more water damage happening, more wildfires. Increasingly, in insurance, we’re aware of the climate challenges that are already upon us. As Marketing, I think our mission will expand — we’re going to have take on much more of an educational role.
We’re here for you when you have a claim — but we want to help you prevent claims in the first place. For example, we offer free monitoring devices to people in homes that may be at electrical fire risk. We can use aerial imagery to help customers assess any risk to their roof. We have a catastrophic alert program — using weather data at a zip code level — we will reach out to you before a weather event to help you prevent damage. These are things we weren’t talking about five years ago in Marketing.
“The combination of climate change and the adoption of technology is really going to drive change and have a significant impact on our customers.”
Enjoyed this or learned something?
🙏🏼 Please Share and Follow Sohil Parekh
⚡️ I help unleash digital growth at Deep Sea Strategy.
