As the digitalisation of insurance continues to accelerate, insurers must keep pace by creating a much more memorable and meaningful online experience. With this, Sarah Groves, (pictured) owner and director of digital marketing agency Catalyst, explores the biggest marketing trends every insurer needs to keep on their radar in 2024.
Following a year of uncertainty and cost pressures, the good news is that 2024 is set to bring greater profitability for the insurance marketplace, even as it contends with instability.
But unlocking this opportunity will require further change. The reality is that standard will no longer cut it as today’s digital first consumers – conditioned by the likes of Amazon and Apple – continue to demand more relevant, tailor-made solutions and experiences.
In this vein, it becomes more important for insurers to use the impetus of digitalisation to rethink their marketing approach to curate higher personalisation, better customer centricity and ensure a seamless experience which excites, engages and, ultimately, converts.
But with so many new and emerging digital marketing trends, what ones do insurers really need to know about?
1. The Return of the Metaverse
We’ve all seen the headlines – ‘RIP metaverse’ and ‘the metaverse is dead.’ Yet even though there is no disputing that the original buzz surrounding Zuckerberg’s grand vision for the next iteration of web might have dissipated over the past year or so, that’s not to say its game over.
Behind the scenes many businesses have been busy investing in the metaverse and trialling different use cases. Gucci, Nike, Coca Cola and Vans are now in the metaverse, you can buy land and real estate in it, and even try on clothes virtually. To put it into context, the global metaverse market size was valued at $234.04 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow from $416.02 billion in 2023.2
The consensus then is that 2024 will be the year that the metaverse steps back into the limelight as a maturing market. The result? For insurers, it will bring new opportunities to enhance their operations and create novel customer experiences not available in the real world – such as communicating with customers via avatars and using immersive experiences to showcase the need for insurance (for example, a fire or natural disaster).
But that’s not to say it’s necessarily time to become part of it just yet. Rather, it’s important to keep sight of the conversation and pay due diligence to the existing online presence – from website design and functionality through to digital marketing strategy – in order to remain primed for what promises to be a whole new world of opportunity to come.
2. The Breakthrough for Virtual Reality
In another exciting innovation leap for the mixed reality concept, 2024 is expected to be ‘the year’ when virtual reality (VR) finally breaks into the mainstream with the help of Apple’s first mixed reality headset, Apple Vision Pro. Primed to be another ‘Apple moment’ following in the steps of the iPod and iPhone, expectations are that it will finally show us all how physical and digital worlds can finally work together. Indeed, it’s extremely expensive but the price will come down with subsequent models. At the same time, it will prime the market for cheaper, upgraded VR headsets as other major players seek to compete for market dominance.
Akin to the wider metaverse piece, for insurers this could create vast and exciting new opportunities to create immersive brand experiences – for example, simulating the conditions of a flood-prone area – in order to build understanding of policies and costs.
3. Intelligent Approaches
Alongside this, 2024 is likely to see further advancements in generative AI and umbrella technologies such as machine learning and predictive analytics will continue to reshape the insurance industry.
Across the board, this will be seen as marketers take better advantage of the vast volumes of data available to them from various touch points – be it social media, websites or even physical stores. Combined with the latest analytics, this data will afford insurance firms invaluable insights into their customers and their behaviour in order to curate more tailored, relevant customer experiences amid the growing trend for hyper-personalisation found in the wider retail environment.
This intelligence could also help insurers identify the kinds of products, services and experiences that they value enough to pay for. It may be, for example, that an insurer is able to monitor certain demographic’s behaviour after they have bought an insurance product to find they will typically go on to buy another solution from a different provider, and use the learnings garnered to develop a more competitive alternative.
We will also see the accelerated transition towards online help desks supported with machine learning for a more cost-efficient, autonomous customer service, and certain aspects of marketing – such as data entry and processing – automated, freeing up time for team members to focus on higher-value activities that require creativity or a human touch.
The Future is Now
Years ago, the concept of buying an insurance product online through a seamless digital transactional journey without a single point of human contact might have seemed far off in the future. Yet here we are. In this way, in order to keep pace and maintain market share, insurers must take advantage of the latest digital marketing innovations which can help them innovate, differentiate and remain ‘tomorrow ready’ today.
For further information please visit: https://www.wearecatalyst.co.uk/
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