When the World Wide Web opened up the Internet for everybody nearly twenty years ago, one of the phrases that was bandied about at the time was that this new 'Information Superhighway' would be a level playing field where small could shout as loud as large.
This caused an initial flurry of activity by prescient insurance companies and a few savvy brokers, who bit the bullet and jumped into Internet Insurance transactional business, prior to the dot-com boom.
The playing field was not so level and over the years it appeared to Insurance Blogger that the online marketing spend and efforts of powerful Insurance Companies and a few brokers, had skewed the playing field further, and Internet Insurance Marketing had become a mirror of the physical world where he who spends the most gets their brand seen. The situation has become exacerbated by the dominance of price comparison sites and premium aggregators as further barriers to a successful Internet Insurance Marketing campaign by a small insurance broker, for example.
Insurance Brokers have felt particularly left out of the new wealth, as on the whole, they do not have the marketing budgets to fight back against the established big boys.
However recently there has been a massive shift in the Insurance Marketing paradigm which is allowing 'those in the know' to not only compete with the big boys but to retake the marketing initative and establish online market dominance for their chosen niche markets!
So how have they done this?
Well everything has changed in the world of Insurance Marketing with the arrival of Social Media Marketing. It appears it is no longer a question of buying attention for your brand by spending large amounts of cash, moreover a skill in engaging with your customers as communities, and a provider of information that is valuable. As experts with superior knowledge of their Insurance niches, Insurance Brokers are fighting back and winning the Insurance marketing war using the traditional skills of networking and information.
So how do they do this?
We asked the UK's leading consultancy in the use of these 'new tools', Speedie Consultants, just what do you need to do today to establish visibility on the Internet?
What is Twenty First Century Insurance marketing?
Here's what the Speedie Consulting's managing director and world reknowned Insurance Internet Marketing Coach, Jason Hulott, told Insurance Blog......
"Insurance marketing" , "web content" and "affiliate marketing" – these are all phrases that you may or may not be familiar with. However, these – and other marketing solutions – are key to boosting your business, both online and offline.
If you are looking to generate more business via your website, then it’s not a simple case of putting up a few pages and keeping your fingers crossed. No matter whether your finance and insurance business is based all online, or offline, you need to market your website through a number of several tried and tested methods, as well as keep ahead of your competitors as new marketing methods develop (eg social media).
Combined internet marketing and copywriting specialists Speedie Consultants Limited offers five main solutions for your finance and insurance marketing needs:
· web content
· article marketing (including link building)
· blog set up and marketing
· press release syndication
· affiliate marketing
Each of these elements are designed to maximise your exposure to potential clients. Speedie Consultants can tailor their service to meet your needs whether you want the comprehensive package or just one or two elements. A consultancy service is also available.
History
Speedie Consultants was established in 2003 by Jason and Stella Hulott, which sees them offering over 40 years’ combined experience in the internet marketing and copywriting industries. Supported by 15 freelance writers, a web design company and a web development team, they currently provide between 500,000 and 700,000 words of copy each month and can boost your business with finance and insurance marketing; the provision of web content; and affiliate marketing.
Jason’s background is in internet marketing – predominantly finance and insurance marketing - where he worked for the Woolwich before joining the UK’s first personal finance web aggregator in 2001 as a Content and Partnership Manager. In 2003 he set up Speedie Consultants, primarily providing internet marketing (including affiliate marketing), copywriting services and PR distribution services to finance clients such as Budget Insurance and British Insurance as well as non-finance clients such as MakeFriendsonline.com.
Stella is a PR and Copywriting specialist providing unique, quality web content. She has worked for Liverpool Victoria, Pearl Assurance, the Woolwich and the Foresters before co-founding Speedie Consultants Limited. Stella has written for major UK Finance and insurance websites such as TescoCompare.com, GoCompare.com, parts of the Towergate Partnership, British Insurance, Enhanced Wealth, Burgesses and Protection Insurance plus many more.
Speedie Consultants can provide clients with a comprehensive service that allows you to enhance your presence both online and offline. Their consultancy service offers you the know how to do this, as well how to effectively:
· run affiliate marketing programs
Thanks Jason, there's obviously a lot to take on board in this Insurance Marketing Brave New World. Insurance Blogger thinks that Budget Insurance's 'Compare The Meerkat' social media marketing campaign has a set the standard for a whole new wave of customer insurance marketing and interaction. Once again it looks like those who embrace this new media early will be the long term winners!
