Amazonification has changed insurance marketing

Amazon seems inescapable these days. From receiving groceries through Amazon Fresh to buying last-minute birthday gifts, I’m repeatedly blown away by the ease, convenience and speed of securing what I need. I also now look for Amazon-like conveniences from other services. When I can’t find them, I wonder:

Where are the consumer reviews?

Why can’t I easily compare this product to other similar ones?

Why doesn’t my information automatically populate at checkout?

These widespread shifts in consumer expectations touch practically every industry amid an increasingly complex marketing ecosystem. In a 2024 Harvard Business Review Analytic Services survey of executives involved in marketing decisions, 77% of respondents said their organization faces “some” or “a lot of” complexity in its marketing ecosystem.

These pressures have likely been heightened by “Amazonification” and insurance marketers are not immune. The ability to quickly compare prices and features has become a cornerstone to how consumers shop for insurance, and “parallel products” have less stickiness as consumers have become more open to shopping around for the best deal. In response, consumer targeting has had to become more personalized to meet individuals where they are in their insurance journey.

Fintech startups have entered the field with agility and have quickly become competitive with legacy brands. For example, digitally based insurer Lemonade has taken efficiency to an extreme for its Generation Z audience base, boasting that consumers can file a claim and receive their payout in just three minutes, while prospective consumers can get a quote for a new package in 90 seconds. In an added dimension of Lemonade’s “Amazonfication,” consumer reviews carousel across the insurer’s home page. This frictionless user experience helped grow the insurer’s revenue 281% between 2019 and 2022.

Legacy brands, however, can come with complex legacy ecosystems that can make it challenging to nimbly serve the consumer. A surprising, streamlined tactic is emerging to reset their competitive edge: direct mail.

An inflection point for insurance

The more fintech and other brands target audiences through digital channels, the more overwhelmed consumers become by everything competing for their attention on screen. In 2023, the average person saw 10,000 display ads online each day.

This digital-content burnout has made the mailbox a safe space. In a 2024 Direct Mail Marketing Benchmark Report, 45% of consumers indicated mail is less overwhelming than other marketing. Further, 54% of consumers will keep an interesting piece of mail to refer back to later, and 52% will search the brand name and visit the website for a relevant mail piece. As of 2024, 84% of marketers agree direct mail provides the highest ROI of any channel they use.

Next gen: Tech-infused direct mail

If the data points above surprise you, your idea of direct mail may be outdated. It’s widely assumed that print-driven “snail mail” tactics continue to be the same old postcards and flyers they’ve always been. That’s not the case. Today’s mailers are tricked out with all sorts of features and capabilities to drive action, measure results and create personalized touchpoints:

• Deep insights for authentic connections
  Data analytics are commonly associated with digital targeting, but its uses aren’t limited to the internet. At Quad, our core dataset features 260 million consumers, mapped to a resilient identifier: a physical home address coupled with additional data and contextual insights that can be activated across any media channel.
• Direct mail optimization
  Testing for direct mail has always existed. A decade ago, marketers lived through the tedium and drawn-out timetables of sending out a mailer, waiting weeks for results to come in, making an adjustment, and sending out a new round. Today, tools such as Accelerated Marketing Insights empower rapid testing of different direct-mail approaches to optimize them before any postage is paid for.
• Trackable responses
  Marketers can now use technological tools within direct mail to make it frictionless for consumers to take the next step and facilitate an offline-to-online connection. Flowcode is a unique QR code solution that tailors direct mail to individual customers by enabling marketers to send consumers to personalized digital content. Marketers can also gather customer data and correlate scanning actions with conversion rates.

Direct mail: A non-negotiable campaign element for insurance brands

“Amazonification” has transformed consumer expectations and changed how they shop for insurance. This has heightened the challenge for insurance marketers, but direct mail is seeing a resurgence as a star performer for marketing. It offers legacy insurance brands a way to make authentic connections with consumers and regain a competitive edge. Always a mainstay of integrated campaigns, insurance brands would be wise to seize the moment to update, enrich, and prioritize their direct mail.

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Erin Slater is head of strategy-financial services with Quad. Contact her at [email protected].