Brokers’ greatest strength is the advice they give their customers. But, sometimes, explaining the complexities of insurance cover can be a tricky task.
That’s why Hollard Insure, the short-term insurance division of Hollard, has created #InsuranceTips, a popular ongoing series of articles, graphics, animations and related social media content that assists brokers to get their customers’ heads around difficult insurance concepts. Each instalment also encourages clients to speak to their broker.
“As important as formulating the right insurance cover for individual clients, is the need for those clients to understand exactly what they’re buying. There’s really nothing worse for the reputation of the insurance industry than people discovering, come claim time, that their cover was inadequate and that they hadn’t grasped what it entailed,” says Adel Kriel, head of marketing for Hollard Insure.
“Insurance brokers play a vital role in providing policyholders with important advice and information, but sometimes this can be a difficult job. For example, how does one simply and clearly explain the concept of average and the implications of being underinsured? Or what the insurance consequences are of having a smart home? Or how to properly insure the property of a university-going child?”
The #InsuranceTips series has to date addressed homes, roofs, thatched roofs, smart homes, art and collectables, lightning, geysers, accident cover, students, All Risks cover, drones, guesthouses and – in support of Hollard’s #LongLiveTheBroker campaign – the broker advantage. And there’s a lot more still to come.
#InsuranceTips articles are illustrated using, easy-to-follow graphics, sub-graphics and animations, which assist brokers in easily explaining the ins and outs of insurance to their clients. The content is propagated via e-newsletters, on the Hollard Insure Twitter feed and LinkedIn showcase page, as well as on the Hollard corporate Facebook page, driving users to the series on the Hollard website.
“The real beauty of #InsuranceTips is that we’ve designed them to be insurer-agnostic. In other words, they are not Hollard-branded and any intermediary – whether they do business with Hollard or not – is free to use the #InsuranceTips series to add value to their clients,” adds Kriel.
“Not including Hollard’s branding was an important decision for us. Because our business model is broker-focused, we felt that what’s good for intermediaries as a whole, as well as the insurance industry, is good for us, too.
“This same thinking applies to Hollard Insure’s #LongLiveTheBroker campaign. We know that supporting brokers to do what they do best helps us to achieve the win-win-win for brokers, their clients and, of course, us.”
To date, the #InsuranceTips series has enjoyed remarkable engagement. The articles have been viewed hundreds of times each, for a total of over 6 200 views, and the social media posts have enjoyed strong engagement – including scores of views, likes and shares. The latter is particularly interesting, given that relatively few brokers currently use social media for work purposes.
“Over and above the numbers, which are of course important, is the positive reaction we’ve had to the #InsuranceTips series. Brokers, even those with whom we don’t work, have taken the time to contact us and say ‘thank you’ for initiating the series,” says Kriel.
“That says clearly to us that we’re achieving our #InsuranceTips objectives, and it encourages us to continue. And we will – there’s so much still to cover, that we won’t be running out of content ideas anytime soon.”
- To access all of the #InsuranceTips content free of charge, and to subscribe to the e-newsletter, please visit the series page on the Hollard website
