Kyle McCarthy
The digital age is transforming how we think
about marketing. We’re moving past assumptions and random acts of marketing and
toward data-driven strategies and tactics — less guessing, more knowledge, and
better results.
In the middle of all this digital disruption
sits the insurance industry. Insurers have access to more data than most
professionals in other industries could ever dream of, which places them in a
unique position within the digital marketing landscape.
Not only do insurers have more data at their
disposal, they also have more incentive to use that information, as insurance
consumers are looking for more customized solutions and more personalized
messaging and offerings to stand out from competitors. In fact, according to
Accenture, 80% of insurance consumers and policyholders want more personalized
offers, messaging, and recommendations from their providers (1).
This access to useful data, coupled with a
customer base hungry for personalized solutions and marketing, makes the
insurance industry an extremely competitive vertical — but there’s still a
golden opportunity to differentiate your company from your competitors. Insurance marketers can capitalize on this era of digital
transformation by using adaptive personalization strategies
across three critical marketing channels: website, email, and landing pages and
forms.
Consumers Want Personalized
Content — Here’s Proof!
According to Accenture’s study, while nearly
80% of insurance consumers are willing to part with user and behavior data in
exchange for insurance coverage recommendations, 20% of insurance customers say
their providers aren’t delivering any sort of personalized experience. Worse
yet, only 22% of insurers are delivering digital personalization to consumers
in the form of offers, pricing, messaging, and recommendations and
incentives.
All of this despite the fact that personalized
marketing has been proven effective in the insurance industry. A recent study
by Mindtree found that “77% of banking and insurance consumers say that
customized promotions encourage them to buy products and services they have
never purchased before.” Further, “68% of companies say that more targeted
promotions are the key driver of improved online sales over the past 12
months.” Yet, only 38% of key stakeholders at insurance companies are investing
in personalization (2).
Again, this distinction between what your
customers want and what your competitors are offering (or lack thereof) could
put you at a significant advantage, but you have to act fast and act smart to
make the most of this golden opportunity.
Here are three proven strategies for
implementing and optimizing effective personalization initiatives to help you
do just that.
1) Boost the User Experience
With Intelligent Content Recommendations
Leveraging user behavior data and demographics
is a great way to serve up relevant content to interested consumers on your
website. Historically, most of this work was done manually by pulling together
data from Google Analytics, Google AdWords, and a company’s broker management
system (BMS), but this required an enormous investment of time and resources
and was difficult to execute properly. It’s just not feasible (or even
possible) to accurately track hundreds of thousands of user behaviors manually
— much less turn that information into an actionable, effective strategy
Today, however, emerging website
personalization platforms are using automation to make this process easier than
ever before with little to no additional work for the marketing team. Instead
of providing a static experience for each website visitor, marketers can now
use machine learning to deliver intelligent content recommendations from the
existing content on their site for a more personalized (and personable) user
experience.
Having the ability to anticipate your
consumers’ needs and interests while guiding them along a more predictable and natural
customer journey will naturally produce better results. As
visitors navigate your website, you can collect valuable information about each
user and then customize specific areas of your website to increase content
relevance for potential consumers, boosting traffic and conversions as a
result. In some cases, the personalization algorithm can be optimized for your
company to focus on your priorities. And if you’re dealing with known users,
you can leverage omnichannel data for an even deeper level of personalization
Still not sure? In 2016, Infosys conducted a
study that found that 74% of consumers feel frustrated when website content
isn’t personalized. And a staggering 91% of consumers are more likely to shop
with brands who remember their preferences (3). Remember, this study
is now nearly four years old, which means customer expectations have only
increased, placing the onus on you and your marketing team to meet and exceed
those expectations by delivering intelligent content recommendations.
If you’re interested in learning more about
how artificial intelligence and machine learning can help your organization
serve up relevant content to your website visitors, you should check out Adaptive Web — Act-On’s intelligent content
recommendation solution that’s proven to increase page views, time on page, and
conversions.
2) Target High-Intent Buyers
With Email List Segmentation
Most insurance companies offer numerous
solutions within a variety of product lines. All these unique different solutions
have just as many personas, which means you need to be delivering specific
messaging to a significant number of unique target audiences. The best way to
accomplish this is by segmenting your email lists and
delivering personalized content to each of your personas in your automated
programs (email drip campaigns).
There are several different ways to segment
your lists, but we recommend doing so according to topics of interest (product
and services lines), engagement level (high intent, content downloads, etc.),
and demographics such as industry, company size, etc. To accomplish this
successfully, you’ll need a transparent view into each potential consumer and
existing policyholder, which means creating intuitive and detailed client
dashboards in your marketing automation platform and/or CRM.
Regardless of how you choose to segment your
lists, each email within your automated program should have a distinct call to
action (CTA) that directly relates to the subject line, preview text, and body
of your email. The copy should be specific to each user group and highlight
your organization as a thought leader in your space. Your customers have a
problem; you’re in a position to fix this problem; and here are some best
practices and innovative techniques you’ll use to solve their issues if they
choose to do business with you.
And by gating preferred resources, you can
continue to gather more information about your target audiences and then enter
these individuals into different campaigns once their original automated
program has run its course.
3) Personalize Landing Pages
(and Forms) for More and Better Conversions
Personalizing gated landing pages and forms is
an especially important practice since these assets help fuel your demand gen
engine — and more relevance means more conversions. If you’re using these pages
as part of a pay-per-click campaign (Google Ads, LinkedIn, etc.), personalization
becomes even more important, as consistent messaging throughout the user
experience is a critical part of achieving high quality scores.
Here are just a few examples of
fill-in-the-blank personalization characteristics you can use in building out
dynamic landing pages:
·
Name
·
Company Name
·
Industry
·
Engagement History
·
Previous Ad Copy
·
Personal and
Professional Interests
The list goes on and on, but before you can
start delivering this personalized messaging on your landing pages, you have to
learn more about who your prospects and policyholders are, their existing pain
points, and what they’re interested in. And the way to capture this information
is by offering them enticing content available through dynamic forms
using progressive profiling.
Progressive profiling allows marketers and
sales professionals to gather data gradually and more effectively. Instead of
asking 5-10 *required questions, forms with progressive profiling only display
a couple of required fields at a time, and those fields change each time a
known user arrives at a form. Over time, you’re able to collect an enormous
amount of data because users are more willing to complete one or two fields
here and there than they are to complete a lengthy questionnaire just to sign
up for a newsletter or download an infographic.
For instance, let’s say Jane clicks through a
Google Ad and arrives at a static gated landing page — that journey might look
something like this:
·
First
Touch: In exchange for
an eBook, Jane has to enter only her name and email address. Jane thinks this is
super easy and super awesome, so she’s happy to oblige. You also think it’s super awesome because now you have
a known lead with a name and email address that you can use to personalize
content for Jane on subsequent landing or webpage visits.
·
Second
Touch: She’s back! This
time Jane’s on your website getting ready to view an on-demand webinar. The
video runs for two minutes and then pauses, replaced by another brief form —
this one reads, “Welcome Back, Jane!” and asks for her company name and her position
with the organization.
·
Third
Touch: At this point,
Jane is seriously on board with your marketing content. She’s been enrolled in
an automated program and is receiving personalized content that is tailored
just for her specific needs. The third email in the program is centered around
a case study of one of your products, but she has to complete an adaptive form
to get the asset. This time, the form reads, “Hello Again, Jane” and asks for
her phone number and her estimated time frame for purchase. Once she completes
the form, she meets the sales lead qualification threshold based on your lead scoring model and is passed to sales
for a personal email or phone call.
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