Officials of national health and life insurer Physicians Mutual say the organization is increasing its emphasis on customer acquisition 'through added consumer insights from its long-term marketing database provider, Acxiom (News - Alert) Corporation.'

Under a new multi-year agreement, Acxiom will continue managing Physicians Mutual's customer marketing database and will also begin managing the company's customer prospect database, officials of both firms say.

The insurer's new combined marketing universe will be enhanced with Acxiom's InfoBase-X, which Axciom officials call 'the largest collection of U.S. consumer information available in one source.' This will be used to 'establish a platform to create deeper insights into existing customers to use in formulating strategies for new customer acquisition,' evidently.

'This agreement will create a unified marketing database environment that will help us better understand and respond to our customers' preferences and expectations,' said Rob Reed, Physicians Mutual's executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Holly Marr, vice president of Acxiom's insurance practice, sees the expanded agreement as a natural extension of a relationship spanning more than two decades: 'Effective customer engagement is essential to growing the top line, and knowing your best customers and how that translates into attracting new customers is the first step in that process.'

Shortly after Christmas TMC's Jai C.S. reported that Forrester (News - Alert) Research named Acxiom as a Leader in its December 2009 report, “Forrester Wave: Email Marketing Service Providers, Q4 2009,” an evaluation of e-mail marketing service providers.

Forrester’s report finds Acxiom 'well equipped and capable of managing large global enterprises, particularly in a full-service manner.'

As stated in the December 2009 report, Acxiom “has directed its investments and organizational development toward digital and multichannel strategies that create, integrate and optimize engaged consumer experiences across a growing list of channels globally: email, direct mail, mobile, social, Web, display ads, and digital TV,' C.S. said.

Forrester’s evaluation also noted that “Acxiom has been quick to integrate mobile and social functionality to meet the growing needs of the email marketer.”

“Our investments aim to make each of our clients a hero in the eyes of their customers and deliver them substantial return on marketing investment,' said John Meyer, chief executive officer at Acxiom.

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