The New Year is all about looking to the future. From individuals planning resolutions to business owners implementing new strategy, everybody’s looking forward at the start of the year. The insurance and marketing industries are no different, so we’ve had a look into our crystal ball and come up with our top five insurance marketing predictions for 2013.
1. More of the same
As I detailed in one of my earlier posts, many agencies and brokerages will maintain the status quo in 2013 regarding their marketing strategy. If they are engaged in some sort of digital marketing or social media strategy, they may still be confusing activity with results, or think that simply existing on social media is the key to success. Without a detailed plan of expected results and the tactics to achieve them, many organizations will hold steady while maintaining lackluster results.
How to stand out from this crowd? Make sure your social media initiatives are backed by a solid business plan, integrated with your overall marketing strategy and tied to measurable results.
2. Race to the bottom
More and more agencies will finally jump into the digital marketing world. Unfortunately, as high-growth firms know, having a digital presence is no longer a differentiator – it is expected. Our prediction is that many will be sold on already outdated services, and/or do a lot of the same things that their direct competitors are doing. For those not on the social bandwagon yet, don’t let this deter you. Just make sure you are building your digital presence in a way that will highlight your unique agency story, rather than further commoditize your brand.
3. Personal branding
Top tier and youthful brokers may be frustrated with their organizations’ reluctance to get on board with inbound and digital marketing. As an alternative, many will turn to personal branding tactics, building their own brand above the organization’s brand. They will invest in promoting their ‘Me, Inc.’ Personal branding is more important now than ever before. The agents who recognize this will gain a real advantage in 2013.
4. Mobile
We predict that competitive agencies and brokerages will also look to update their websites. They may do an overhaul on the look and feel, and will make sure that it can be viewed on the go. This is crucial as compelling statistics continue to illustrate the dynamic shift to information via smartphone, tablet, etc.—the most startling of which found that around 10% of online activity now takes place on a mobile device.
5. Apps
When you talk about mobile, the first thing that comes to most minds is an app (mobile application). This is one we heard a lot over the course of the past year: “We want an app.” Most of these organizations had no idea what they wanted, why they wanted it, and how it would benefit their customers. There is no doubt that the market will become flooded with insurance-related apps. It will be interesting to see how many viable solutions are actually created this year.
The lesson here, as with anything marketing related, is don’t jump into the latest trend head-first. Evaluate the business need and potential client benefits behind it, and proceed only with a clearly defined plan, strategies and tactics.
Get 2013 off the right start, get a marketing evaluation from SiliconCloud.
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