For an industry that has traditionally functioned through offline channels, the advent of digitisation has been nothing short of metamorphic. This has not only accelerated the pace of product innovation but has also helped transition the insurance category from a push product to a pull product for consumers. In today’s tech-fuelled era, consumers are inundated with a firehose of information and brands are vying for the much-coveted consumer mindshare. Even after the pandemic-led uptick in awareness, marketing a product like insurance in today’s times still needs a symmetrical intersection of information and entertainment to capture the consumer’s limited attention span.
As an industry-wide knowledge, the two factors that tend to impede insurance adoption are mistrust and procrastination. Marketing in insurance is primarily focused on gaining consumer trust while also breaking the inertia to buy insurance. With the digital paradigm shift, it has now become easier for InsurTechs to reach the consumer, understand their needs, and instill that trust. Marketing for the new-age consumer essentially banks on changing their attitude towards insurance from reactive to proactive. A powerful consumer engagement strategy helps strengthen the pull and also dispel deeply-rooted misconceptions around insurance. While technology is accelerating product innovation and distribution, it is equally crucial in marketing that product to millions.
Here’s how InsurTech marketing is evolving to cater to the new-age consumer.
Investing in consumer awareness
The consumer-brand journey has four key components – awareness, consideration, conversion and retention. Marketing largely works around the first and most crucial aspect – awareness. While insurance is the most effective financial and social security shield, especially in today’s times, people still procrastinate their purchase decision unless triggered by an unfortunate event. Therefore, in the insurance industry, a great deal of marketing spends are towards establishing awareness in this category.
TV campaigns are an effective medium to reach potential insurance customers. With a wider and more ground-level reach, these campaigns aim to transform the consumer mindset regarding insurance, which is often clouded by misconceptions. Especially in an industry like insurance, consumer awareness entirely depends on how well the brand or the product is positioned and promoted. This is where a clear advertising message helps cut through the clutter. The need of the hour is staying ahead of the consumer. This means understanding the pulse of the consumer and developing products as per their needs even before consideration comes into the picture.
Customised marketing strategy for personalised products
The insurance industry is rapidly evolving to cater to every consumer segment by developing personalised products and facilitating customisation in standard products. High-sum insured plans in health insurance, independent term plans for homemakers, and corporate insurance for transgender – are just a few of the many categories of insurance where product innovation is transforming the industry.
However, once again, the awareness regarding such products is low and preconceived notions still dominate the consumer mindset. To overcome this, brands are now changing their marketing strategy as per consumer behaviour. The messaging for a product like insurance needs to be agile enough to hit a raw nerve and help the consumer with faster decision-making.
While a television campaign with a celebrity pull works well at a broader level to stay on top of mind, digital advertising works equally well when the consumer is proactively searching for products. The USP of TV ads is that they are a cost-effective medium with a massive reach. They also help maximise demand and adoption from tier- 2&3 cities which can be a game-changer for a product like insurance. They also work well to demonstrate affordable pricing points. The public appeal of such campaigns also proves to be effective during topical events like the IPL. Sports marketing, due to its high public appeal, seamlessly blends into product marketing with topical TV campaigns.
Simplicity is the key
With a flurry of information from all channels, it can get difficult for brands to reach the consumer. An effective marketing strategy always factors in the power of simplicity to make an impact on the consumer. A marketing campaign, however good, won’t work unless it fits into consumer’s increasingly shorter and fragmented attention span. Therefore, the key to rising above the noise is to keep it simple and straightforward.
Digitisation seamlessly helps with personalised communications through different touchpoints and channels to amp up the marketing efforts. It helps analyse consumer behaviour through analytics and data-driven results, and then rethink and redesign consumer journeys accordingly. This makes the whole approach consumer-centric, rather than product-centric. The next step is to leverage this consumer sentiment to market the product.
With digital mediums, it has become easier to target untapped consumer segments through highly engaging content. Whether it’s through videos, moment marketing or short-form trending content, what’s important is to get the message across. Digital platforms massively expand a brand’s reach and also help with the scalability of such marketing initiatives, which in turn, helps increase awareness.
Zurich confirmed that it has made a separate offer to acquire a stake in Reliance General Insurance Company as part of the resolution process under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
The author writes the root of the digital transformation is the ability of marketers to accurately know where the potential customer is in the sales funnel.
