Insurance broker white paper provides food for thought

The specialist insurance marketing team at Lancashire-based Catapult PR has published a white paper that shows UK insurance brokers should put concerted effort behind building greater awareness of their role, service value and access to insurance products, if they wish to secure more client business and grow.

Catapult PR’s independent research findings also demonstrate that insurance brokers should be actively communicating service value, and access to insurance products, if they wish to secure more client business and grow.

Furthermore, they need to work hard to shift customer perceptions. One in ten UK consumers believe insurance brokers are ‘outdated’ in our modern digital world.

‘What UK Consumers Think About Insurance Brokers’ is a white paper based on independently commissioned research, organised by specialist research company Censuswide.

It discovered a sizeable percentage of respondents have insufficient knowledge of brokers to comment on their viewpoints of broking (22 per cent). Fourteen per cent believe brokers add cost but no value. Eleven per cent of people openly admit they do not know what brokers do.

The white paper offers many more insights into how insurance brokers are perceived, both in general and in different areas of the UK. It demonstrates the challenge insurance brokers face in making insurance provision through a brokerage relevant to younger generations.

Suggestions about messaging that could assist with broker marketing and client acquisition are provided by the Catapult PR insurance marketing specialists. The survey pinpointed key areas on which brokers can work, to help guide customers through the pitfalls that can emerge within non-personalised insurance provision. This has been part one of the Catapult team’s focus.

Part two of the white paper homes in on a ranking of factors that would actively encourage consumers to use an insurance broker. Beyond more obvious answers relating to better value for money, and having the reassurance of having the right cover, were the following. Personal/face-to-face service; a good reputation built up by the brokerage, a belief in the brokerage as an expert, and better explanations of products/provision of online resources.  

Catapult PR suggests how brokers can utilise this knowledge, to communicate with potential customers and also attain all-important expert positioning through thought leadership.

Managing director at the Poulton-le-Fyde firm Jane Hunt said: “Brokers typically make too many assumptions about prospective clients and their knowledge of working with a brokerage. Many also head down the wrong marketing routes, underestimating the importance of building awareness, trust and an expert voice.  These factors have always been important but now dovetail with exactly what AI-drive search wishes to see, whether that is Google or an AI bot.  All search is now looking for signs of authority and unique insights.

“Insurance brokers are currently at risk of falling out of view, because they are not focusing on the right strategy.  They often lack considered messaging that can both speak to, and connect with, the average client.  It is rare for them to focus on external brand-building through PR, so as to become an expert voice.  They also usually overlook the importance of online material that educates both the consumer and the AI search tools.  

“Our white paper seeks to support insurance brokers, by helping them get inside the head of their prospective clients, to attain a clear view of those to whom they are marketing.  With the marketing advice we also offer within the white paper, we have sought to guide both broker thinking and marketing efforts and help brokers move forward more productively and visibly.”

‘What UK Consumers Think About Insurance Brokers’ is available for download at the Catapult PR website at https://www.catapultpr.co.uk/brokerWP