Insurers want to increase brand name recognition in their target markets. Some are focusing on creating relevant content that supports the producers when selling. Others are considering advertising directly to consumers to support independent distribution.
Insurers have to be careful not to alienate their agents by advertising directly to consumers. Still, many agents, it seems, agree that general marketing for demand generation and brand awareness is win-win.
A few weeks back, I joined Novarica’s CEO/President Matthew Josefowicz for Novarica’s Digital Marketers Special Interest Group session. The conversation covered strategies to increase brand awareness, ways to measure ROI and communicate value, and the responsibilities and structures of marketing departments.
Measuring ROI and Demonstrating Value to the Enterprise
Many organizations struggle to measure ROI definitively. Insurance is mostly a disintermediated industry, meaning insurers rely on wholesalers and retail agents to sell their products. Each sale is a team effort: Clients may visit an insurer’s public web page and also consult with independent distribution before purchasing.
Proxy metrics that show ROI for marketing spend are critical to demonstrate the value of marketing activities. For example, some marketers used digital traffic early in the pandemic to show that agent and policyholder adoption of digital self-service had increased. Other organizations are finding success by gauging NPS and reporting other survey data. This information can help marketing departments highlight their successes and argue for increased support and resources. There’s even media mix modeling that can pinpoint marketing success with all the other factors being controlled.
Organizational Alignment and Ownership
Insurers structure their marketing departments in a variety of ways. For example, some organizations join sales and marketing together, allowing these departments to create cohesive distribution strategies. Others choose to have marketing sit independently. Finally, some insurers are experimenting with cross-functional project teams in which individuals from marketing contribute expertise to projects across the company, e.g., CX, usability improvement.
Marketing can control different domains and products depending on the organization. For instance, some marketing departments own the agent portal experience, as agents utilize the portal to download marketing collateral. Other marketing departments may lead digital projects with the help of IT.
Marketing departments at insurers can face constrained resources, splitting time between traditional marketing, digital marketing, and other products (e.g., public website). In turn, many choose to partner with outside vendors to assist in a few key areas like social media management, rebranding initiatives, and SEO/SEM.
We look forward to exploring more digital marketing topics in a few months. Click here for more information on all of Novarica’s upcoming virtual events.
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