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Insurance Marketing & Communications: Today, Tomorrow, and for 2023

A number of marketers have noted that Customer Experience and Communications are shaping the battlefield of the present for insurance marketing. There is some positive news about insurers’ current initiatives. However, this battlefield is changing as we speak and will shift radically over the next decade. The Insurance 2023 forum is planning to have a look at these issues in early October.

Meanwhile, what are you seeing in the world of insurance marketing and communications? What do you anticipate for the near- and mid-term futures?

Today’s Consumer Reviews:  Service is Easier than Buying

A recent J.D,  Power consumer survey found “Automotive insurance customers indicate that using insurance company websites to service an existing policy is generally easier than using them to shop for a policy.” While these are US consumers, they probably reflect the Canadian environment.

The servicing aspect has positive benefits for retention and new business as well.   “A positive online experience for customers has measurable benefits for insurers, both in terms of existing customer satisfaction and attracting additional shoppers to their websites,”  said Jeremy Bowler, senior director of the global insurance practice at J.D. Power & Associates.

However, in respects to shopping, insurers fall behind servicing in the customer’s mind.  On a 500 point scale,  “The industry average for the overall shopping index is 347, and 414 for the average overall servicing index,”  J.D. Power notes in a release accompanying the report.

So maybe we get a B- for now.

How About Tomorrow’s Customers and Marketers?

Quoted in PropertyCasualty360,   Peter Settel, senior vice president and CIO of Homesite Insurance suggests that insurers will not be rated against each other only. “Customers are going to judge us not based on who is the best insurance company or who creates the best experience, but if customers are working with Google products, or Apple products, or Amazon products, they are going to look at what those companies are creating to achieve the best customer experience overall,” Settel says.

This ‘experience’ has yet to be fully defined.  The latest buzz phrase is ‘Content Marketing’. Reported in MediaPost, results from a report by the MediaSchool Group, indicate that 70% of respondents believe that in 10 years the marketing landscape will be dominated by content marketing and PR thinking. As we noted in an earlier blog, ‘Content Marketing can be defined as ““the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling.”  This is very different than providing comparative quotes.

And 10 Years On, What Does Insurance 2023 Bring?

To complete the challenge, the customer we are marketing to is changing rapidly.  “The (MediaSchool Group survey) report goes on to say that the current crop of graduates embarking on a career in advertising and marketing do not believe they are ‘digital natives’. Instead, they believe it is the generation ten years younger than they who will be the true masters of digital media.

In other words, we’re not yet at Generation FD (Fully Digital).

The Insurance 2023 Group has been looking at Marketing and Communications and will be presenting its thinking at the Insurance 2023 Forum in Toronto on October 3, 2013.  Additional information and registration information can be found here.

Meantime, what do you think.  Are insurers catching uop with Web Presence?  Are they prepared for the near an d mid-term future scenarios?