In a data-driven world where customers are used to seeing targeted recommendations via brands like Netflix or Amazon, it’s no wonder that personalization in insurance is in demand.
In many ways, the insurance industry has long specialized in providing customizable solutions for its customers. Depending on a prospect’s unique circumstances, a particular coverage plan and price are quoted. With that model in mind, many may assume that insurance is already a highly personalized industry.
Customizable quotes and products, though, are just the tip of the iceberg. While most insurers rely on segmentation when it comes to their business strategies, personalized marketing goes beyond looking at customers as groups of similar people. Instead, it treats each customer as the individual they are — every step of the way.
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By weaving personalization throughout the entire customer experience, insurance companies stand to see greatly improved results, from better engagement and higher conversion rates to reduced churn.
In this post, we’ll cover why personalization in insurance is so important and what that looks like for the industry.
Personalization: It’s What Consumers Want
The numbers don’t lie. According to Accenture, 80% of consumers are willing to share their data for a range of personalized benefits. The number was a 23-point jump up from 57% the year prior, showing a clear trend that personalization is becoming more and more important to consumers.
From more relevant, personalized offers and alerts to lower prices to quicker claims processing, customers are increasingly expecting personalized experiences throughout their insurance journey. But why?
Put simply, personalization makes people’s lives easier. Imagine a shopping experience that is perfectly tailored to your unique circumstances. No endless browsing, no unsolicited messages, no irrelevant recommendations. Just the best offer with the perfect content at the right time.
“Personalization — or reaching customers with targeted messaging, offers and pricing at just the right time — is the future of insurance marketing.”
In some industries, that kind of customized experience has gone from dream to reality. Amazon delivers hyper-accurate recommendations, while the titles shown on each user’s Netflix page are a reflection of their own particular tastes. With consumers getting more and more used to personalized experiences, that trending demand was bound to spill over to insurance.
What Personalized Insurance Looks Like
Personalized insurance goes beyond the custom quote or welcome email. It’s about optimizing all of your communications with your customer so each individual is getting a message that’s relevant just for them.
It should be a seamless CX, with every touchpoint made to be relevant, convenient and valuable for that particular person. We’re talking offers, messages, products, prices, services and more, all informed by data and designed to appeal to a unique customer.
Here are a few examples:
- An onboarding welcome detailing their specific plan coverage
- Interactive explainers to proactively answer questions and reduce call volume
- A follow-up video when they contact customer support summarizing next steps
The thing about personalized communications, especially in insurance, is that it makes it easier for your customers to get the message. It cuts through the fine print. It’s always relevant.
Leveraging the latest technology, you can make sure your personalized message gets heard by with immersive, data-driven video. Use data from your CRM or let customers share their data to update the video in real time. It’s engaging and on-demand, exactly how talking with your insurer should be.
With this level of personalization, insurance companies stand to not only boost overall customer satisfaction but also improve customer retention and conversion rates in the process. Research has shown that insurers who are already offering advanced personalization have seen increases in:
- Revenue per customer
- Customer retention
- Customer engagement
- Sales and marketing conversion rates
- In-house sales agent effectiveness
So how can insurance companies get the full benefits of personalization? By committing to using data-driven insights to transform the entire insurance customer lifecycle.
How To Implement Personalization (With Video Examples)
When embracing personalization, it’s not something to do halfway. For a consistent customer experience (that supports long-term retention), incorporate personalization throughout the customer journey. That can even include moments before they become a customer.
How? Below, we’ll show you 5 ways to personalize the insurance customer journey, including real campaign examples from top insurance companies.
1. Personalized Quote Follow-Ups
Wondering how you can create a personalized experience for future customers? Follow up with prospects who’ve reached out for a quote but haven’t converted. You can do this individually yet at scale by using data-driven video.
In the auto insurance video above, you’ll notice it’s completely personalized, including the prospective customer’s first name and car as well as what their coverage would include. The quote follow-up also reminds viewers of special benefits with their coverage, such as roadside assistance, flight discounts and more. And it gives them an easy way to “start saving today” with a CTA button and contact details.
These kinds of campaigns are incredibly effective because they’re both personalized and actionable. You’re helping your customer understand the options available to them and starting the relationship off the right way. It’s a win-win for everyone.
