Quest for Personal Lines Begins Anew

Three out of four consumers do research online before buying insurance. That’s up from 61% just a few years ago. Are your consumers finding you online?

The independent agency distribution channel faces challenges today not just from traditional competitors but from structural changes to the insurance industry marketplace. Digital marketing is no longer just a good idea, it is an essential part of doing business when (according to ComScore) close to 75% of consumers go online before buying insurance. Concepts such as search engine optimization and being liked on Facebook have replaced traditional marketing models in both importance and effectiveness in building a book.

The challenge for the independent agency channel is seen most clearly in its personal lines market share, which sagged from 35.9% in 2005 to 34.3% in 2009. Regaining market share is vital to the future of the independent agency channel since every point of personal lines market share equals approximately $2.8 billion in net premium, based on A.M. Best Co. data.

Personal lines represents a huge market. Personal auto alone now constitutes approximately one-third of the entire property-casualty pie.

One percentage point of market share in personal lines is now worth approximately $2.8 billion in net premium. Independent agents need to team up to “get that point” and recapture market share. That single point also adds up to $300 million in annual agency commissions.

The Big “I” is leading a sustained, concentrated effort to support independent agents
in their collective effort to recapture market share in personal lines. This effort includes implementing a digital marketing strategy to help agents reach today’s consumers in the places they are researching and shopping for personal lines coverage.

“The Big ‘I’ understands that the status quo in personal lines is not acceptable for independent agencies,” says Bob Rusbuldt, Big “I” president & CEO. “We must do business the way consumers want to do business. We are leaving a lot of good business on the table because consumers cannot find independent agencies online.”

As the New Year begins, this effort is coming to fruition and is poised for implementation. Through a new initiative known as Project CAP, Big “I” member agents in 2012 will be able to access:

Scheduled for initial rollout in early 2012, a new Industry Services website (www.ProjectCAP.info) provides digital marketing services for independent agencies as well as carriers. It will be an internal industry Web solution for agencies to gain access to digital marketing tools, business intelligence, training, systems and services they need to build their brands and enhance their online presence.

From introductory self-instruction offerings to advanced outsourced services done by professionals, each element of Project CAP’s digital marketing solutions will help agencies develop marketing strategies that compete effectively in local online markets while reinforcing national brand values.

Project CAP’s Industry Services digital marketing programs also will prepare participating agencies to manage prospect relationships generated through the new Consumer Portal once it is active later in 2012.

Together with the Consumer Portal, the unparalleled resources available to agencies and carriers will help drive Project CAP’s “national strategy of marketing locally” for the independent agency channel.

Independent agents can sign up now for a wide range of digital marketing training, products and services at www.ProjectCAP.info.

Endorsed by IIABA and Trusted Choice®, Project CAP agency marketing programs feature a full set of tools, technologies, strategies and tactics agents can apply immediately to increase their digital marketing expertise and dominate their target markets.

Choices range from a basic, do-it-yourself digital marketing package offered at no additional charge to IIABA agencies, to comprehensive website development and digital marketing programs that include a full suite of professional services for additional cost.

Given the diversity of experience and knowledge among independent agencies, Project CAP has designed a range of digital marketing packages to fit the broad range of agencies—no matter how they are currently using digital marketing. The menu includes:

Pricing varies by package. Contact Project CAP directly for information, including the latest in carrier-sponsored agency programs.

Agencies do not need to participate in Project CAP agency digital marketing programs in order to participate in Project CAP’s Consumer Portal. However, those agencies that employ the digital marketing services provided through Project CAP’s Industry Services will be better prepared to manage portal leads and better equipped to generate greater online marketing results on their own. Additionally, insights and data gleaned from the Consumer Portal will give agencies that use Project CAP’s digital marketing services an edge.

Project CAP also is offering insurance carriers a range of business intelligence services.

Even if agencies are not ready to participate at this point, they can sign up for regular program updates and announcements at the Industry Services website or www.ProjectCAP.info.

Industry buzz already surrounds the fact that Project CAP has been researching and developing a national Web portal. This Consumer Portal is slated to launch in July 2012. Designed and built by some of the best minds in both the insurance industry and Internet marketing, this new website will address the insurance customer’s collective desire for knowledge, choice and comprehensive service.

While some other online options may also offer consumer research and rate comparisons, none present the unique combination of benefits that will be available in the Consumer Portal. The portal will provide consumers with the capability to select an independent agent who will advocate on their behalf, to evaluate dozens of insurance companies and products, and to buy insurance from an agent.

Grounded in the strategy and spirit of Trusted Choice®, this unique consumer resource will allow participating IIABA agencies to gain exclusive, real-time access to consumer leads, inquiries and activity.

The basic resources and services of Project CAP’s two powerful initiatives will be available at no additional charge to members of IIABA and Trusted Choice®. Agencies can choose from a range of enhanced digital marketing offerings and professional services for an additional cost.

