Marketing your niche in specialty insurance

Specialty insurance marketers operate in a highly complex and crowded market. Financial Promoter hears from two of the largest players in the sector to find out how to make brands stand out.

Specialty insurance refers to bespoke and specific policies for individuals, small businesses, or large corporations.

The term can range from consumables, such as high-value artwork and large shipping containers, to the coverage of developing and launching a rocket into space.

The global specialty insurance market was valued at $104.7bn in 2021 and is projected to reach $279bn by 2031, according to Allied Market Research.

Despite its expansive nature, it is highly complex and nuanced, meaning a marketer needs to find a niche that also speaks to a broad potential client base.

The insurance industry itself is going through a period of high-volume merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, meaning large, global brands with the cash behind them are closing in on the market.

Cara McFadyen (MCIM CMktr) joined Gallagher in 2020, launching sub-brand Gallagher Specialty in 2023. She is now the marketing director at Gallagher Specialty.

“The business had existed for years but didn’t have a distinct visual identity to help explain the proposition, which caused confusion about our role within the wider business.

“It was a massive vote of confidence from our global brand team as allowing a change like that can set a tricky precedent.”

With the big brands grappling for wallet share, marketers must find a way to distinguish their brand among competition.

McFadyen predicts not all the current players will endure.

The task at hand

Every marketer knows that identifying a target audience is crucial to success.

Specialty insurance marketers are in the niche position of primarily marketing to brokers, rather than individuals or other insurers.

However, marketing to brokers – who have a specific pathway to building partnerships – is not an easy task.

“Specialty insurance is a 350-year old industry built on relationships,” she says. “I’ve seen some of the older guys do deals on the back of napkins in the pub.”

A marketer’s job is to layer the modern principles of marketing on top of years of relationships and, fundamentally, ensure it is still profitable, she adds.

“Often, marketing is there to solve problems generating business. When there isn’t a problem to solve, that then causes a lack of interest of what the discipline is and what it can do for the business.”

Broking businesses subsequently see marketing as a cost centre, rather than something that can add benefit, and it’s this challenge that keeps McFadyen interested and motivated, she says.

Lynn Harris , global brand leader and head of insurance marketing & communications at AXIS (AXIS Capital) , tells Financial Promoter that a continual dialogue between marketing and other arms of the business is pivotal to success.

To read the full article, click here.