2. An Exclusive Welcome
The onboarding experience is one of the best moments to add personalization. You’ve just landed a new customer and want to set the right tone. What better way to do that than to show you see them as an individual and understand their specific situation?
A personalized onboarding video is a great tool insurers can use to simultaneously welcome new customers and explain their coverage. Plus, by recognizing personal details about the viewer and including engaging visual and audio elements, you can add back that human touch that many digital experiences (like a generic welcome email) are often missing.
The award-winning onboarding video above is a perfect example of how to welcome new customers in a way that is both fun and informative.
Note that the video above includes all the dynamic scenes, but a single customer would only receive scenes relevant to their coverage, hence a shorter video. It’s not just plugging different data into different scenes — dynamic scene selection (based on logic) lets you further customize your video to the individual receiving it.
Bonus: By combining memorable visuals with relevant information, personalized explainer videos help new customers better understand and remember the details of their coverage. This not only ensures that they’re fully aware of the value you bring but also plays a huge role in preventing future confusion or conflict.
3. Keeping Your Customers Engaged
Just as important as welcoming new customers is putting care into your relationship with your current customers.
Admittedly, customer engagement in the insurance industry is challenging. Customers typically only experience the full value of having insurance when incidents happen. Otherwise, it’s not uncommon for insurance to simply be seen as that dreaded, yet necessary regular expense.
Sometimes customers can have a hard time recognizing the value that a particular insurance brand brings. When that reality is combined with a lack of meaningful engagement, customers become more likely to switch carriers.
That’s why it’s so important to foster a strong relationship with your current customers. Put effort in reminding them of the value you bring so that when it comes time to renew their policy, the decision to stick with you is a no-brainer.
A Personalized Video message can be one way to creatively remind your customer of their coverage. With engaging visuals and a simplified breakdown of their plan, viewers of the USAA video below came away with a renewed understanding of their policy and were even reminded to set up automatic payments.
Tip: Remember that personalization is all about sending the right customer the right message at the right time. Look to your data to uncover insights about which customers need a little extra engagement and when is the best time to reach out to them.
4. Customer Service That Works
As mentioned above, think about when your customers get in touch. After an accident. After something went wrong. When they’re confused about a bill or other paperwork.
Are they in the mood to sift through complex details or be kept on hold? Probably not. And this is exactly when a video, personalized just for them, can help.
It cuts through the extraneous details and fine print to give your customer exactly what they need to know. Popular use cases for customer service include:
- An automated follow-up after someone contacts customer service
- Bill explainer videos, especially for a customer’s first bill
- Renewal videos reviewing coverage and suggested changes
- Interactive videos where customers can self-serve on demand
Customer service is critical when it comes to retention. Over 60% of consumers report no longer doing business with a company because of a poor customer experience. The good news is we’ve seen personalized customer service videos in financial services industries have reduced churn by 20% and call center volume by over 70%.
5. Sales: It’s All in the (Personal) Details
Your upselling and cross-selling efforts can be made much more effective when you leverage data-driven personalization. Each one of your customers has distinct needs and circumstances, so the way you sell particular products to them differs from one person to another.
But you don’t have unlimited time to reach out to millions of customers one at a time. This is where personalization at scale is key.
Take KBC and their Personalized Video below as an example. Since Marie-Hélène just recently bought a car, the insurer automatically sent her a video that promotes the benefits of their car insurance policy.
By paying attention to your customers as individuals, you’re able to better understand not only what they need but when they need it. This allows for more effective sales messaging, higher conversions and, ultimately, a stronger bottom line.
A Video Platform Built for Personalization
If working with over 20 of the world’s top insurers has taught us anything, it’s that personalization plus video is a winning formula.
Combining video’s ability to engage viewers with the relevance and human touch that personalization brings, Personalized Video is a highly effective tool for communicating complex information (which, let’s face it, insurance has in spades).
Purpose-built for the world of data-driven video, Idomoo’s Next Generation Platform has helped insurers worldwide launch Personalized Video campaigns of all sizes, quickly and effectively.
Browse our personalized insurance campaigns or click the link below to request a demo and see how it all works.
