The proliferation of multi-channel solutions and platforms may have created a wealth of opportunities for businesses to communicate directly with consumers, but as a direct result, the amount of data they hold, has risen to startling levels.
As businesses grow and expand their services across these multiple channels, the amount of data they collect increases too. It's an organic part of business growth. However, this data is typically located in silos across the business, in multiple databases and in a variety of different formats.
Collating all of this data together and then using it to deliver a valuable service is therefore a big challenge, especially for insurance brands wanting to target specific groups of customers from a certain demographic, with specific requirements, at a particular time, through a particular channel.
Big Data is therefore a major obstacle, shared by an increasing number of businesses, which restricts the ability to offer the high-level of targeted customer service many customers have come to expect.
Without the proper systems in place to capture, curate, store, search, share, analyse and visualise their vast amounts of data, insurance companies cannot segment their customers into targetable data sets.
Cloud Data Management is a huge step forward, and offers information management and integration of vast amounts of data - in its original format.
For insurers, who hold a large amount of sensitive personal information, this is vitally important. The cloud provides them with the ability to integrate and manage an unlimited amount of data.
Even extremely large databases, consistently changing data sets, recipient-independent data, product-catalogues and extensive customer purchase histories can be effortlessly uploaded directly into the data cloud.
Insurance brands have a cumbersome proposition. Detailed contracts, policies and a variety of different products - from life and health insurance to home and travel insurance - means greater research and understanding are needed before purchase. As a result the gap between the point of decision (POD) and the point of sale (POS) is far greater.
Email marketing and multi-channel integration, particularly with mobile and social media, play a vital role in breaking down these barriers.
When it comes to communicating with consumers, it is paramount that insurers demonstrate a high level of understanding about their customer's needs and wants at an individual level.
Populating databases and gathering this insight is crucial to achieving this, so insurance companies need to make sure that they have the systems in place to analyse and store a high volume of demographical and behavioural data.
These tools can then be used to automatically generate messages that are highly personalised, precisely targeted and detail rich, which can then be delivered to millions of customers in a matter of minutes.
Cloud Data Management is whole new way to structure, connect and access data, which can dramatically change the way information is used for digital marketing campaigns. What's more, it allows companies to greatly increase storage options with virtually no limit.
By having extensive customer data at your fingertips, stored in configurable data sets, insurers can create precise customer selections and implement the integration of highly detailed, relevant information across all communications incredibly smoothly.
The insurance sector is an extremely competitive marketplace, with customers all too often relying on the best price as their decisive factor. By using cloud technology, insurance firms can put themselves at the very cutting edge of online communications, allowing them to have meaningful conversations with their customers and prospects, differentiating themselves from competitors.
It is this cut through that will give customers the added value they are looking for, and thus putting your brand front of mind and top of the list.
Simon Bowker is managing director at eCircle UK