UK TV Ad Revenue Underwritten by Car Insurance Price Comparison War!
When Insurance Blogger was a nipper.....
Back in the 1960's if you were lucky you had a black and white televison - the box! with an aerial that looked like a sea mine or something out of Doctor Who sitting on top of it.
There were 2 UK TV Channels:
The BBC - Mother of the Nation and voice of the world......
& ITV - which was a loose consortium of regional independent television companies that broadcast on their own frequency AND network distribution relay.
This meant that every time you changed channel, which was a process of turning a huge dial until you got a fuzzy ghost image - you had to turn the aerial as well to switch to a different signal supplier.
This caused much distress in every UK Household with people arguing over aerial placement whilst trying to watch fuzzy images of man supposedly walking on the Moon.
The Independent Television Companies were funded by advertising revenue for commercials placed in programme 'intermissions' known in the UK as 'Commercial Breaks'. This allowed companies like Granada to fund their own programmes and make 'soaps' like Coronation Street. Product placement was banned on The BBC and was also severely limited as to the acceptable use of on screen products, within ITV programme drama of the day.
This ban has very recently been lifted and you might soon even see the BBC's Phil Mitchell on Eastenders popping down to his local Post Office TM for some Travel Insurance or visiting a car insurance comparison website for his Jaguar insurance, coming to our screens as desperate TV production companies try to raise additional funding in hard times.
Even the BBC will not remain immune in the face of falling TV viewing figures and the rise of integrated digital services.
Today ITV is still reliant upon revenue sourced from intermission commercials, however with global distribution opportunities for selling programmes abroad they are now able to find sponsors for most popular shows.
According to a recent survey by business intelligence group DataWatch Monitor UK, Insurance adverts account for 52% of the total advertising revenue spend on UK TV commercials and specifically car insurance which accounts for 63% of that.
So Who is spending all this money, millions of pounds that is underwriting some great UK independent TV productions?
Well unless you live under a rock or don't own a screen (Boxes are consigned to pre-history along with the Dodo and the Betamax by the way!), you can't have failed to notice that there is a car insurance price comparison site war going on out there at the moment with the BIG 4 all trying to outdo each other on spend and it's getting dirty..........
So who are the big 4? Well in no particular order , though Google has one....
Money Supermarket.com Confused.com Compare The Market.com Go Compare.com
So who is winning this war?
Well it's hard to give a definitive answer because campaigns are in a constant state of flux and one month it might be the furry meerkat toy rodent or the next month, the fat opera singer at No.1 in the Sales Charts. It is difficult to COMPARE!
The TV ads always tell the prospect car insurance purchasers to visit their website, so a fairly accurate measure of website usage over time by website name search, can be extracted from Google and here are the results....
WACKY RACES As you can see, that annoying pompous man from the Dragons Den is leading the way by far at the moment with the furry rodent bringing up the rear. This is likely to change at Christmas when Compare The Market bring out the talkng meerkat. Looks like the fat annoying tenor over there Ad is working!!! For Now!
At Insuranceblog we own many insurance domains bought through the UK registrar and trust Nominet. We found this press release today from a UK Income Protection Insurance Company who have been having trouble registering their company domain with Nominet, and whilst trying to do so found out that its easier to register muslimterrorists.co.uk or childp**n.co.uk. than an insurance company domain
The grand old lady from carrot crunching country just couldn't cut the mustard with the bosses of the Iberian sounding Aviva and will officially be given the fatal injection at midnight tonight.
As an ex-employee of GA bonus (New Zealand Insurance) do I care?
At the time of the merger / takeover Insuranceblogger had already moved on to pastures new in the city, but I had left them over thirty commercial products on their brand new AS/400 and at the time it was annoying to see the Misers from Perth (GA) and the Wastrels from Whyteleafe (CU) surrender to the much weaker brand.
What a waste of money rebranding is - shareholders must be outraged, mind you they are all at it! The necessary systems centralisation cost which has already happened obviously needs a centralised culture under the same banner - A banner for job and branch streamlining.
I thought Santander was a port in the basque country!
