Lifestyle websites offer direct insurers a valuable customer acquisition tool.
With insurance offered at almost every doorstep, from financial sites to high profile search engines, direct insurers need to reform their sales strategies and establish themselves on the Internet.
Lifestyle sites are proving a successful way of doing this. The frontrunner of this strategy is AA Insurance, which offers its insurance product through the AA website. The site offers a range of motor and travel information, from directions and traffic to pub and restaurant recommendations. As customers become used to visiting the site for information, the probability of them buying insurance increases.
The strategy is now popular. In August 2000, Direct Line launched www.jamjar.com, a motoring site that offers users the opportunity to buy new and used automobiles online. The site also offers a variety of services like those on the AA site, such as traffic information and directions. Heavy marketing that accompanied the launch enabled www.jamjar.com to generate GBP1 million in its first week of operation. Eagle Star also has plans to attract customers through lifestyle sites, such as www.teacher.co.uk. It is currently modeling this site with plans to launch by the end of 2000, with a series of others to follow.
These companies have already established themselves as both information providers and insurance providers, and will target a larger audience than those that lag behind. Most players in the direct general insurance industry have not yet differentiated themselves from their competitors. Lifestyle sites offer a great opportunity for them to do so.
