Not surprisingly the same three insurance marketing issues that we believed critical to pay full attention to in 2001 will remain equally relevant for 2011.

Put simply they are: Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning.

In a nutshell:

1) Segmentation = defining your market place
2) Targeting = profiling your ideal customer
3) Positioning = building awareness of the benefits of your specialist capability with your ideal customers

Defining your target market as an Insurance provider is still critical to your success. Did you know that despite £36 Billion now spent globally every year on web marketing that the average sales conversion rate is just 2%. That is the same conversion rate as direct marketing (e.g. sending out letters and flyers to Prospects).

Let's call our approach Target Marketing although we could also name it Niche Marketing, Scheme Marketing, Database Marketing or Precision Marketing as they all describe similar processes.

TM has been around since mailing lists were first created. It is not the latest trend but we think will still be the fastest and most profitable means of growth for the majority of insurance providers in the next decade. This is because market research continues to say that business insurance buyers respond best to marketing approaches from firms that offer them specialist knowledge.

However many Brokers, and most Insurers, still believe in the myth that keeping the door open to everyone increases sales more than restricting effort to target customers.

They have developed positioning statements to cover as many bases as possible that can be paraphrased as "We arrange competitive comprehensive protection including Property, Liability and Motor for businesses like yours."

Nothing wrong with that except it says little about whom they serve, how they will serve and fails to define any clear benefits of working with them. Prospects who are unclear and confused about what you will be able to do for them will just say no to your involvement.

Despite what others tell you there is no one magic formula for improving insurance sales. Instead Target Marketing is a continuous process of building sufficient awareness to cause your Prospects to compare your services against their incumbent supplier.