This year, over 28 million people plan to make the switch from insurance providers like GEICO, Allstate, Progressive, and State Farm, according to consumer intelligence platform Resonate. With some key insight on the motivations and needs of these consumers that will be revealed in an upcoming webinar, insurance companies can implement the right customer retention and acquisition strategies to ensure success in 2019.
Across industries, customer behaviors are evolving as they increasingly make purchasing decisions based on brands that align with their values – a change that the insurance industry should be paying close attention to.
“We see that in packaged goods, in automotive, in financial services, when you think about investing in different companies that may be environmentally friendly or focused on human rights, for example, and those trends are crossing over, not just in those particular verticals, but also into insurance,” said Steve Touhill, executive director at Resonate and a speaker during the webinar, 3 Strategies for Connecting with the 28 Million Insurance Switchers, on January 31 which will be presented by Insurance Business America managing editor Paul Lucas.
In insurance and financial services more broadly, the generational difference in how certain consumers want to communicate with brands, whether it’s through mobile apps or face-to-face with a local agent, is one important trend that Touhill highlights.
“In much the same way that they’re purchasing goods and services from an Amazon, they want to have the same kind of convenience in communicating with their insurance company,” he explained.
To harness the opportunities in the marketplace and connect with the right customers, some of whom may be looking for a new provider, or to retain their current customers, insurance providers can explore detailed and wide-ranging data gathered by Resonate and presented during the webinar to determine what insurance customers value. In turn, they can align their messaging with those values or find consumers who already share the company’s values.
Webinar attendees can capitalize on this data by learning about the main drivers causing people to switch their insurance providers, and what insurance companies can do to retain their customers as well as attract new ones.
If research shows that a customer is planning to switch from Progressive because of mobile app availability and Progressive has a mobile app in place, an email marketing campaign targeting those customers that promotes the availability of the app would be an important retention play, explained Touhill. On the other hand, if State Farm wants to draw away that customer, the company can deliver a digital media campaign to that segment of Progressive switchers with a targeted message about their own mobile app, rather than a generic message about savings on a multi-bundle discount.
“The marketing plays are going to be driven by the specific sub-segment of switchers and the reasons that would get them to switch. We’ll show [attendees] how they can do that and how you can tailor it to specific groups,” said Touhill, adding, “We can layer in, not just reasons related to their selection criteria, such as price because everyone is price-sensitive, but what other personal values are relevant to those sub-segments, so that the creative messaging strategy can appeal to those underlying needs. For example, certain segments care more about safety and security whereas other ones care about things like tradition or personal prestige. Understanding those kinds of values can help shape the message, beyond just price.”
Resonate’s insights also contain a multidimensional view on people’s media consumption habits through digital platforms as well as in television and print, which can help insurance companies determine how to communicate with their customers in 2019. Having the full picture about the customer is, after all, key to crafting a customer acquisition and retention strategy that works.
“Who are my customers, what do they care about in their everyday lives, what gets them out of bed in the morning, in terms of values and motivations, and once they’re out of bed, what do they do with their time, whether that’s work or pleasure,” said Touhill, “and how can I create content that is going to appeal to all of those dimensions of them as people versus just as customers – we help brands do that.”
Take a deeper dive into this issue during 3 Strategies for Connecting with the 28 Million Insurance Switchers on January 31.