With professional and financial support from a number of national and regional carriers, Big “I” association leaders created a new entity to champion agents’ cause and advance visibility with today’s consumers. Now it’s your turn. Join the cause—to “get the point.” Project CAP’s national strategy of marketing locally is designed with independent agents in mind, to help them sustain and grow their business in personal lines.

Visit www.ProjectCAP.info and learn more about the initiative. Together, independent agents and IIABA can raise a collective voice, elevate the independent agency channel and recapture a share of personal lines.

Rick Morgan (rick@Aartrijk.com) is senior vice president of Aartrijk.

At Project CAP, we want to put independent agents front and center in the digital space—so consumers can find them and benefit from their expertise, product choice and advocacy.

The nature of the independent agency channel has actually worked against its collective strength as the consumer has turned to the digital environment to shop and buy insurance. The channel has not collectively leveraged its strength in numbers in market positioning, media or messaging. And it has not delivered digital impact in proportion to our collective potential. Project CAP aims to change all that. We are helping agencies join forces to achieve:

Independent agents offer a sustainable, attractive value to consumers. The channel is the only online insurance shopping choice that provides:

More than a marketing initiative, Project CAP will inform, inspire and empower agents, carrier leaders and IIABA association leaders. We align and leverage the collective strengths of the independent agency distribution channel to compete more effectively against the direct writers and captive agent carriers. Project CAP is the industry cause to regain personal lines market share.

By participating, you will help yourself, help your fellow agents all over the country, and help the IA channel sustain and thrive for the future.

We’ve designed Project CAP to unify and elevate our independent agency channel’s collective standing within the insurance industry and, more importantly, with consumers.

I invite you as an independent agent to imagine how much more profitable your business would be if you were more visible and active where consumers are now looking for insurance information and products. Imagine an environment where independent agents are growing their personal lines premium at a significant rate, and contributing to a growth in market share nationally. Imagine business flowing to your agency rather than out of the community.

We at Project CAP stand ready to help independent agents not only imagine but create these results in the near future. Please visit www.ProjectCAP.info to learn more.

The name “Project CAP” is derived from the original, singular vision of the Big “I” when it first began this effort in 2009: a Consumer Portal. Those involved in developing the portal shortened the moniker to the acronym “CAP,” and this abbreviation remains a part of the project name today. The entity created by the Big “I” as a separate company to acquire funding was established as Consumer Agent Portal, LLC.

Notably, six visionary independent carriers teamed with IIABA to provide the initial investment capital to fund Project CAP.

They are:

As the leadership team explored ways to develop the portal, it soon became clear that more help could and should be offered to agencies. Market research, industry feedback and agent requests soon compelled the leadership team to expand development to include digital marketing tools, training and services for independent agents to tap and implement. CAP expanded to include agent-focused and carrier-focused digital marketing services.

The Project CAP name is likely to be a temporary one. Going forward, Project CAP plans to identify and adopt a name more appropriate to the broad spectrum of services it provides.

The management and staff of Consumer Agent Portal, LLC, is headquartered in Minneapolis. Additional information may be found at www.ProjectCAP.info.

—R.M.

We are at a pivotal time in the history of the independent agency channel in personal lines insurance.
Starting in 2012, Big “I” member agencies have a new opportunity to work together to create a more favorable, dynamic and productive business environment for all independent agents.

I call upon my fellow agents throughout the United States—and insurance carriers that use independent agency distribution—to take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity.

IIABA, key insurance carriers, Trusted Choice® and state associations have created Project CAP—an industry initiative with the vision and resources to recapture and expand the independent agent’s share of the personal lines insurance market.

Project CAP is a catalyst for agencies and a way for every agent to participate in a national strategy of marketing locally. Project CAP’s purpose is to regain and increase personal lines market share by promoting the independent agency channel’s unique value proposition online to consumers on a national and local level. In short, Project CAP is leading our most important cause as independent agencies.

All of us among Big “I” leadership—your executive committee, national association leadership and state association leaders from around the country—invite you to join this cause and help tilt the competitive playing field of personal lines insurance back in our favor. This is our market, and it’s our time to highlight our value proposition more broadly and more forcefully in the digital environment.

The strategy of Project CAP is simple: Help agencies and carriers leverage digital marketing, and help consumers find and connect with agencies like yours. To execute that strategy, Project CAP is introducing training products, tools and services through a new Industry Services Website for independent agencies and insurance carriers, and a new Consumer Portal for online insurance consumers.

This program can positively shape our future as individual producers and business owners, and amplify the value we provide our customers greatly. Project CAP offers solutions that help individual agents, who in turn help the overall independent agent channel, which then in turn helps individual agents. It’s a virtuous cycle.