An omni-channel marketing strategy is vital to break through the clutter of today’s highly competitive world.

According to Google research, 90% of multiple device owners switch between an average of three per day to complete a task. Businesses that can help their customers complete those tasks when and where they want stand to gain a piece of the $1.8 trillion that cross-channel sales are predicted to reach this year.

That’s why Insurance Companies are now guiding their prospects and leads through the customer journey – and selling them multiple insurance products throughout the journey – by using an omni-channel strategy.

What is omni-channel marketing?

Basically, an omni-channel marketing strategy refers sending the same message to the same people. The key is sending that message across all the marketing channels relevant to the buyer’s journey. The term emphasizes a shift in the way people progress through what we call the marketing funnel.

In the US, 213 million adults access the internet with an average of 4 different devices. They’re more connected, and they have more control over the buying process than ever before.
What used to be a one or two-stop shop is now a journey that spans days, times, locations, and channels. And those channels aren’t strictly digital ones. They can be a direct mailer, newspapers or magazines or catalogs in the mail. They can be your actual office, word of mouth, or an outbound ad like a billboard.

For example, a customer can be browsing your website online from a desktop or mobile device, calling your office by phone, getting a homeowner renewal solicitation in the mail or walking into your agency and the message and sales experience will be seamless.

When customers can interact with a brand anytime / anywhere, how is your agency preparing to accommodate them?

Omni-Channel Marketing Strategy Checklist

This checklist covers strategies ever Insurance Agency should consider if they want to generate new leads and find new customers. It’s omni-channel because you are using the same message across all the channels.

1. Search marketing. When a prospect uses Google to search on your company name or product, a paid search ad should pop up. This ad should direct them to your website or landing page. Make sure you have an easy-to-click phone icon. This way prospects can click to call if they want immediate gratification.

2. Retargeting. Many people refer to this as “stalking” a prospect. Once a prospect interacts with content on a media site or searches on a specific term, a sequence of follow-up ads, known as retargeting, should show up as they visit other sites.  For example, if you’ve ever clicked on an ad for shoes on-line, you know you will see other ads for shoes every time you open up your Facebook. If someone has searched insurance quotes, they will see the names of those local insurance agencies who are using a retargeting program.

3. Welcome strategy. You need to have your strategy ready for when a prospect subscribes to an email newsletter or calls into your agency to ask about a service.  This might include using a sequence of email, direct mail and follow up phone calls to start the relationship. You want to educate the customer about your brand or product. Bottom line, you are looking to generate a sale and you have to start somewhere.

Marketing Automation

4. Following up on customer interest. When a customer clicks on a link in an email or interacts repeatedly with content on your website, do you have a way to interact with them? Is there an automated system that triggers email, direct mail or a phone reminder about what they were looking at? And, if it isn’t automated, is this on your daily to-do calendar?

5. Reducing online attrition. when a visitor abandons their shopping cart, you need to have a combination of communications to win them back in place. For example, in omni-channel marketing, you have set up certain automated rules. In this case, if someone who was looking at auto insurance policies on-line dropped off, they should get a follow-up email right away. This email will remind them about the benefits of taking out the policy with a link to going back in.

Testing

6. The offer. Offers will vary in effectiveness according to the target audience and the media channel. A direct mail offer may be way different than an on-line offer. Test different offers that deliver the right message and make someone want to respond. Don’t be cheap. People know the difference between a good offer and a valuable one. Limited time offers work best.

7. Getting the frequency right. It’s important that messages stay relevant and don’t become intrusive. Nothing gets people angrier than too many emails cluttering up their inboxes. You need to create rules for the maximum number of emails that are sent in a given period (one a month or one a week) and the interval between them (for example, at least 3 days).

8. Getting the channels right. This means using the best channel(s) for the customer, which fits their preferences and the right channel for your company, which gives you the best combination of cost and response. It means that for some customers you focus on email communications because they interact and respond to them. But other customers may absolutely not respond to email which means direct mail may be the best choice to communicate with them.

9. Reviewing and improving channel sequence. In omni-channel marketing, prospects are being contacted in multiple marketing channels. How are prospects and customers moving from channel to channel? When prospects progress through the sales funnel, what channels are they going first?

Dataman Group Direct provides direct mail, telemarketing and email lists for the Insurance Industry. Want to see a case study? Call (800) 771-3282 for more information or email [email protected]