Customer experience (CX) has risen to a new level of importance in the insurance industry. Sure, customers still value price — but it’s not the only consideration. They also want a brand that builds trust and shows they care about their customers.

In fact, a recent study by Accenture found that 46% of insurance respondents are "Quality Seekers.” These customers value superior service, automated transactions and personalization. That means you should invest in service-based communications — think about sending location-based alerts about severe weather or crime in the customer’s area. It also means you need to give your customers the technology they expect, like digital claim filing, user-friendly mobile apps and other useful resources.

Take a look at this infographic to see why customer experience matters to the insurance industry — now more than ever.

Most utility companies are focused on improving their customer experience, enhancing their brand reputation and establishing themselves as thought leaders. Researchscape reports that the majority of consumers expect their utility to provide them with personalized advice. Educational content can be a useful technique to engage customers on a myriad of topics.

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has been in use since the late 1990s. Although always a fascinating topic, it never amounted to much more than discussion. Today, we are in the midst of the AI boom. So why now? The short answer is the exponential growth of cheap, fast, scalable and interconnected computing and storage in the cloud. The horsepower and data to efficiently run AI algorithms is now with reach of everyone.

AI has been embedded across almost every product category in marketing technology. Most big data platforms, such as IBM Watson, are simple general-purpose technologies being harnessed in the service of marketing. It’s much more interesting to look at products like Equals 3 which leverages Watson behind the scenes to deliver marketing research, customer segmentation and media planning services. Products like these can help marketers create multichannel campaigns specifically tailored to their target audience by using data collection. Knowing what exactly artificial intelligence can offer is important. Here is a list of ten tools that AI can offer digital marketers to help automate and improve their marketing strategies.

Customer loyalty can be fickle, as only 28% of customers loyal to brands, according to research from Accenture. As a result, marketers are left anxiously fretting over customers’ actions or inactions.

Today’s average customer has high expectations of businesses. People are no longer loyal to brands simply because they have a history with certain products or services. Customers remain loyal despite the many other brands clamoring for their attention because a company has created strategies that build long-term relationships, promptly respond to customers’ needs and desires and also generate multi-touchpoint engagement measures with content marketing.

Customer loyalty is nurtured by increased positive engagement with a brand.

Email marketing automation has become a competitive necessity for many organizations. While still not in use among all categories, marketers that have adapted email marketing automation report great success. This blog post will explain email marketing automation, describe its benefits and explore some ways that email marketing automation can be used to improve marketing response and conversion in different kinds of organizations.

Modern insurance marketing strategies can encompass a wide variety of choices in terms of channels, tactics and technologies. When you’re looking to create just the right mix under tight budget constraints, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

And to be fair, the insurance industry itself has experienced big shifts over the past decade, including many significant macroeconomic, social and regulatory changes.

Here is how marketers can make insurance marketing campaigns both interesting and competitive to overcome some of their greatest challenges. 

With the growing number of messages people receive today — online and offline — the importance of delivering a message that resonates with the user has never been more important. Creating a personalized message that creates a connection is critical, and with the increasing amount of data available to marketers, personalization options have only expanded. Personalization needs to be incorporated into all marketing, shopping and service experiences. In many of his presentations on personalization, J&C's CEO Ron Jacobs has referenced the 4 R’s of personalization from Accenture and discussed how they are key ingredients in connecting with prospects and customers. This blog explores these 4 key components of personalization and how you can use them to better connect with your customers.

Customer-centric content is key for developing a positive relationship with your target audience.

After all, everyone is looking for new ways to increase efficiency, improve results and make regular responsibilities easier. Different types of content marketing help your audience achieve their goals more than others. Content formats like checklists and templates are easy-to-use tools that help your customer, which means you remain top of mind later when they may be in the market to buy or engage.

If seeing is believing, then it only follows that visuals play a vital role in communication. That’s especially true as you decide on what types content marketing you are going to include in your content marketing strategy.

Personalization in communications is not new. Direct marketers have used it in direct mail since the first computers and printers were used for marketing in the mid-twentieth century. Today, variable data printing technologies mean that marketers can personalize every word of a direct mail package, from outer envelope to letter, brochure and response device. Email marketers have had the same option since email’s first day.

Today, personalized email or direct mail communications don’t seem optional. Yet many marketers that use personalization often report poor results. So, what has held personalization back?