5 Tips for Tackling the Insurance Industry's Biggest Marketing Challenges

The insurance industry is its seventh year of a soft market and as the economy struggles to recover, insurance company chief marketing officers (CMOs) -- and CFOs -- are looking for big-impact tools to help weather the storm. Marketers are exploring emerging technologies and platforms that can help. Below are five insurance company challenges and the solutions that a digital marketing management platform can provide.

[Marketing and IT are becoming more intertwined in many insurance organizations. Read: Insurance CIOs Embrace Their Role as Marketers]

1. Feed the funnel and keep acquisition costs low.

Customer loyalty has declined and the competition for high-quality new customers is fierce. With price competition and comparison shopping on the rise, how can you capture prospects at their most receptive moments? How can you cost efficiently identify and target potential customers who are undergoing demographic shifts and life events, from first cars to first kids?

Solution: Rapid retargeting of prospects is a proven method for increasing new customer acquisitions. If you combine rapid retargeting with a dynamic approach to pricing bids, you can increase new customer acquisition while remaining efficient with your marketing spend.

2. Increase cross-sell opportunities.

Customers who buy more than one product from their insurer are typically retained 2.5 times longer than single-product customers. Cross-selling is essential, but how do you match the right product offer to the right customer to drive conversions?

Solution: A platform with automated decisioning capabilities can match the right product with the right impression to drive cross-sell rates. Current customers can be served creative for a product they don't have yet, and new prospects can be shown the product closest to their interests.

3. Get brand lift from digital campaigns.

Insurance marketers are tasked with driving full-funnel marketing, and building brand awareness and perception is a critical element in feeding the funnel. But without real-time insight and optimization, insurance marketers are using a rearview mirror to evaluate the effectiveness of branding campaigns.

Solution: An integrated marketing platform can run highly effective brand perception campaigns across digital channels by using in-ad surveys that help you find the most receptive audiences in real time.

4. Get your customers to "like" you.

The demographic of insurance customers is skewing younger, and people of all ages are becoming more tech savvy, making social media more important than ever. Social outlets offer invaluable ways to increase positive interaction with customers and build more touch points in between annual billing interactions, but how do you link social to the rest of your media plan?

Solution: Use a marketing software platform that offers an omni-channel solution that links display, video, mobile and Facebook in a single interface.

5. Make the most of your data.

Insurers have been using data effectively long before the so-called Big Data revolution. But the rising volume, variety and velocity of data are stressing insurers' systems. How do you store your data in a way that makes it usable in today's real-time bidding environment?

Solution: Platforms that combine data and execution capabilities can help you get the most out of your data. Look for a technology platform that can onboard all of your data and incorporate it seamlessly into your digital marketing plan.

Jon Malenfant is Senior Director, Financial Services Lead, at DataXu, an integrated digital marketing management platform for the global enterprise. He oversees the company's efforts in aligning its solutions to the marketing needs of financial services and insurance brands.