Kirsty Sharman is a referral marketing expert and founder of Referral Factory, which provides easy-to-use, plug-and-play referral software to help businesses of all kinds build, launch, and manage referral programs.
Insurance has never been an appealing consumer subject. People feel obliged to take out insurance but never do so cheerfully, regardless of its purpose, which makes marketing insurance a difficult business. Only 13% of consumers trust their preferred life, healthcare, or home insurance provider. And yet, insurance is a hypercompetitive sector, which makes possessing a comprehensive marketing strategy even more integral. So, how can insurers best tackle the marketing challenges of 2024?
What are the main marketing challenges insurers will face this year?
All businesses are going through a similar set of challenges this year. The primary one is budgetary. With the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and the UK economy slightly unstable, consumer confidence remains low, leaving budgets squeezed for everyone.
But there are also questions of customer expectation, brand differentiation, and the pressures of the changing advertising space. The marketing techniques previously relied upon aren’t delivering the results they once did, and this is leaving many brands to seek alternative strategies to win customers.
Not only are advertising standards much more rigid than ever, limiting the potential of affiliate marketing, pay-per-click (PPC), and sponsored content, but consumers have become both savvier and more demanding. Advertising is expected to be engaging and yet transparent if it is to gain the trust of its intended audience. Trust is fundamental for any brand looking to gain traction. All of this means that new lead generation approaches must be found.
Which lead generation strategies produce the best results?
Lead generation in 2024 takes a variety of forms, but not all deliver optimum ROI, particularly within the insurance industry.
Promotions – Targeted promotions, such as discounts, giveaways, webinars, and loyalty programmes will always be popular. They can be a great way to attract attention, especially during financially difficult periods when consumers seek the maximum return from every purchase. So, when insurers offer an additional month’s coverage for new policies or provide a limited-time discount, they will always engage audiences. But they may not engender trust. For the shrewder target, there may be questions regarding why the promotion is necessary, and whether the insurer couldn’t instead just lower their prices overall.
Personalisation
This is another area that has gained popularity with the evolution of technology. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), both rapidly scaled across the insurance sector, are facilitating increasingly accurate personalisation, particularly for existing customers. This is helping build loyalty. But it doesn’t always work when attracting new leads, especially where less information is held about a potential target.
Content marketing—With the right keyword research and creativity, content marketing remains an important form of lead generation. Strong SEO ensures that a business is easily found and seen by organic traffic. Content marketing can also help insurers build and maintain their image, engage customers, and reinforce customer relationships. But in a competitive industry, no business can rely on organic traffic alone.
Referral marketing statistics show two very interesting facts about referrals.
● 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising.
● And 76% of consumers are willing to refer a friend if they have had a good experience with a business.
Trust is hard to come by, particularly in the insurance and financial industries, so when it is accessible, it should be used to its full advantage. And that’s what referral marketing can help insurers to do. You still have to rely on promotions, personalisation, and content marketing, and you have to find those appealing deals that make your existing customers want to support you. But by applying them to customers who already use your services, those promotions begin to seem less like an incentive and more like a reward, which can help further build loyalty while using that loyalty to extend your customer base. Implementing a referral programme – a straightforward process with contemporary technology – enables you to make the most of all your available assets, including your customers.
Marketing in the insurance sector requires balance. You have additional compliance matters to consider along with customer and business needs. You need to create an image of reliability – a safe pair of hands to lend support when things go wrong. But you also always want to appear accessible, friendly, and helpful. The problem is that you can say all of these things about your own business until you are blue in the face, but they only mean anything if they are said by other people. And referrals within a larger, comprehensive marketing strategy, can be a great way to give your customers a voice, enhance lead generation through the building and utilising trust, and gain the best results from your marketing budget.
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