Let’s face it, the term “marketing automation” can be misleading. It suggests a plug-and-play solution that effortlessly runs on its own, but the reality for most companies is much more complex. The name itself tends to downplay the strategic thinking required, giving the impression that it’s a self-contained system that automates communication and touchpoints without much consideration or optimization.

In doing so, it overshadows the fundamentals that make marketing truly effective: thoughtful planning, meaningful content, and intentional customer/broker engagement, whether automated or not.

Over the last decade, we’ve seen a rise in insurtech platforms offering bundled marketing modules that promise simplicity, speed, visibility, and connection. These solutions can certainly add value, especially when you’re getting started. However, when your growth goals evolve, you must ask:

Is it time to re-evaluate our marketing automation platform or what we’re doing within it?

If growth, deeper engagement, or smarter lead management are critical to your strategy, then the answer is clear—your current approach needs to evolve, and here’s why.

1. Insurtech-Specific Platforms: Convenient, but Limiting

Many insurance organizations choose insurtech-native marketing tools because they’re already integrated into their BMS or policy systems. They’re convenient, familiar, cost-effective, and offer some truly useful features out of the box, like:

  • Templated email and content builders
  • Pre-built insurance campaign flows
  • Integrated broker or policyholder contact sync
  • Built-in policy document delivery
  • Surface-level visibility through the BMS

These tools can make early-stage efforts feel more manageable, and they’re a great starting point. But if your focus is growth, or if your business is scaling in complexity, distribution, or ambition, those same tools inevitably hit a ceiling, becoming obstacles to sustained marketing performance and are often abandoned altogether.

We’re not anti–Insurtech platforms — they have their place, and many offer meaningful value. In fact, we work alongside them all the time. But relying solely on the marketing module inside your principal system(s) can seriously restrict your flexibility and innovation. The most effective insurance marketers today are assembling well-rounded martech stacks where each tool plays to its strengths. That’s how you achieve scale, advanced personalization, and long-term competitiveness.

It’s not unlike the early days of e-commerce. Around 2012, many brick-and-mortar retailers relied on e-commerce modules built into their point-of-sale systems. These bundled solutions were convenient and cost-effective, but as customer expectations evolved, or more accurately, weren’t met, and digital sales became a critical growth channel, those tools couldn’t keep up. Enter Shopify, a platform purpose-built for digital commerce that offered scalability, flexibility, and an intuitive user experience. It marked a turning point for small/medium businesses looking to grow online. I am not saying that the Shopify equivalent for insurance isn’t coming, it probably is – but it isn’t here yet.

We’re at a similar moment in insurance. A best-of-breed platform can appear more complex and require greater upfront investment, but it delivers a decisive advantage: scalable, customized, and measurable marketing growth that insurance-focused tools simply can’t match.

If your platform isn’t supporting:

  • Open-source APIs and disparate data sources
  • Ecosystems of middleware or tools that enable desired outcomes
  • Advanced audience segmentation, personalized and adaptive content
  • Real lead scoring (not just simple engagement tagging)
  • Conversion-optimized landing pages, forms, CTA’s, routing, and alerts
  • Full omnichannel delivery (email, SMS, social, etc.)

You’re risking stalled growth, disconnected experiences, and limited visibility—now is the time to explore scalable alternatives.

2. Marketing Automation is the Vehicle — Your Strategy is the Engine

Even the most powerful platform won’t move the needle without a clear direction. One of the biggest challenges we see is organizations placing too much emphasis on the tool itself, without first defining what they want to achieve.

Are you aiming to:

  • Improve customer/broker education and retention?
  • Go beyond broker bulletins and build real engagement online, without sacrificing partner relationships?
  • Nurture those warm, qualified leads you paid good money for, even years later.
  • Integrate your quote/bind engines so you can track movement and trigger touch-points?
  • Automate renewal cycles, onboarding, or referral programs in ways that produce real outcomes.

Each of these goals requires a different approach and ideally, a platform that can support the journey. But most importantly, they require a strategy that ties your content, data, and timing together.

There’s no silver bullet and no one-size-fits-all path. In fact, there are dozens of ways to solve the same problem, and that’s why understanding how to think about marketing automation is just as important as learning how to use it.

And that learning curve is real; it takes time, testing, and iterations.

“One of the largest programs we’ve ever run included around 190 automated touchpoints across more segments than I can even remember, all mapped over a three-year period to support growth across a highly targeted small and medium business segment. If you’ve ever seen that meme of the detective standing in front of a chaotic mind-map board, cigarette in hand, you get the picture.

It was intense, but it worked. When a campaign wasn’t live in the market, we saw a noticeable dip in premium. That’s the power of well-executed, sustained automation.”

3. Common Pitfalls We See in Insurance Marketing Automation

When we work with insurance clients, a few recurring issues tend to surface — often not because of the platform itself, but how it’s being used:

  • Over-engineering too early: You don’t need 20 workflows when 3 good ones will do. Start simple, test, and build from there. Also, always come back with what I am trying to achieve with the “said” use case?
  • No clear ownership: Who’s managing the platform? Who owns the data? Strategy and execution need clear accountability, yet often, the decision-maker isn’t even sure what marketing automation really is. Isn’t it just email? Honestly, we don’t blame them – the name doesn’t help.
  • Lack of measurement: Without feedback loops or conversion tracking, you’re essentially operating in the dark. Ironically, one of the biggest advantages of true marketing automation is its ability to provide in-depth, multi-channel reporting
  • Lack of commitment to continued adoption and data hygiene: Without a commitment to continued adoption, connected data sources, and regular data cleaning or sync reviews, even the best platforms will eventually underperform. Healthy automation requires healthy data — and a team that’s aligned on keeping it that way.
  • Trying to replace human touchpoints: Insurance is a relationship business. Automation should support and enhance human interaction, not eliminate it. Another reason why advanced flexibility, segmentation, and personalization features are essential.

In many cases, the most impactful move isn’t replacing your platform—it’s optimizing how you use it to align with your strategy and performance goals.

4. Why Marketing Automation Reinvestment Must Be a 2025 Priority

If any of the following sound familiar, it’s time for a closer look at your setup — before small inefficiencies become major blockers:

  • You don’t know what you don’t know — and that lack of clarity is likely stalling your campaign velocity.
  • You think your data is siloed because you don’t have a direct API – but in reality, you’ve had more usable access than you realize. This assumption is what’s holding you back from achieving the kind of personalization that’s already within reach.
  • You’re constrained by outdated tools — limited landing pages, static forms, and inflexible content options.
  • Your campaigns rely too heavily on email blasts — with minimal segmentation or actionable performance insight.

The Goose Digital Advantage

Getting the most out of marketing automation in the insurance space isn’t just about switching platforms—it’s about making informed decisions that align with your long-term growth goals. At Goose Digital, we work alongside insurance providers to help evaluate their current setup, identify strategic gaps, and uncover ways to get more value from the tools they already use—or new ones they’re considering.

If you’re exploring how to better support your marketing efforts through automation, we’d be happy to help you think it through.

Contact Goose Digital today to start the conversation.