Target Marketing in the Insurance Industry

By: Tim Woitach

Target marketing is a key component of effectively growing your business in the insurance industry; even more so when working in niche markets. Program business continues to outpace the commercial sector in terms of growth, but it is often difficult to determine what markets to enter and hot to effectively implement a segmentation and communication strategy. Here are a few steps to help your agency enter into and thrive in a niche market.

Define Your Audience: The first step to defining your audience is determining what market(s) to enter. Focusing on a market where you have prior knowledge or expertise is always a good place to start. For instance, if your family owns a car wash, you may find success in that industry. Next, you must determine your appetite, and the appetite of the carrier/program manager, within the selected market. Choosing specific risk characteristics that fit your agency’s criteria can help you focus your marketing campaigns and spend your time, effort, and finances on reaching the accounts that are the best fit for you.

Create Specialized Marketing Campaigns: Using cookie-cutter marketing pieces and generalized campaigns can cost an arm and a leg without delivering the results you’re looking for. Sending specialized messages to smaller, more refined segments that fit your appetite can increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and offer more “bang for your buck.”

Collect and Analyze Data: Once your marketing campaign is complete, it is essential to compile the results. Pulling information like responses, opens, clicks, and website traffic can help categorize your contacts even further and allow you to adjust future marketing efforts based on the results.

Retarget Marketing Efforts: You’ve compiled all the campaign data; now what? It’s time to utilize the results and create follow-up efforts to address the behaviors of your contacts. Retargeting campaigns can help you supply existing and potential customers with the information they are looking for and guide them through the sales cycle.

Continual Adjustment: Archiving and updating customer information allows you to adjust your marketing segments and provide the best and most relevant content for your clients and prospects.

Target marketing can be essential to attracting new business, maintaining your current client base, and expanding to new markets. Keep these concepts in mind when creating the marketing plan for you insurance agency.

You can find more information on target marketing from The Balance (@thebalance) here and Inc.com (@Inc) here.