Systems geniuses Insuretec Ltd, the brains behind the car insurance comparison portal Car-Insurance.TV, have really excelled themselves this time with the launch today of a new method of Insurance Advertising.
The company has developed software that converts documents to speech and video for the purposes of offering clients and prospects information about car insurance.
Heres a prototype. I don't think those old brokers who sat around in Lloyds coffee house a few hundred years ago would ever have beleived the 'cybervoice from hell' and certainly wouldn't have insured it!
As spokesman for the company said, "the system it allows us to disseminate globally, information and marketing materials which were formerly considered legacy, in totally new ways, for example, videos and podcasts of text documents and content."
Insurance Marketing on the Internet for Professionals
A new website The System has been created to show you exactly how easy it is to generate your own financial and insurance leads on the Internet. The authors have over ten years experience in the financial services and Insurance lead generation and marketing sector and are giving away the secrets of their Search Engine success for Free.
The System people have dominated the search engines for years for insurance terms such as car insurance and mortgage protection. Now your marketing team can copy how they did it.
Visit The System for all the latest Search Engine Marketing hot tips. you'll be amazed what you learn whether you are new to Internet Marketing or a self confessed guru!
Insurance Marketing on the Internet for Professionals
A new website The System has been created to show you exactly how easy it is to generate your own financial and insurance leads on the Internet. The authors have over ten years experience in the financial services and Insurance lead generation sector and are giving away the secrets of Search Engine success for Free.
The authors have dominated the search engines for years for insurance terms such as car insurance and mortgage protection. Now your Insurance marketing team can copy exactly how they did it.
We know many of our Insurance Broker friends in the UK are struggling to sell their excellent car insurance products online. In many cases they have spent a fortune on integrating their back office systems, which hold the rates for comparing prices and all the customer and policy information, with their smart new expensive website.
One year down the line the website still looks shiny and new, mainly because nobody ever goes there!
Why? Well to be successful on the Internet you have to be visible. This means all the major search engines have to list your car insurance website, in particular Google.
Well getting a listng in Google may take you years and you'll never going to be able to compete with all the big boys and their massive marketing budgets that dominate the search results.
So what other options are there?
Well Google allows you to buy a link on their home page for different keyword searches for example 'car insurance'
And they've very kindly created a tool which will help you see how much its going to cost you to get a click through from google for the search term 'car insurance'.
If you type in car insurance and set the currency and location to GB, you can see exactly whats its costing the large aggregator sites that dominate the front page paid listings in Google:
Heres the results for Car Insurance - GBP - UK for positions 1 to 3 on Google
Average CPC: £15.40 (at a maximum CPC of £33.65) Estimated clicks per day: 1,091 - 1,367 (at a daily budget of £25,270.00)
Wow! These guys must be spending a fortune with Google when you think about how many thousands of keywords they bid on!
So we tried out another very competitive keyword in the current economic gloom, namely income protection insurance:
Average CPC: £5.82 (at a maximum CPC of £12.20) Estimated clicks per day: 5 - 6 (at a daily budget of £50.00) Hmm not too bad!
how about Income Protection?
Average CPC: £5.19 (at a maximum CPC of £10.04) Estimated clicks per day: 15 - 18 (at a daily budget of £110.00) - very interesting!!
Here at Insurance Blog we love to speculate and predict outcomes, usually based on probability, for our own personal chest beating and so we can turn around after the event and say 'told you so!' After all isn't that how Insurance operates! But we're not averse to a bit of rumour or gossip as well especially when it could involve a lateral shift in the way Insurance is sold on the Internet, which soon will in one form or another BE for most products the only way insurance is transacted and sold!
Word has reached one of our intrepid contributors that an Insurance / Investment Company with a very large warchest has been making approaches to some of the best Internet Insurance marketing companies who run the major independent insurance directories out there in Cyberspace, with the intention of aquisition. One company is believed to be in advanced talks with a Broker Network to the purported sum of five million UK pounds
Now this is hardly surprising stuff, but it's made very interesting for two reasons.
There are currently around 10 to 20 very large agglomerates of insurance brokers and underwriters and investment companies out there in the UK who have reached their current size in the UK Insurance market today through aquisition of companies and Insurance Brokers and accounts and books of Insurance business and physical businesses and buildings.
