Disruption within the once-staid insurance industry is creating a major buzz. The activity has been labelled, among other things, a digital transformation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Regardless of what you call it, disruption is occurring because consumers are quickly gravitating toward customer experiences that are on par with global brands, as our population is quickly skewing toward digital natives.
Online, Digital Marketing and Transformation have been buzzwords in Ghana over the past few years across industries such as travel, retail, tourism, etc. In the Insurance industry, there is beginning to be a massive shift as far as Digital marketing and Insurance distribution are concerned. The past few years have seen many Ghanaian Insurance companies taking the Digital leap in an attempt to reach clients via various digital tools and social media.
As unique as the Insurance industry is, and the massive opportunity the digital distribution holds for facilitating explosive client-growth and excellent customer experience, Insurance companies will have to get their digital strategy right; failure to get their digital strategy right will lead them to the graveyard of failed Digital marketing campaigns.
Insurers must craft a carefully considered holistic digital marketing plan that’s radically different from what would have passed just a few short years ago. They need coordinated and orchestrated campaigns across digital channels which provide a comprehensive view of the customer journey.
The digital insurance marketing strategy should include an integrated solution for a web presence to serve both goals – retaining customers that are pickier than ever in the competitive marketplace, and acquiring new customers that now have all the freedom to go online and compare every insurance offer.
The Digital strategy of Insurers should have a customer-centric approach across multiple channels of digital distribution, and significant focus placed on the Consumer Journey.
While Online buyer’s share is growing by a significant percentage by the day, within the context of Insurance people still need real human contact! Insurance online marketing success depends on how insurance companies manage to balance online tools and their services.
A great website with integrated social media and possibly an ad campaign is a must, but the essence should focus on interaction, engagement and the ability to capture potential client interest. Customers, both existing and potential, are smart and expect the best experience possible.
For success, Insurers must understand that Digital marketing in Insurance is all about the Omni Channel. Omni-Channel solutions are those that have evolved with technology. It is a form of multichannel marketing that allows consumers to seamlessly enter and leave multiple channels, from mobile to brick and mortar. Data plays a critical role in this approach as it’s used to leverage customer relationships, and to create uniform channels with the consistency demanded by customers. For insurance companies, the most effective Omni Channel strategy should be personalisation.
Omnichannel is where we do digital marketing – but we support it across multiple digital channels, understanding how your campaign, your message needs to be communicated and applied to not just Facebook, not just Instagram or other marketing channels, but across every platform consistently.
In planning your Omni-channel strategy, understanding the channel, the message, and the audience is key to the success of your Omnichannel digital strategy. Research has shown that Insurers who adopt and invest in Omnichannel digital campaign can see clients and potential clients spending 250% more per customer engaged through omnichannel marketing; and that’s simply because of multitude effects – thus Brand awareness, brand loyalty, product awareness, product interest. And therefore with that comes the ability to sell at a higher price, because it’s already bought in their minds. It allows you to have authority across the various digital channels, and that alone will allow you to have a massive impact on people’s buying decisions and habits within the online space.
But, while digital strategy requires your presence on various digital platforms, as an Insurer it’s not about playing on every single channel. First of all, it’s about understanding your audience, what your digital objectives are; is it a conversion? Customer engagement? Sales Lead generation? Brand awareness? Once you understand what your goal is, we can then look at the digital channels that are most likely to give you the result you need. Once you know this, you can then build a matrix that allows you to home-in on which of the channels is going to provide that objective, and create the content that is a right fit for each of the channels to drive your objectives.
Various aspects of digital Marketing and Transformation within the context of Insurance will be looked at in the coming weeks.
The Writer is a Digital Marketing Expert/Consultant and an Insurance Professional. You can contact me for your Insurance Digital Marketing and Transformation agenda
Email: [email protected] Phone: +233263139899/+233501149133
