November 24th, 2024
Catapult PR Video Puts Insurance Communications in Spotlight
Catapult PR has underlined its expertise in insurance PR, content writing and external communications, in a new YouTube video at the Catapult PR channel – https://youtu.be/UlLM2q9zzjA?si=muLWfX7rb1K87zZe
And, although drawing on consumer research conducted in the insurance sector, the video has many points to make for any business, in any sector, which is not communicating with customers in a meaningful and authentic way, on a regular basis.
The video discusses the role of external communications in creating the customer touchpoints that offer so many advantages within marketing.
It highlights 8 key benefits of regular communications for any type of business wishing to create loyalty, understanding and a deep connection with clients, with an explanation of each point.
The benefits of regular customer communications
Whether the goal is customer retention, recommendation, building brand awareness or education on a key topic, the video argues that a cost-effective and proven way to achieve that aim is through on-point customer communications. The more authentic and genuine that those appear to the customer, the more they are likely to achieve their objective.
The video also highlights how too many businesses, particularly insurers or insurance brokers and those who offer a yearly renewable service, only bother to get in touch with their customers at renewal time. Referencing its consumer research, Catapult PR explains how this can lead to insurance customers feeling used by their insurer. Insurance PR strategies need to encompass some positive external communications.
Why insurers and insurance brokers need to communicate more authentically
All of this is set against a backdrop of a tricky time for the insurance industry – one at which a significant number of customers are thinking of cancelling insurance covers, so as to save money during hard economic times.
Catapult PR’s managing director, Jane Hunt, explains how external communications were once a regular part of her insurance PR and marketing activity, back in 1993 when she was PR manager at Swinton and when she started Catapult PR in 1998.
Then, printed newsletters were the norm, in a pre-Internet and digital age. She argues that the solid marketing principles that underpinned this strategy have been eroded by digital strategies, which often now only communicate with customers when there is a need to do so and which rarely provided added value.
Added value can take the form of general interest articles or content that, instead of pushing insurance in a salesy way, simply slip in references to it, within articles that largely entertain, inform or offer some level of helpfulness.
As her own experience as an insurance customer bears witness – and as consumers have said in the research – nothing is heard from most insurers until another sale is required.
Why social media is not the answer for insurers and insurance brokers
Jane argues that there is over-reliance on social media to fill the relationship void, even though most consumers find insurance boring and are hardly likely to go to their insurer’s channels to catch up on the latest news.
For most insurance providers – and many businesses who do not have regular ongoing contact with customers – clients are out of sight and out of mind and never contacted through a desire to build a relationship, on the part of their insurer.
Consumer reactions to insurers and their marketing
Here, there is a huge void that a good insurance PR and content writer can fill, hence Catapult PR’s decision to focus on this topic in its video.
The video also highlights the availability of the booklet that summarises all of the independent consumer research that Catapult PR commissioned, to ascertain views on marketing within the insurance sector. ‘Your Insurance Marketing Wake-up Call’ is a free download at the Catapult PR website.
Then, for those who are pet insurers or pet insurance providers, there is another downloadable resource that highlights attitudes towards pet insurers, veterinary surgeons and key pet care topics that are of relevance to any pet trade retailer or business selling products to pet owners. This resource, produced as part of Catapult’s PR and content work in the pet trade sector, can be downloaded here.
Find out more about why staying in touch with customers really matters, by tuning in to the video here.
