How to Make Your Insurance Marketing Plan Shine
When was the last time someone said their insurance company excited them with just the right offer?
You’ve probably never heard this, because insurance companies used to be thought of as dull and stuffy.
Digital marketing and TV commercials are shifting that perception by becoming more playful and customer-focused. Now, we see characters with memorable catchphrases or a visual representation of the havoc accidents can cause. Today’s market is both engaged and overstimulated when trying to purchase insurance. And that means insurance companies need marketing ideas that help them stand out.
In this post, we’ll cover the future of insurance, the insurance customer today, five tactics to make your marketing shine, and ways to add even more value to your strategy.
The Future of the Insurance Industry
We know the future involves technology like AI and machine learning, but now insurance companies are focusing more on first-party data as we approach the cookie-less world.
First-party data is the information a company collects from its own data sources like website visits, purchase history, and customer feedback.
Using first-party data, insurance companies can create segmented audience insights, personalized offers, conversion-focused marketing campaigns, and tailored experiences across media channels.
What Do Today’s Insurance Customers Want?
The insurance industry is noisy, and insurance customers aren’t the same people they were 50 years ago.
Today they’re looking for seamless and personalized experiences.
People want instant quotes when it works best for them, whether it’s at 2 AM on their cell phone or 2 PM from their computer. And they need to know that the offer they see matches their needs.
Not only do insurance companies need to be everywhere their customers look, but they also have to stand out in the crowd.
5 Insurance Marketing Strategies to Break Through the Noise
There is no one-size-fits-all insurance plan, so your marketing strategy shouldn’t be either.
When planning the marketing tactics you’ll use to reach your audience, don’t forget to incorporate these five tips to help your company stand out from competitors.
#1 Score Your Audience
To ensure you’re delivering the most relevant offers and messages, you should score your audience based on their needs and the likelihood of purchasing.
Through our sister company, Franklin Madison, we’ve built a data hub that gives us a clear picture of which consumers are most likely to purchase supplemental insurance policies, including Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D), Recuperative Care, Pet Insurance, and Hospital Accident Insurance.
This data gives us a 360-degree view of every potential customer and allows us to build creative messages and conversion-focused strategies.
#2 Personalize Your Messages
Campaigns that are generic, undifferentiated, and impersonal aren’t good enough anymore.
Personalization allows you to craft better messages in your campaigns and can help deliver a better response rate, but it doesn’t mean just using their name and calling it a day.
You want to tap into your audience data and score to create targeted offers for each prospect.
With a customized offer and product, you’ll be able to point prospects to a tailored landing page (using personalized URLs) that continues to foster their connection with your brand.
#3 Invest in Trigger Emails
A trigger event can be anything measurable in your CRM and automation software, like page views, email opens, or chatbot interactions.
For example, if a prospect visits multiple pages on your site and begins filling out the instant quote offer but doesn’t hit enter, this action (or non-action) could trigger an email to send.
Trigger-based messages allow you to catch more prospects in their buying phase or create a more personalized experience by preemptively answering their questions.
#4 The Omni-Channel Approach
Your insurance marketing efforts should create a cohesive customer experience.
One idea could be to send something like a direct mail piece that entices the prospect to visit your insurance company’s website for a personalized offer. Then, a few days later, you might follow up with an email marketing approach that proactively answers questions they might have about an insurance policy or extended coverage.
Sending relevant messages to your target market can help you connect with them and capture potential clients.
#5 Work on Your Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is essential to rank on the first page of a search. However, if you aren’t also focusing on local SEO, you could miss audiences in local communities.
As it sounds, with local SEO, you’re making your insurance brand more easily discoverable by new customers looking for someone in their neighborhood.
Marketing strategies like this help you stand above the local competitors and quite literally get more leads through the door.
Add Value to Your Insurance Marketing Strategy
Although the primary focus of your marketing should be to inspire your target audience to take action and turn curious potential customers into leads, you should also focus on creating value to help them keep your insurance agency top of mind.
Optimize Your Website
Whether you have a prospect looking for a new insurance policy or new clients who need answers, your website should answer what they both need.
Patience is dwindling, and if people become frustrated on your insurance agency website, they’ll leave and most likely not come back.
To optimize your insurance website, you should focus on fast-loading pages and simple navigation and ensure your site looks good on mobile devices.
Invest in Content Marketing
You’re not just an insurance company. You’re a guide for your customers when they have complicated questions. Make their life easy by creating high-quality content that delivers answers to them. Or, if it’s a new customer, answer the questions that are holding them back from their decision.
Involving current customers in your marketing strategies helps you create valuable content and makes them feel like their input is appreciated.
Focus on Loyalty, Referrals, and Reviews
When customers see they can save significantly by switching to another insurance company, you must find ways to improve customer retention.
Rewarding long-standing customers or creating a referral program not only keeps them around but also has the potential to turn them into your biggest supporters. They’ll be more likely to increase their coverage, refer a family member or friends, and encourages positive online reviews.
Make the Most of Your Insurance Marketing Strategy
Does your in-house marketing team have the data to incorporate these insurance marketing ideas?
Today’s consumers are all over the place – and that’s why you need a strategic approach to reach them.
Through a comprehensive data modeling and scoring approach we have the insight to identify those who are most likely to buy – and how to reach them. Engage them. And drive them to visit your website or pick up the phone.
FM Engage has been building proprietary insurance industry audience data for over 50 years.If you’re an insurance company looking to make the most of your insurance marketing strategy, contact us to see how we can help you create a powerful marketing campaign.