INSURANCE MARKETING:THE PERSONALIZATION PORTFOLIO

35% OF SITE VISITORS WHO DIDN’T GET A QUOTE ONLINE SAID THEY WANTED TO TALK TO A HUMAN BEING[1]

ONLINE SHOPPERS CRAVE A HUMAN CONNECTION.

A fact that couldn’t be more obvious when shoppers go online to purchase insurance. The online user journey through an insurance broker or aggregator site is fraught with complications and pitfalls. Striving to improve this journey must be an insurance marketer’s priority if they intend to improve conversion rates.

In this eBook, we dive into the big reasons why users fail to buy their insurance online and recommend actions, tools and strategies that marketing managers can harness to improve the user experience and drive up their conversion rates.

CHALLENGE:LIMITED AGILITY IN ONLINE INSURANCE

We know insurance marketers understand that online optimisation is important. But many feel as though they have done as much as they can.There are a few reasons for this including but not limited to:

ARCHAIC INTERNAL PROCESSInsurance firms can be old and huge and have in place bureaucratic processes, which must be adhered to. While these are often well-justified safeguards, sluggish systems can slow down the wheels of change.

COMPLIANCEImplementing cutting edge online solutions or even basic changes to online user journeys can be difficult because of the hoops companies need to jump through – heavily regulated industry makes digital progress and experimentation difficult.

CREDIBILITY AND RESOURCESFor younger, more nimble and less established insurance companies, marketers here also face challenges, as they may not have the market credibility or resources to risk changing an online journey that seems functional.

DISCOUNT INCENTIVES AREN’T ALWAYS POSSIBLEIn retail, discounts drive conversions but this is often not possible in insurance as brands fear that discounts will negatively impact their credibility.

OPPORTUNITY:86% OF INSURANCE ORGANIZATIONS HAVE A CLEAR OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE THROUGH INCREASED ADOPTION OF CUSTOMER-CENTRIC BEST PRACTICES.[2]

LEARN YOUR CUSTOMERS’ PSYCHOLOGYGetting into the heads of your customers will provide you with actionable insights that should influence the design of your online user journey. People do not treat online retail and online insurance in the same way. The insurance funnel cannot be turned into a one-click fast purchase - in short, it is a non-traditional eCommerce process.

INSURANCE PURCHASES ARE MORE CONSIDEREDObviously, that consideration scales - if you are taking out life insurance, you would spend longer to make a decision than you would when setting up phone insurance. The higher value the purchase, the more considered it will be. But being aware of your user’s deliberation behaviour should inform the way your website personalizes to each user.

THE MARKET IS CHOICE RICHUsers are likely to abandon not because they’ve decided not to buy insurance – but because they have found a better deal elsewhere. This only stresses the need to use innovative ways to keep users engaged on site.

INSURANCE 1insurance

2

INSURANCE3

INSURANCE 1 vs INSURANCE 2

CHALLENGE:UNDERSTAND BUYER BEHAVIOUR

INSURANCE JOURNEYS ARE FREQUENTLYCROSS-CHANNEL“If you look at a typical insurer, for every 100 people that consider a brand, 59 will visit the company’s website, 33 will solicit a quote but only 2.4 will bind on the website.” [3] People are quick to drop off site and pick up a phone. But this can damage margins; undermining the advantage of having an effective online purchase process by pushing to call staff.

THE BOOKING PROCESS IS A DRAG AND PERSONAL INFORMATION INPUT-HEAVYUser’s attention spans are short. Long-winded, complicated, confusing or concerning journeys can accelerate page drop off.

Zzzz...

OPPORTUNITY:71% OF CONSUMERS ARE WILLING TO PURCHASE INSURANCE VIA DIGITAL CHANNELS[4]

And 80% would switch carriers for more personalized services[5].

Insurance companies have eager existing and prospective customers that are preparedto purchase through online touch points.

Smart insurance marketers will be pushing to create tailored online experiencesto better connect with their customers. This is because investment in the online user journey is an investment in lifetime customer value.

So what can professionals in this space do to further improve the journey and boost conversion?

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CHALLENGE:FORM PROCESS FATIGUE

The insurance purchase funnel is a massive process. Anything you can do to simplify the journey – without undermining security or trust - is a victory.

Users get bored with a multistage form process, but they still need to buy insurance – you rarely just decide that you won’t get it at all.

People abandoning your form process are therefore more likely than not going elsewhere to purchase – they are researching, comparing and then choosingto go with a competitor.

For a user, it comes down to price or confidence – and since financial incentives are often impossible, confidence should always be reinforced.

What’s more, the further pages down the funnel a user goes the higher the risk of abandonment. Tailored messaging to each step of the process allows youto speak to users in ways appropriate to their context.

It should therefore be your key objective to keep your visitors’ focus on-page.

This can be achieved in a number of ways.

OPPORTUNITY:MOULD THE USER JOURNEY

REASSURANCE MESSAGINGUse highly visible on-site reassurance messaging to build trust, encouraging your users to stay and complete their purchase. In our experience, the best performing messaging uses personal referral content. For example, 9/10 customers would recommend us to friends and family.

FREE GIFTSFree gifts provide instant gratification as part of a transaction which can feel less tangible. Brands such as aggregator Compare The Market and broker Go Skippy have effectively used gifts not only to encourage sales, but also to inspire brand loyalty.

FORM FILLERAuto Filling data which users have already entered saves them time and reduces the frustration of having to repeat themselves. While this is a valuable action, be aware that users may feel uncomfortable if you are scraping sensitive information and there are also Data Protection considerations so exercise judgement over which information you fill.

COUNTDOWN TIMERCountdown timers are a tried and tested method of inspiring a sense of urgency. However, it is critical that you don’t put your customers under undue pressure. Split test whether you show timers to users and also use different time limits to find your optimum parameters.

