As consumers increasingly shop online for insurance, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, they are often confused by the options and overwhelmed by well-meaning yet ill-timed marketing messages. Marketers are just as challenged with reaching these consumers at the right time with the right message.

To better understand the questions both consumers and marketers face, Jornaya took a closer look at the insurance shopping journeys in auto, home and health. As a witness to the majority of third-party insurance lead events online, our company—Jornaya—set out to provide a more comprehensive view of the consumer and their needs. Our technology, which resides on sites where consumers request quotes, organizes behavioral data associated with the consumer buying journey.

Before approaching a prospect or customer, it is critical to understand what the consumer already knows they need so you can advise them on those solutions—as well as ones they may not be thinking about. It’s also important that you understand where the consumer is in the journey for each product of interest. Each consumer is different and should be treated as such. If they’re early in their journey, the information they seek is different from a consumer who is prepared to buy a policy.

Actionable data about your customers’ shopping journeys will help insurance marketers find and appropriately engage with customers. Here are four highlights from our research:

1) The journey begins much earlier, and the shopping activities are a lot more frequent than when prospects raise their hand. Our data shows that 46% of consumers were active in the Jornaya Network, shopping for health insurance before a brand asked about the lead. We witnessed the first health insurance shopping event on average 72 days before the request for a quote.

2) Life insurance shopping activity starts early in the customer journey, and increases well beyond the lead event. When we look at the data by gender, women show a slightly greater number of interactions than men throughout the customer journey. On average, consumers interacted with an online lead form just under two times before the lead event.

3) Most shopping activity occurs on a mobile device. This is true across age groups, and only the 65 and over group showed meaningfully lower mobile activity, at still significantly higher proportions than other devices. Taking a mobile-first approach is essential for insurance marketers.

4) In auto insurance shopping, millennials have fewer online interactions than baby boomers. However, the journey for each age group continues after the lead event—approximately 30 days—which reinforces the need to nurture these consumers with relevant engagement.

Data insights like these allow for timely engagement and focused, targeted messaging. Top carriers are leveraging partnerships with data-as-a-service (DaaS) companies to gain the right insight. By leveraging alternative and unique data sets, carriers are able to learn more about consumers and create sophisticated experiences that are appreciated.

DaaS companies organize and provide access to your customers’ and prospects’ shopping journey behaviors and preferences enabling smarter and safer interactions. Marketers are then able to optimize timing and messaging by leveraging the consumers’ preferred method of communication.

Every marketer’s objective should be to fully understand an individual consumer’s journey to maintain relevant and timely engagement throughout that journey.

Jeff Piotrowski is senior director of insurance, Jornaya.