Online marketing by insurance agencies is experiencing increasing success. Every year, 3.1 million new customers are acquired through online marketing. In 2020, this number was 1.9 million new customers, which corresponds to growth of 62 percent. These numbers are based on projections from 150,000 insurance agencies that acquire an average of 21 new customers per year through online marketing.
However, personal contact by representatives remains the most common with 44 new customers per year, followed by referrals by customers with 38 new customers. Hanse-Merkur representatives are particularly successful with 55 new customers per year through online marketing, followed by Huk-Coburg (50), Barmenia (47) and Arag (39). Some sales organizations are characterized by effective customer recommendations. Huk-Coburg representatives gained 67 new customers through customer recommendations, followed by DEVK (52), Debeka (50), Barmenia (49) and Arag (48).
Acquiring new customers through classic advertising such as print ads or posters is the lowest, with an average of 9 contacts per year. This emerges from the Sirius Campus benchmark study “Success factors in exclusive sales”. Posts and messages in social networks are used as a marketing measure by around half of the representatives, slightly more frequently than in 2020. Facebook is used by most network-active representatives. Instagram follows in second place, with 7.8 messages per month sending messages more frequently than via Facebook. LinkedIn and Xing are used less often, TikTok, YouTube or Snapchat almost not at all. Regular posts on social media increase success in acquiring new customers. Representatives who report weekly gain 30 new customers annually through online marketing, while those who use social media semi-annually or rarely gain only 18 new customers.
Placing online ads on social media or search engines is even more effective. Just over a third of agencies are running slightly fewer ads on social media than in 2020. Only around a quarter of agencies are running ads on search engines, primarily Google. Agencies that place ads weekly gain 27 new customers per year, while online ads that run semi-annually or less frequently only gain 14 new customers. “Online marketing will also continue to increase in importance for intermediaries. Insurers should specifically support their agencies in order to enable initial contacts, especially with Gen Z,” explains Dr. Oliver Gaedeke, Managing Director of Sirius Campus.
The use of online marketing varies significantly across the 23 insurance distributors examined. While in some sales offices almost three quarters of all representatives are active on social media, in others it is less than a third. Older representatives in particular are lagging behind market developments.
To promote online marketing, insurers can provide concrete support, such as centrally controlled promotions or ongoing provision of social media posts or copy for online ads. However, less than half of representatives are enthusiastic about these offers. Almost a fifth express clear criticism. Providing newsletter texts is important for processing existing customers. Barmenia, Debeka, Ergo, Huk-Coburg and LVM are rated particularly well by their representatives.
More and more customers are checking the quality of an agency on customer rating portals. That’s why every second representative already checks their entries, especially on Google and Facebook. Four years ago it was a tenth less. On average, the agencies achieve 30 reviews on Google and 23 on Facebook. Actively requesting online reviews can increase the number of feedbacks up to 65 per agency. “In times of increasing online communication, customers are particularly relevant as credible testimonials. Above all, intermediaries should ask their customers for detailed online reviews. “Customers read reviews very differently and, depending on the context, are not unsettled by negative reviews,” says Dr. Oliver Gaedeke.
