Singapore’s insurance market has largely remained traditional, even in the digital era. But as online research starts to play a bigger role in people’s paths to purchase, insurance providers that break the norm by investing in digital are more likely to capture (and convert) new customers. Here, Marcus Chew, Income’s chief marketing officer, shares how having an experimental mindset can help insurance providers show up for consumers throughout their purchase journeys.
People buy insurance to protect their families, futures, and homes — everything that matters most in life. Trust plays a huge role in their journey toward purchasing insurance, and Singaporeans have traditionally been more comfortable taking this leap of faith in-person with a financial advisor.
On the other hand, online research is quickly becoming a central part of consumers’ paths to purchase, even if they end up buying insurance offline. Since 60% of Singaporean consumers now discover products on a website or app, we saw an opportunity to make Income’s digital experiences even more helpful and relevant for our customers. In 2018, we started working with Happy Marketer, a Google Marketing Platform Partner, to bring the personalized approach of a financial advisor online. By tailoring our digital campaign to each consumer’s unique needs, we were able to ease concerns about buying policies on our website and increase the click-through rate (CTR) of our ads by 92%.
Here’s how we created customized digital experiences for our consumers to increase online sales:
Second time’s the charm: reconnecting with high-intent shoppers
Digital touchpoints signal how close people are to converting, so we used Analytics 360 to get a better idea of how people engage with us online. We hypothesized that consumers who spent only a few minutes on our website or simply skimmed through product pages weren’t set on buying insurance. But people who frequented our website and spent a lot of time researching policies and comparing prices were probably serious about signing up — and more likely to convert the second time around.
We decided to focus on reconnecting with these high-intent consumers for our 2018 campaign. With Analytics 360, we were able to break down this audience into more than 200 groups based on the way they discovered our website and where they began their purchase journeys. People who found our website by searching specifically for our brand were directed to our homepage, while those who discovered us through generic or product-specific searches like “travel insurance” were guided to relevant promotional pages. We exported these audience lists to Display & Video 360, which we then used to serve ads tailored to different consumer interests and purchase journeys.
For example, we were able to personalize our upper-funnel creative for parents in the following manner:
We then followed up with different messages based on consumers’ varying levels of intent. People who started to fill out a quote saw how quick and easy it was to buy online, while those who left items in their cart without making a purchase were shown convenient options for completing the process.
Increasing engagement with personalization
The next piece of the puzzle was figuring out why high-intent consumers change their minds at the last second before converting. Singaporeans are value-driven shoppers who like to compare product offerings. As such, we had a hunch that price sensitivity was the likely cause for second thoughts. To reassure consumers before they made a purchase, we used Optimize 360 to show them personalized discounts on our website’s landing page.
Our standard homepage at the time showcased all our products in tiles. For high-intent, price-sensitive customers, we switched things up by featuring a limited-time discount on each tile to encourage action.
By using this combination of integrated tools, we were able to seamlessly execute a tailored experience on our website on a single platform.
Customized digital experiences spur action
Our performance metrics from 2017 and 2018 showed that a little personalization made a big difference. Our CTR jumped 92%, while our cost-per-acquisition (CPA) was cut in half. Sales increased by 12%, and our customized digital experiences are continuing to help Singaporeans find and buy the insurance policies they need quickly and easily.
Featuring tailored discounts on our homepage ended up being a win-win for us and our consumers. They saved money on their insurance premiums while we boosted our earnings. And today, we serve personalized, dynamic landing pages to everyone who revisits our website.
We understand that finding the perfect insurance policy can be overwhelming. By providing more customized and relevant digital experiences, we’re making sure our customers know that we’re in their corner — just like we’ve always been.
