Better data means better leads for any business. But for insurance businesses, the right data can illuminate consumer behavior patterns that mean the difference between sinking and swimming. Rather than selling commodities, insurance companies must reach prospects who are on a unique shopping journey related to a major purchase or decision: a home, a vehicle, a life insurance policy. These big decisions require more scrutiny, so customer expectation is high.
To provide that personalized experience, customer data is the fuel for converting leads into sales. To save time and costs while increasing conversion rates, insurance companies benefit from working with a trusted lead seller to know the quality of their leads. Insurers are also enhancing their first-party data with behavioral data to get know more about their customers and prospects. Doing both can have a number of benefits to the overall health of the business, including better leads, better sales and a higher ROI on marketing costs. Let’s explore why.
Improving lead qualification
For many industries, any lead will do. The purchase of a new pair of shoes, for example, isn’t exclusive to any one demographic. Everyone wears shoes, and there are thousands of different kinds, so an algorithm can take an educated guess at which ones to target. Purchase history also is incredibly helpful for industries such as this, because they can leverage past purchases to inform future possibilities.
For insurance companies working in silos, comprehensive consumer data is difficult to come by. First-party data from a proprietary website can only provide limited insights. With data limited, many companies cast a wide net, targeting consumers who are low-quality prospects—wasting both time and money.
But there is an alternative. Insurance carriers that buy leads from comparison shopping sites—also known as lead sellers, aggregators or lead generators—can gain a significant competitive advantage. These leads need to be high-quality, qualified leads.
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Unfortunately, a number of factors can lead to low-quality leads, so it’s essential to create a trusted relationship with a lead seller with a strong focus on lead quality and compliance. For example, if it isn’t properly filtered out, non-human web traffic creates low-quality leads, which waste time and resources for the buyer. Similarly, lead sellers that fail to ensure TCPA compliance and set expectations with the consumer about how they will be contacted can cause significant reputation risks and legal concerns for your company. This underscores the importance of building a trusted relationship with a lead seller to provide quality leads that will improve conversion rates.
Choosing a compliant partner
For a real-life example, consider Policybind, which specializes in consumer acquisition for the insurance industry. Policybind leveraged the V!A Directory, a comprehensive directory for the lead generation and performance marketing community, to connect with new partners and better match the consumer to the agent who can best address their current need.
To create a successful partnership with a lead buyer, it’s crucial to be discerning. Compliance with data regulations and privacy laws is paramount in dealing with consumer data, and working with a partner that keeps these elements top of mind is a must. When creating a partnership, understanding how the lead partner secures consent to be contacted from customers and maintains compliance with current regulations is essential for protecting your business. Policybind was able to gain evidence of TCPA compliance on every lead through the Publisher Partner Program.
Knowing more about your customers and prospects
Knowing your audience shortens the marketing funnel and greatly increases the chance of converting a lead. The possibilities for segmenting audiences according to different needs allows for marketing efforts to be more focused, increasing conversions and creating a greater return on marketing investment. This type of segmentation can be performed using demographic data, such as location, age, etc., or the much more valuable, behavioral data.
Unlike demographics, behavioral data changes all the time. Leveraging it, therefore, allows marketers to target consumers based on their current needs because it provides an understanding of where they are in their shopping journey, as well as their pain points and actions. This also creates room to respond at an individual level or through micro-targeting, rather than at a group or demographic level. This personalization delivers better customer experiences and increases marketing performance.
For insurance carriers, the pathway to faster sales and high return on marketing investment is tied to effectively leveraging behavioral data. Instead of asking what kind of audience you’re speaking to—the age, income levels, location—get all the answers that you need to meet your targets where they are by acquiring more informative insights. By enhancing first-party data and working with trusted lead sellers, you can make conversions more quickly, ensure compliance and power ROI for your marketing dollar.
