The insurance sector is grappling with evolving client demands and market disruptions, which has created a need for constant innovation and adjustments. Customer acquisition is important now more than ever to afford your company the opportunity to grow and succeed.
There are a number of ways to acquire new customers, but as an insurance marketer, you need to be strategic to succeed. Recent research found that 43% of senior decision-makers from insurance firms believed their existing data sources were insufficient. It was not assisting them in identifying opportunities for acquiring customers.
We have some advice for health, life, and P&C insurance marketing experts who want to start or improve their data-centric acquisition strategy. It's designed to assist you to cut waste, acquire high-LTV customers, and match with business objectives to fuel growth.
Define Your Goals
Insurance companies should begin by understanding where their company is now. This involves defining marketing goals, creating criteria for success, and involving key stakeholders throughout the organization. Doing so will increase your chances of success and help you avoid potential roadblocks.
Some common customer acquisition goals for insurance companies include:
- Reducing the cost per lead
- Increasing the number of leads
- Improving the quality of leads
- Converting more leads into customers
Define Your Audience
Some insurance firms struggle to find the most lucrative opportunities, including knowing which consumer groups are the most profitable. When you're trying to determine who your target audience is, consider the following:
- What are their demographics?
- What are their needs?
- What are their motivations?
- How can you reach them?
Some common target audiences for insurance companies include:
- Small business owners
- People who are self-employed
- Families
- People with high-risk jobs
- People who own multiple properties
Create Compelling Messaging
Your target audience won't be compelled to do business with you if your messaging isn't on point. It needs to be clear, consistent and tailored to their specific needs.
Your messaging should address their specific needs and pain points. It should also be clear and concise. And, most importantly, it should be consistent across all channels.
Make sure your messaging explains how your product or service can help them and include a call to action that compels them to take the next step.
Some common messaging strategies for insurance companies include:
- Using emotion
- Focusing on the customer, not the product
- Using stories and testimonials
- Educating the customer
Sales Team Coordination
When it is time to go to market finalize which teams, both internal and external, will be involved. Outline expectations and timeliness so that teams can plan and resource appropriately.
Your internal sales team should be prepared to answer any questions that prospects may have about your products or services. They should also be able to address any objections that prospects may have.
Your external sales team, such as your independent agents or brokerages, should also be prepared to answer questions and address objections. They should also be familiar with your marketing materials, such as your website and social media posts.
It's also important to have a plan for how you'll coordinate your internal and external sales teams. This includes having a process for sharing leads and tracking progress.
Get creative with your coordination strategies by using a lead management system, implementing lead scoring, and creating an incentive program to motivate teams to act.
Develop a Digital Marketing Strategy
Digital marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience. And, with the right strategy in place, you can generate a steady stream of high-quality leads.
When developing your digital marketing strategy, ensure there is enough time for creative research, review, revisions, and testing before launch. Getting the message correct is critical to a successful acquisition campaign.
Identify which channels you are going to include in your marketing mix. To coordinate campaigns, establish frequent checkpoints, and a central campaign owner. Make all required KPIs known in writing and ensure the ability to track and report on them ahead of the campaign launch.
Expectations should be set for each group/stakeholder regarding the frequency and detail of reporting so that there are no unpleasant surprises.
Some platforms to consider for your digital marketing strategy include:
- Your website
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Paid search (SEM)
- Social media
- Email marketing
- Content marketing
- Affiliate marketing
How to Measure Your Performance
The success of your customer acquisition strategy will ultimately be measured by how many new customers you're able to acquire. But there are other factors to consider as well, such as customer lifetime value and customer retention rate.
Customer lifetime value is the total amount of revenue that a customer will spend with your company over the course of their lifetime. To calculate it, you need to know the following:
- The average revenue per customer
- The average customer retention rate
- The average customer churn rate
Your customer retention rate is the percentage of customers who stay with your company over a period of time. For this, you'll need to know the number of customers you had at the beginning and end of the period and how many new customers you acquired.
Finally, your customer churn rate is the percentage of customers who leave your company over a period of time. You'll need the same information as you do for the retention rate as well as the number of persons who left you during the period. Each platform that you're using for your campaign will have its own set of analytics and reporting tools where you can find this information and more.
There are a number of other factors you can measure to gauge the success of your customer acquisition strategy. These include:
- Website traffic
- Number of leads generated
- Conversion rate
- Cost per lead
- Customer satisfaction
- Net promoter score
No matter what metric you're tracking, it's important to establish a baseline before you launch your customer acquisition strategy. This will give you something to compare your results to so you can gauge the effectiveness of your efforts.
How to Optimize Your Customer Acquisition Strategy
Always test different aspects of your strategy to see what works best for your company. Try different messaging, targeting, channels, and offers to see what performs best. Regularly review your results and make changes as needed.
It's also important to keep in mind that what works today may not work tomorrow. The insurance landscape is constantly changing, and so are the needs and wants of consumers. As such, your customer acquisition strategy will need to be flexible enough to change with the times.
One final tip is to never stop acquiring new customers. Even if your acquisition strategy is working well, there's always room for improvement. And, as your customer base grows, so too will your need for new customers.
Learn More About Acquiring Customers
By following these tips, you can create a customer acquisition strategy that will help you reach your insurance marketing goals. For strategic help on customer acquisition and other aspects of insurance marketing, contact RPM today.
RPM is a full-service insurance marketing agency with years of experience helping insurance companies grow their businesses. We offer a wide range of services, from lead generation to brand development. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you acquire new customers and grow your business.