Insurance providers collect a wealth of data about their customers, ranging from contact information to policy coverage details. The challenge is understanding how to leverage the data and put it into marketing action to help drive growth and profitability.

Data is a key differentiator. There’s no denying this fact, especially when you can gather high-quality data.

But what happens when your data quality is low or there are gaps in your data?

Insurance providers know that in 2022, marketing initiatives which are missing reliable data won’t yield the best possible return. So, they find themselves at a standstill. 

We’ve recently worked with clients who’ve wanted to leverage their data, but the perceived low quality of their data was getting in the way of investing in marketing technology initiatives (e.g., marketing automation) and building out a digital marketing plan. Below, we’ll examine these challenges further and explain how a data strategy can help resolve these gaps – and make a marketing strategy possible. 

Driving Value from Your Existing Customers

Many of our Brokerage clients are currently looking to grow the value of their customers and increase retention by cross-selling new policies or up-selling existing coverage. This includes commercial policies to P&C customers (and vice versa) or rounding out portfolios with life Insurance, a significant value-add that is emerging as a growth area for many Brokerages. 

In many situations, these companies–eager to launch these products and initiatives–feel their data isn’t ready to push them forward. 

The above problem might exist for the following reasons:

  • Access: Data is locked up in the BMS
  • Gaps: Data is not available as the right questions weren’t asked (ex: do they have life Insurance?)
  • Bad Data: Missing email addresses

Getting access to your data

Your BMS is critical for policy management and accounting. But it was never designed to support Brokers in their marketing efforts. At Goose Digital, we have developed custom processes to extract marketing-specific data from BMS platforms, which can power 26 different Insurance marketing use cases. This has allowed our Broker clients to build automated and personalized campaigns in their marketing automation platforms, and drive growth and improve retention through strategies including new customer welcomes, renewals flows and cross sell initiatives.

Working around data gaps

Intake questions for new clients, or even those posed at renewal time are typically focused on the coverage in question. Forward looking questions designed to discover additional opportunities are not typically part of that process. Scripting out these conversations for producers and CSRs to ask about life Insurance needs, additional properties, home renovations, employer roles and business changes – as well as filling in the gaps with additional fields addressed below – will help Brokers better understand their customers and their current and future needs. Brokers who work with a Marketing Automation Platform can also leverage surveys and forms to collect and store that data in a marketing ready format. 

Bad Data

Let’s focus on the email problem, as it is the critical must-have data point in order to communicate digitally with your end consumer. We’ve spoken with Broker principals who feel stifled by only having emails for 40% or 50% of existing customers.

While lacking email addresses is an issue that must be addressed, it’s not a reason to completely abandon a growth strategy.

Yet, it often leads to reluctance within these organizations, if only out of embarrassment and frustration, since it seems there isn’t enough data to reach out to existing customers. 

What many Insurance leaders don’t realize is that knowing there is an email gap is actually the starting point to resolving this challenge. Many Brokers have no idea they are missing emails and therefore have no idea that they need to resolve this critical data gap.

At Goose Digital, we have built email capture plans to support Brokers, which include direct mail campaigns, phone calls from CSRs and Brokers, SMS and digital platforms which facilitate the storage of email addresses in  marketing ready formats.

Determining Your Data-Related Weak Points Is The Starting Point of a Solution

Whether you struggle with extracting marketing data from your BMS, determining which of your customers are good cross sell opportunities or are dealing with a low email address penetration, there’s nothing to be reluctant.

Uncovering difficult data truths is one of the best things that can happen to an Insurance Broker, provided they’re willing to do what’s necessary to rectify the situation. You can’t strengthen anything–your data included–without determining and acting to resolve your data weak points. 

We’ve helped our clients address these issues. Together we’ve developed data-driven marketing strategies, enabled by mar-tech platforms including MAP, CRM or a customer data platform in order to successfully drive growth and profitability.

Perfect Data Doesn’t Exist. Don’t Let That Deter You. 

Companies prioritizing their data do what’s necessary to put it into action. They spend time analyzing and understanding their data and knowing what’s available.

These companies also know that gaps will always exist–meaning that there will always be ways to improve and augment data. The main difference is that data-oriented organizations understand that having only a 50% email capture rate isn’t an insurmountable roadblock preventing a digital strategy.

They also understand the need for a data strategy, to address the challenges we have discussed. With this plan in action, they aren’t only filling data gaps but also gaining forward marketing momentum. 

As you keep going, you’ll learn more about your customers. You’ll likely capture other valuable data points–allowing you to better understand your customers and develop additional marketing and sales opportunities.

You aren’t a data expert. Partner with someone who is

Read almost any Broker-based magazine these days, and you’ll see that data is crucial in the insurance industry. Specifically, many articles will cite how data allows for segmentation, relevance, and personalization which customers expect in any 1:1 communication.

However, data isn’t typically a principal Broker’s area of expertise.

While it’s important to remain involved in these initiatives for the sake of big-picture decisions, working with a partner, like Goose Digital, who possesses expertise in actioning Insurance marketing-based data, offers a significant advantage in extracting the most value from your data.

Contact Goose Digital today if you want your brokerage to start moving forward with your data.