Want to take your insurance marketing chops to the next level? Digital marketing strategies and trends are always adapting to changing technology and consumer behaviors. So what should you focus on as you market your insurance business this year?
Here are 6 marketing trends to try in 2019.
Customer Centricity
Customer expectations are at an all-time high.
According to the IBM 2019 Marketing Trends report, driven by the changing dynamics and buying behaviors with customers and markets alike, marketing professionals are going through a transformation in how they connect, interact and personalize with their audiences.
No longer are marketing professionals just focused on the traditional funnel, designed to attract new customers and markets with a single transaction.
Marketing organizations are doubling down on the personalized customer experience.
How to leverage this trend:
It’s time to dig in and really understand your customer base.
Even within a specific niche product, such as contractor insurance or trucking insurance, you’ll find more success in your marketing efforts if you can identify multiple personas.
- What are the pain points that these customers are trying to solve?
- What drives them to make their buying decisions?
- What’s most important to them?
- Where do they spend their time online?
Instead of deploying one broad marketing campaign, use personalization and segmentation to give your customers exactly what they’re looking for. Keep a customer-first mentality at the top of your mind in 2019.
Emotion Economy
If the controversial Gillette ad taught us anything, its that marketers are making emotion and purpose a priority in 2019.
Buying is often an emotional decision.
More than ever, consumers care about aligning themselves with brands and companies that echo their own sense of value. Today’s consumers - particularly younger buyers - are conscious of a brand’s social impact and policies.
How to leverage this trend:
You don’t have to be as controversial as Gillette or Nike to align your insurance business with purpose and emotion.
Think about the causes and purposes you care about and support in your personal life. Whether it’s helping foster kids, supporting youth sports, feeding the elderly, reducing your carbon impact, cleaning the oceans, or preserving wildlife, tap into your inner passion for altruism.
Let your customers know about your purposeful passions by making them a part of your marketing campaigns. Include links to organizations you support in your emails; share content from your favorite nonprofits on social media; partner with your favorite local charities for special events.
Warning: Authenticity is more important than ever, so be sure that your support for an organization or purpose is truthful and sincere.
Chatbots
If you haven’t installed a chatbot on your insurance website yet, 2019 is the time to do it.
Chatbots are a specialized form of software that acts as a virtual "concierge," interacting with humans in a natural way, primarily through the use of text chat windows. Chatbots are different than live chat, where a human is on the other side of the conversation.
80% of businesses are looking to deploy chatbots by 2020.
How to leverage this trend:
This one’s easy - simply install a chatbot on your insurance website!
Talk to your website developer about finding the best chatbot software for your needs. If you’ve put your own website together, look for a chatbot plugin on Wordpress.
Video, Video, Video
73% of all Americans engage with YouTube. While YouTube may be the most popular way to consume videos it’s not the only place your customers are looking for more video content. Videos can live on your website, Facebook, and other social media platforms, as well.
While video is a valuable tool, one of the fastest rising stars in digital marketing is the use of live video. If you haven’t “gone live” on Facebook yet, this is the year to do it.
How to leverage this trend: Start shooting!
Whether you're creating videos for Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or even your own website, it is a top-tier, incredibly effective digital marketing tool. You can capture and convey a lot of information and your brand's personality with video.
You don’t need a big video budget - just stick to the fundamentals of good video production and you can make impressive gains.
Personalized Emails
Email continues to be a powerful marketing tool. More than half of marketers worldwide rank email marketing as more effective than other channels.
However, email marketing is evolving, and generic marketing emails aren't as effective as they once were. Personalization is key for email marketing for 2019.
How to leverage this trend:
Don’t just blindly send emails to your audience.
Segment your email list by commercial and personal line prospects, for starters. If you can segment even further by product type, even better.
Be sure to take advantage of triggers that allow you to automate emails after someone subscribes to a newsletter, requests a quote, clicked a specific link in a previous email, or even when one of your prospects has a birthday!
Voice Search
Thanks to Siri, Google, Alexa, and a host of other “smart” devices, voice search continues to be on the rise.
People are taking more conversational approaches to the way they search, shop, and discover new things online.
How to implement this trend:
Rethink your website content. Are you optimizing for voice search?
Think of the questions that someone may have about your insurance products or your agency. Present your content as questions and answers. Instead of trying to think of catchy headlines for your headers, consider using these valuable, bold sections to pose a question that a customer could be asking instead.
Have some fun while marketing your insurance business this year. Yes, marketing is serious business. But that doesn’t mean you can’t try new things and learn on the go. So take some smartphone videos, go live on Facebook, get personal with your emails, and always remember - marketing is all about meeting the needs of your customer.