(Re)Defining a Business
We first engaged with Allen Marketing Group in the summer of 2016 for small development and design requests — graphic design, brand cleanup, email templates. What unfolded over the next five years was a complete redefinition of a business, a partnership, and a friendship that changed both firms forever.
Allen Marketing Group (AMG) is one of many subsidiaries of The Leavitt Group, a large privately held insurance agency. After years of outsourcing marketing and creative services, Leavitt acquired one of its preferred agency partners — AMG. When Unicorn connected with them, AMG was a few years into servicing Leavitt and looking to expand into a broader market.
Building a Brand
The brand needed a facelift. It had operated exclusively in insurance marketing, and it showed. Expansion was constrained too: serving competitor businesses would undercut Leavitt, and depending entirely on Leavitt subsidiaries as customers wasn’t sustainable. AMG needed to land and expand in new markets.
So we built playbooks, found market fit, and adapted the brand to the customer profiles Unicorn vetted. That work surfaced an opportunity for a spin-off SaaS offering in the vacation rental space, which AMG moved on. In the years that followed, AMG’s future-proof brand became a wrapper for a series of products and customers in entirely new markets.
5x with Technology
After a year of close collaboration, AMG made a compelling proposition: softly merge our organizations under one roof. The blended expertise made sense for both sides, so we designed ourselves some nifty RFID badges and joined the Leavitt family in Q1 2017. Bringing our tech capabilities in-house let Unicorn double down on automation and start learning the insurance industry and Leavitt’s unique advantages from the inside.
We grew AMG from $1M ARR to over $5M ARR in our first year under the soft merger. The engine was technology automation: the existing Zoho CRM as a foundation, wrapped in proprietary tools that automated everything from communications to transactions.
Custom Solutions
Before Unicorn, intake was tedious — a call center and support staff of over 50 employees. We implemented custom desktop and web tools that streamlined core operations and mapped onto Zoho for marketing tech, customer relationships, and AI integrations. By building the glue between systems, we scaled inbound and outbound communications more than 20x within weeks. AMG cut staffing needs by 75% while serving more customers and dramatically improving the end-user experience.
Personalized Content
With the new tech in place, AMG could focus on sharpening its core offerings and messaging. Personalized content — powered by progressive profiling and persona segmentation — led the way.
Personalization lifted conversion rates from a modest 5% to over 50% and increased customer lifetime value through retention and retargeting. Customers felt understood and valued, and AMG built connections that made other marketing efforts feel weak by comparison.
In a digital world saturated with generic ads and emails, personalized marketing stood out by being relevant to the individual. It also made marketing resources go further: data analytics and customer insights freed the team to think about messaging and strategy, and retargeting drove higher campaign effectiveness and return on investment. The result was a competitive edge — stronger brand reputation, more engaging content, and greater visibility and reach.
Automating Processes
As AMG expanded into new industries, it found roots in travel and experiences. We layered in automation across core operations — financial transactions, booking confirmations, hotel reservations, and other e-commerce experiences.
A proprietary solution tailored to AMG’s operations helped the company launch a myriad of websites. The flagship, VacationOffer.com, booked over $2M in business in its first year. That foundation let AMG spin up derivative products and websites targeting specific services and industries with very little additional investment or backend change.
Blending Old and New Tech
The partnership went beyond digital, automating print and traditional marketing collateral too. A standout: integration with custom printing and paper-folding systems. On a booking, the system automatically printed the receipt and booking information, folded it, stuffed the envelope, and prepared it for postage — no manual intervention.
In an age dominated by digital communication, a physical piece of mail created a memorable touchpoint. It reinforced AMG’s commitment to personal touches, deepened customer loyalty, and set the company apart from competitors.
The cost savings were substantial — precision and efficiency minimized waste and errors. More than that, the automated system fostered a culture of innovation at AMG, proving that traditional marketing channels blended with modern technology can deliver a seamless, integrated customer experience and set a new standard for personalized engagement.