Building A Reputation On Shifting Sands: Marketing Insurance To Disruptive Sectors

From wearables to BitCoin, the disruptive technologies shaking up traditional sectors present a wealth of exciting opportunities for specialist B2B insurers, and a unique problem.

Insurance has always been alive to new market opportunities. The same giants that once insured whaling ships out of Nantucket Island now insure tech unicorns out of Silicon Valley. With their unique ability to gauge complex emerging risks, specialist firms are perfectly positioned to cater to the new global markets being sparked by technology, yet they face a twofold marketing challenge:

• With disruptive businesses moving as fast as Uber’s market valuation, how can insurers spark a connection with buyers whose risks are changing daily?

• What’s more, as competitors eye the same lucrative hotspots, how can any one brand stand out as the go-to insurer for a fast-growing new sector?

Not only is this dual challenge difficult, it’s vital that it’s overcome. For those insurers engaged in a price war in their traditional markets, growth may need to come from entirely new areas.

So how can B2B insurance marketers effectively stake their brand’s claim on these fast-shifting sands?

Hit on the perfect idea

From adtech to fintech, finding a sweet spot amongst new markets is about understanding the problems a particular niche faces better than their own leaders do.

The tech revolution has sparked legions of great companies fronted by some of the world’s most exciting thinkers, but the size and age of these firms can lead to a lack of mainstream experience around regulations, risks, and legal processes. In addition, the sheer speed some firms move at can see awareness of risks slipping down the list of priorities. All of which adds up to an opportunity for specialist insurers to illustrate their value by highlighting a challenge on the horizon.

It’s about finding a compelling story that promotes the problem that your brand is uniquely placed to solve. Effectively marketing insurance products require bold new ideas based on genuine audience insights; claiming the white spaces that are up for grabs by hitting on issues that will resonate.

Armed with just such an idea, marketers can grab their chosen new market’s attention, and demonstrate their expertise by making the idea synonymous with the brand. Which is where integrated communications come in.

Do one thing brilliantly

With so many potential opportunities to mine, and so many channels to communicate through, there’s a strong temptation to cover all bases. But our experience across emerging B2B markets at Man Bites Dog has found the opposite strategy to be most effective. One truly brilliant idea, evidenced with robust research and perfectly activated is worth a hundred isolated pieces of content.

This kind of bold, ideas-led approach to marketing does not mean neglecting important channels – any channel that is genuinely effective can be included in the mix. It simply means aligning all communications under one central theme, or umbrella concept. That way a campaign can become greater than the sum of its parts and the brand can stand for something.

Pick your moment

Many of the insurance markets opening up in new industries face unfamiliar and sometimes unquantifiable threats. As these sectors begin to overtake some of the traditional industries that foreshadowed them, insurers have an opportunity to build a reputation as specialists who understand these complexities.

Finding the perfect idea is a matter of exploring the cross-section between new market opportunity, white space, brand alignment and buyers’ pain points. The perfect moment may be dictated by who can come up with the best idea first. Find out more about how to develop these ideas in our ebook No Idea? The Marketer’s Guide to Generating Ideas that Sell.

Vicky Welstead, Account Director

[email protected]

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