Why:
- Leverage Web marketing to attract, engage, and convert clients and insureds
- Increase top-line revenue, cross-selling, up-selling, referrals, viral marketing
- Decrease bottom-line costs of on-boarding new clients and supporting existing clients
The Web is fast becoming the center of the marketing universe. In the insurance marketing industry, while having lagged behind other industries in the adoption of Web-based marketing strategies and technologies, use of the Web to support traditional marketing strategies is starting to see mass-market adoption.
Marketing is always about being at the right place at the right time with the right message. Considering the amount of time potential insurance buyers are spending on the Web, and accounting for the nature of that time being heavily focused on either consumer research or connecting within social networks and communities of interest, the Web is at the top of the list of “right places.“
As to the right time, “all the time” and “everywhere” seems to be the target. Prominent rankings in natural and, but more costly, paid search results is a great starting point (Google, Yahoo, etc.). However, like a freight-train gaining speed and momentum, loom the social networks (e.g. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, etc.) where word-of-mouth referrals seem to be offering the “right time” before a search happens. And when it comes to an insurance need, what better “right message” than a timely recommendation from a trusted source?
These general concepts seem to point to a strategic combination of traditional direct-to-consumer, worksite, affinity and association, and agent-assisted marketing strategies – each of which employs a Web-assisted component. Those Web-marketing components, circa 2009, will include a complex mix of the following technologies:
- Search engine optimization
- Search engine marketing
- Landing pages/Micro-sites
- E-mail marketing
- Blogging
- Podcasting, Vidcasting
- Social Media optimization
- Social Media marketing
- Corporate Web sites
- Advertising and sponsorships
The interworking of these online and off-line strategies to result in online (and thus low-cost, high-efficiency) insurance product enrollment, and perhaps high-volumes of new-member referrals to other prospective members, takes a great deal of experience, creativity, testing, and “nimbility.” Online marketing and sales strategies are in a constant state of advancement as new technologies (and corresponding uses for marketing) emerge, rise, and then get eclipsed by more new technologies and strategies. Relevance to the intended target audience is critical. Web-based audiences mirror the familiar off-line audiences – “If I have a need, I’ll ask my friends for advice. Then I’ll give the marketer a few seconds to engage my attention, then a few more to answer my most important questions, then expect an easy way to do business – on my terms on my timeline.”
Need help with a discovery process facilitated by “a techie” who know the insurance business and is expert as orchestrating discussion and planning strategies? Contact Mike Wise.