So does this mean that there are no more available smaller real-world businesses to buy and they've finally turned their attention to what is available in other distribution channels?
OR
They've looked enviously at the way that Moneysupermarket.com etc. and all the other comparison / aggregator websites dominate the Search Engines for all the major keywords in their market, and have realised that these types of cyber insurance networks could give them a platform on which to compete and maybe take advantage over the single comparison site big Google payers, for just about every niche insurance market.
If the latter is true, which I doubt their business foresight or acumen, then we would see a serious shift in the way Insurance is sold on the Internet.
A large cyber insurance network would fit many a large insurance (broker or company)network with little or no painful business integration and could be assimilated in the existing business corporate Internet structure on a transitional basis with little or no disruption to current processes. The cyber network would create hundreds of links during any assimilation which by its very process would create and pass enough page rank to compete with all those comparison sites that buy links. Very powerful stuff. It would also give a rapid ROI as many of these cybernetworks dominate the niche insurance products cyber markets and search engines.
There are currently equally, about 20 of these insurance cyber networks out there. You can easily come across their websites everywhere in all Insurance Internet niches. In many places they are managing the complete online lead generation for individual insurance companies and brokers. They are easily recognisable from their generic or keyword domain names and are often managed by small teams of so called Webmasters.
So got any ideas whose after who?
We believe we can narrow it down to possibly three candidates for the honeypot simply by looking at who dominates the google query for 'insurance directories' and niche products keyword searches.....as for the wolf...hmm we'll keep you posted if we hear anything but there are some very predatory broker networks and companies out there at the moment... so expect some big announcements soon!
Realising that Moneysupermarket and the other Insurance comparison websites that dominate the search engines front pages for keyword searches like 'Car Insurance' each spend over £5 million each week in Adwords and other PPC advertising perhaps £5 million for one of these internet website networks is small beer in the bigger scheme of things.
Even more worrying, especially for the niche players and the public is if the likes of MoneySupermarket.com or one of the other insurance comparison sites who retain their search engine postitions by buying lnks, see £5m as a very cheap investment indeed.
Isn't agglomeration a wonderful thing. Did you use to collect football cards when you were a kid?
Hi all you SEO experts out there - I hear you're all making millions. Today I thought I'd share a secret or two with you about SEO for Insurance as a little thank you for helping to get this site to the top of Yah and Gog in a couple of months - without trying!.
1. It most definitely is about the domain name - you are what you say you are which is what people want and search for!
2. Out of the 200+ variables that google assigns to and then translates into a canonical value for a given node (webpage) and then runs its multivariate algos over to determine SERPS automatically - domain name can carry as much weight as title tag especially if it is natural language!
3. Domain name + great original content + natural linkage + refreshing content = Sucess which is deemed to be White Hat
4. Time - aged domain names over 5 years old and unused are immediately trusted by the SE's - and rightly so as the investment has been long term!
5. Insurance domain names are white hot property at this current moment as canny investors adjust their long term investment plans, and they are changing hands rapidly as the smaller investors cash in to the aggregators and long term big boys. Expect 7 figures plus for exceptional collections and even a modest long established site in the financial sector will fetch £50K+. Buying a green or brownfield website/domain name gives instant SE ranking with short term ROI and long term ambitions!
It might not be to everybody's taste but viral marketing has been one of the major success stories on the Internet. Insurance companies with their massive marketing budgets have been slow to catch on and rely on multi-million pound campaigns featuring nodding dogs and flying pigs to get their brand across. Hurrah for youtube.com and step forward mortgage protection company Personal Accident for grabbing the initiative with the following silly - but very watchable, if not PC ad for hazardous sports accident insurance.
Whether you think its crap or not, it demonstrates the viral capabilities of video, accessible to everyone from their mobile phones and more importantly, while all the big budget insurance players are wasting their money on TV ads and trying to get to the top of search engines, they've missed the point that more people visit myspace.com and youtube.com than visit Google these days.
Social marketing is becoming more important daily and those pioneers will grab a large share of the personal recommendation market.
Insurance Blog is dedicated to all things happening in the Insurance World. From tips on where to get the best insurance deals to news from the Insurance Industry, you'll find answers at Insurance Blog
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Name: Insurance Blogger
Location: United Kingdom
Insurance Internet Guru
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