Marketing Automation has proved to be a blessing in disguise to the insurance marketers whose top priority is nothing but a lead generation. It includes the use of a software which permits the businesses to target their customers effectively through marketing messages which are automated across diversified channels like social media, websites, email, and text for the sole purpose of generating the sales leads.
This insurance technology is a section of the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) model which works by eliminating repetitive tasks of the team to boost the overall efficiency of the insurance marketing department. The marketing campaigns of the insurers get an extensive reach with the automation tools, allowing for strategic prospect finding and making the pitches personalized with the help of analytics tools.
8 Ways Marketing Automation Boosts Insurance Competency
1) An Abundance of Opportunities for Cross-Selling
A vital opportunity can be utilized to the maximum with the least resources through cross-selling. When it comes to the existing customers, the selling probability is around 70% while that of a new prospect ranges anywhere between 5% to 20%. Marketing automation helps in assessing which policies are apt for a particular customer and offer additional policies to support the same.
As per the Insurance Marketing Benchmark Report, getting referrals from the existing customers is extremely important to maximize marketing potential. The marketing and sales team should work together in order to effectively convert the marketing leads into sales. Engaging with the prospects via web content and emails helps in providing personalized solutions to the prospects, eventually increasing the chances of conversions.
2) Personalization of Marketing Messages
Predictive intelligence along with artificial intelligence is surely the next big thing after automation in the marketing world. Through bespoke communications, the sales and insurance team can personalize the marketing messages to the prospects. Database processing through marketing automation helps in producing great insights for a lot of targeted segments like the time customers go online and their choice of channels. This data can be used to advance to result-oriented actions. Through valuable and relevant information, insurance marketers can prompt engagement after grabbing their attention. The best way to achieve this in the competitive environment is through personalized messaging which comes along with marketing automation.
3) Supporting the Sales Teams
As discussed above, the marketing and sales team should work together as the sales strategy should comply with marketing automation. The records of interactions between the marketing team and the lead can be easily accessed with the help of Salesforce Engage. This way you get to know the overall behavior of the prospect along with the opportunity for engagement via content and sending email templates, eventually providing you with the real-time alerts. This type of automatic workflow of tuning the right data from the marketing campaign to the sales representatives helps in speeding the sales work.
4) Building Loyalty with the Latest Programs
As per an Accenture report, only 30% of the insurance customers are happy with their present providers. This means around $460-480 billion business is waiting for the right providers. Retention campaigns and educational onboarding can help in keeping the customers satisfied and smiling. For instance, setting up an informational program for nurturing for automobile care in the long run which benefits a customer who simply signs up for an auto policy quote. Email drip marketing campaigns along with content creation related to such a program helps in engaging customers more frequently with the insurance providers, paving way for a better relationship.
5) Tried & Tested Results
If we talk about the physicians’ insurance which accounts for insurance liability for clinics, hospitals, physicians, the use of marketing automation was seen significantly to instrument three different newsletters on a monthly basis. These were resource providers for eliminating medical errors, content for thought leadership, and educating brokers on client servicing. The customer retention rate rose to 95% from 84% with the adoption of this marketing tactic, explains IIA. With the use of more proficient resources like boosted performance stats and time, the chances of engagement with the prospects with relevant and engaging content brought in more value in terms of customer retention.
6) Timely Modifying Marketing
It is essential to keep pace with the changing marketing trends in the insurance industry and marketing automation is surely the answer to it. With this, insurers can create customized paths which are highly tailored for every lead individually. The customer data which can be obtained through a potential lead’s online activity can be used more efficiently with the help of predictive intelligence. By aligning this tactic with the other marketing strategies like social media and banner ads, emails, SMSes, the insurers can maximize the chances of conversion.
7) Increase Customer Engagement
One should always make the best use of behavioral triggers as an insurer. Sending “thanks” emails along with relevant offers to a visitor who downloads a policy primer increases customer engagement at large. Similarly, creating customized content as per the different stages of a customer journey should be kept in place. Through mobile apps, SMSes, emails, social media, insurers should leave no stone unturned in using both the structured as well as unstructured data to engage the customers. As per the 2016 Strategy Meets Action report, customer relationship management (CRM) witnessed interest lost as compared to the customer experience (CX). Through the intelligent harnessing of client’s data, insurers can adopt a personalized approach and provide relevant offers, resulting in higher cross-selling and up-selling along with better retention.
8) Efficient Conversion of Prospects
When you are using marketing automation, you know exactly what you are selling to the prospects as a result of the diversified channels for lead scoring and engagement alerts which are real-time. From emails to webpages, you know their online behavioral activity at large and this data is surely a blessing when it comes to the conversions. Researching before buying anything is natural and the insurance customers are no different. All you have to know where the prospects are currently in the sales cycle like information gathering, product learning, blog reading, and more. When you know they are ready for a purchase, reach out to them strategically introducing and explaining your services in the best manner, maximizing your chances of conversions.
Conclusion
The above post clearly explains the importance of automation in the world of insurance marketing. It not only reduces the manual work of the insurers but also provides great insight into the customer data and customer behavior. With proper marketing plan and sales execution, retaining customers along with converting the prospects into clients is a feat which can be easily accomplished with the use of marketing automation.
Author Bio: Diana Krall brings more than five years of experience in managing and analyzing the insurance business processes at Insurance Support World, a well-recognized specialized insurance outsourcing services company. She likes to thoroughly research and share her viewpoints about the insurance industry trends through her writing skills and helping businesses drive growth. Connect with me at Twitter @DianaKralll