DISPLAY THE NUMBER OF STAGES LEFTClearly signposting to your users that their quote is only moments away will positively reduce drop off rates. Speaking to your users in this way keeps them in the loop and enables themto rationalise their investment in your on-site journey.

CHALLENGE:DESKTOP IS THE PURCHASE PLATFORMOF PREFERENCE

People feel more secure using desktop for big purchases. User-unfriendly mobile sites coupled with distrust in mobile as a payment platform breeds apprehension in users looking to purchase insurance through on-the-go devices. But mobile can still play a key role in your path to conversion.

EASE OF PROCESSMobile users frequently abandon the site because of the time it takes to get a quote.

MOBILE TRANSACTION SECURITY CONCERNSFears over security will continue to be an impendent to insurance transactionsin 2015. Last year, 34% said they don’t trust the security of mobile platformfor purchases [7]

OPPORTUNITY:MOBILE ENABLES CROSS-CHANNEL TRANSACTIONS

MOBILE-OPTIMISED LEAD GENERATION FORMOn mobile platforms, use a short form that collects details and can give a basic quote. This means that a user can complete a full quote later on desktop or over the phone. Collecting an email address also opens the door to reactivation through email remarketing.

UNIQUE REGISTRATION CODE By supplying each user with a code which remembers the stage they had reachedin a mobile journey, you enable them to pick up from where they left off on desktop or lateron the same device without needing to repeat the input process.

CLICK-TO-CALLCreate a direct line from your mobile site to your call centre representatives. By embedding a phone number on site, users browsing on mobile can call straight from the form process to complete their purchase. This kind of strategy facilitates a journey between touch points.

Use a unique call number so you can cross-reference with site abandoners so that they are correctly attributed as conversions.

Your User Journey

CASE STUDY

INSURANCE

RESULTS:

MARKET:UK

CLIENT INFORMATION:

TYPE OF BUSINESS:LEADING INDEPENDENT INSURANCE BROKER

TRAFFIC:52.9K PER MONTH

Yieldify partnered with a leading insurance broker to reduce site abandonment from their motor insurance pages and boost conversion rates by improving the online user journey across multiple channels.

OBJECTIVE:

Campaign Running Time:1 MONTH

Campaign Running Time:20TH JUNE - 16TH JULYOverall Site Conversion:8% TO 13%

RESULTS:

Impressions:23K +

Visitors:+3 M

Impressions:105K

CONVERSION OVERLAY CAMPAIGN

THE EFFECTIVE SOLUTION OFFERED:

Our campaign served on-site users who showed intent to exit with a reason to stay and complete their purchase. The campaign targeted all traffic on desktop, mobile and tablet devices. Overlay messaging was split-test between two different messages – a free incentive vs. a voucher for an online retailer – to find out which offer would best prompt a conversion. The mobile campaign alone caused a dramatic uplift, nearly doubling the revenue driven through that channel.

Impression to Conversion Rate:DESKTOPMOBILETABLET

2.9%6.0%6.7%

Click to Conversion Rate:DESKTOPMOBILETABLET

39.4%44.6%43.0%

Opt-in Rate:DESKTOPMOBILETABLET

7.3%13.5%15.6%

THE WAY FORWARD

Here at Yieldify we partner with global online brands to convert visitorsinto customers.

We do this by tearing down the barriers between businesses and their customers – across all channels.

We use our real-time analytics to allow businesses to mould a personalized buyer journey for the modern, omnichannel consumer.

REAL-TIME PERSONALIZATION

We can track and target consumers at any point in the user journey. Bringing users back from the point of abandonment with our Exit-Intent technology, provide dynamic, user-specific in-page recommendations; or rescue abandoned baskets with e-mail retargeting tailored to each individual user’s basket.

Personalize the online customer experience for each of your users by targeting across a wide range of user metrics – session, basket value, page or product interest, geolocation, device, even the weather.

Get in touch to request a demo.

BOOK A DEMO

[1] http://www.insurancetech.com/data-and-analytics/is-e-commerce-right-for-insurance/d/d-id/1314575

[2] http://www.sap.com/uk/solution/industry/insurance/featured/offers/insurance-customer-demographics-inforgraphic.html

[3] ibid.

[4] http://insuranceblog.accenture.com/customer-centricity-in-the-digital-era-part-1-introduction/

[5] ibid.

[6] http://www.insurancetech.com/4-ways-insurers-beat-disruption/d/d-id/1315364

[7] http://mefminute.com/2014/11/20/mef-global-consumer-survey-2014-growth-economies-driving-mobile-adoption/

[8] http://www.insurancetech.com/channels/ibm-apple-partnership-could-yield-trove-of-insurance-apps/d/d-id/1318372?

APPENDIX

ABOUT YIELDIFYYieldify is an ecommerce solution that converts visitors into customers.

We harness our multi-channel abandonment analytics platform to mould personalised buyer journeys for the modern, always-on consumer. Our expert teams build, manage and measure tailored on-site and email campaigns, across every channel. Our technology creates incremental value for top global brands by optimising their online conversion rates and driving lead generation.

Founded by brothers Jay and Meelan Radia in June 2013, Yieldify is among the fastest growing

Yieldify enables ebusinesses around the world to communicate better with their consumers.

SOME OF OUR CLIENTS:

NEW YORK OFFICE

Grind 22nd Floor, 1412 Broadway, New York, NY 10018-5005, United States

+1 646 783 3123

infoUSA@yieldify.com

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+49 30 57700 5432

de@yieldify.com

LONDON OFFICE

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+44 20 8123 9918

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+61 2 8011 4284

sydney@yieldify.com