How Marketing Automation and Data Can Be Your Insurance Brokerage’s Key Difference-Makers
If you aren’t leveraging the power of marketing automation, you are missing out on opportunities for your business. Whether that means growing your existing book with new customers or increasing value through higher retention rates or cross sell, hyper targeted and relevant communications managed through a MAP (marketing automation platform) can provide a significant advantage. That applies to all industries these days, including the insurance industry.
But don’t just take our word for it. A recent study listed the many advantages and benefits of using a marketing automation platform including increased lead volume realized by 80% of respondents and higher conversion rates seen by 78%. In addition, 58% of users of marketing automation platforms indicated that they see cross selling as a top benefit
But it’s not just about having the automation tools at hand. It’s about how you use them.
It All Starts with Data
Okay. You’ve purchased a marketing automation platform, and it’s a completely blank slate. You aren’t sure where to start.
The value you get out of your marketing automation is heavily reliant on the value of what you put in. And that is all about the quality of your data. Some key data points to get started with:
- Email address
- First and last name
- Policy number
- Policy type
- Expiry date
A data driven strategy, supported by your marketing automation platform ensures that you will be able to:
- Nurture leads and quote follow ups
- Develop hyper-personalized customer experiences.
- Deliver relevant messages (ranging from policy alerts, renewal notifications and knowledge and advice)
- Deploy messages at the right time (policy renewal 30/60/90 days in advance; snow tire information before the first big storm)
- Build relationships with customers by communicating not just at renewal time
- Execute on all of the above without adding additional resources or workload
These benefits will exist because you’ll be able to automate the manual efforts associated with delivering the right message at the right time. The concept itself is not overly difficult but being able to execute on a professional level program without adding significant resources (which can be best used in other more valuable tasks) definitely is – unless you have a marketing automation platform in place.
Before the days of marketing automation, it wasn’t possible to action data in this way; ranging from segmentation through to personalization. Now it’s entirely possible, allowing you to personalize the entire customer journey, which is critical to the success of your marketing efforts.
Brokers who don’t adopt this data-driven and marketing automation-supported framework will be increasingly challenged to build and deliver successful marketing strategies at scale.
The Value of Personalization in Insurance
The relationship between brokers and the insured has always been front and center. Insurance is a personal product, and the connections must reflect that.
Here’s where automation platforms play a critical role.
Think of the impact of sending a message to one of your insureds thanking them for their valuable business and trust in you, addressed to ‘client’ and signed by someone at the brokerage unknown to them. Imagine the different effect of a renewal message which contains the insureds policy details and the contact information of their assigned CSR? The value of automation is the ability to include the right level of personalization but with a personal look and feel.
Be Patient with Your Data and Marketing Automation
Implementing a marketing automation platform supported by data and a strategic plan is the beginning of your road to growth. But this is still an investment, and the full returns take time.
When executed properly, you should see increased open and click through rates, indicating your customers see value in what you are sharing with them.
Your nurture programs, when tied to qualified leads, will help improve your quote and bind rates.
And targeted upsell and cross sell messages will resonate when aligned with the right audience and message.
Along the way, you will be able to capture additional data about your customers and how and where they like to engage. You then have time to integrate that data into ongoing conversations. From there, you can develop a relationship by constantly showing value, which leads to more substantial transactions over the long term, increasing the lifetime value of your clients.
Increasing Reach and Breadth with Marketing Automation.
These strategies, which require precise touchpoints that speak to clients’ needs, aren’t possible without marketing automation. Leveraging a best of breed platform, it is possible to ensure your communications are sent at the right time, with the most effective messaging.
Looking for ways to leverage marketing automation to grow and build long term customer relationships? Then contact Goose Digital, and we’ll discuss how data and marketing automation can be your brokerage’s crucial difference-maker for years to come.