Digital marketing measurements for insurance

Following on from our discussion of Content strategy, we will take a closer look at who these audiences might be in the context of the insurance industry, and how we can measure the effectiveness of our digital marketing activity in relation to each group.

See

Firstly, the See audience should be defined in the broadest possible, yet still exclusionary, terms – although members of this group need not have any commercial intent, you’ll still want to focus your attention to some degree.

In the case of insurance, this group will consist of all individuals or companies who own, use, or are responsible for something that can be insured. This might be: all car drivers, pet owners, holidaymakers, homeowners (or even anyone who owns any object of value), company directors, employers, manufacturers, or professionals who offer any kind of service.

People at this stage will probably not be searching for insurance-related terms, or visiting websites of specific insurers. Instead, your main aim will probably be to increase brand awareness, by encouraging people to interact with your content, follow your social media accounts, and come to your website to find out more.

This could be measured in a number of ways:

• Number of interactions (likes, shares, retweets) with a social media post. Do people like what you have to say?
• Number of plays (or skips) of a video ad. How many people are actually prepared to watch your video all the way to the end?
• Click-through rate on display or paid social ads. Can you persuade users to come to your website to find out more?
• Number of requests to download content (e.g., a factsheet about a holiday destination or how to set up a business). Is your content good enough to persuade someone to share their email address with you?
• Number of new users who visit the website through a display ad. Are your ads helping to expand your potential customer base?

Think

The Think audience consists of everyone who has even the smallest amount of purchasing intent – those people who see some benefit in buying insurance. This might be because of a natural risk aversion, or desire for peace of mind. For commercial customers there may be reputational benefits of having insurance, and there could still be a legal obligation to compensate customers or other members of the public under certain circumstances, even if the insurance itself isn’t compulsory.

When people reach the Think stage, their search terms might show some connection with insurance, e.g., “what is professional indemnity insurance?” or “do I need travel insurance?”, but they might not be quite ready to fill out a quote form or make a purchase.

Your marketing efforts at this stage should be designed to encourage potential customers to find out more about your brand and what you can offer them – perhaps by getting them to spend more time on your site, or by creating future contact opportunities by getting them to sign up to an email newsletter.

There are several metrics that you might want to measure at this stage:

• Click-through rate from the search result pages. Are people coming to your site rather than your competitors’?
• On-site engagement metrics (e.g., number of pages viewed, time on site). Are users taking the time to find out more about your brand and how it can benefit them?
• Number of newsletter sign-ups. Do people view your brand as a potential source of useful information?
• Percentage of returning visitors. Does your content encourage people to come back for another look?

Do

The Do audience is made up of everyone who is looking to purchase insurance RIGHT NOW. This might be someone who has just bought a new car, or who is about to go on holiday to Mexico. The objectives of your marketing campaigns at this stage are perhaps the easiest to understand and measure – you should be looking to bring people to the relevant parts of your site so that they can get a quote and buy a policy.

As well as top-line metrics such as GWP, you might also want to consider:

• Click-through rate. Are your paid search ads successful in bringing high-intent customers to your site?
• Number of quotes completed or callbacks requested. How many people have submitted their details in order to obtain an insurance quote?
• Number of policies sold. How many people have actually bought insurance from your site?
• Quote to sale ratio. Of everyone who gets a quote from your site, what proportion go on to buy insurance? Cost per sale. For every policy sold, how much are you spending on marketing?
• Average premium. How much is each online sale worth?
• Return on ad spend. How does the premium income generated compare to the total cost of your digital marketing?

Care

Last, but by no means least, is the Care audience – existing policyholders who represent future commercial value. This group is key for an insurance company – with most policies being renewed annually, your care audience will quickly become part of your competitors’ Think or Do audiences. This is why it’s important to maintain a good relationship with your policyholders beyond the point at which their cover starts. Your ultimate goal should be to provide them with an incentive to renew their policy, perhaps purchase additional cover or benefits, or even recommend you to their friends and family.

At this stage, you might want to measure:

• Renewal rate.  What proportion of your policyholders are satisfied enough to renew their cover with you for another year?
• Cancellation rate.  Are any of your policyholders so dissatisfied with their experience that will actively seek cover elsewhere (or choose to go without) before the end of their policy?
• Average policy lifetime.  How long does an average policyholder remain with you?
• Customer lifetime value.  How much revenue does each policyholder generate over the entire lifetime of their policy?
• Net promoter score.  Would you existing customers recommend you to someone else?