Marketing an insurance brokerage against comparison sites

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

A customer types their details into a comparison site, sees forty results ranked by price, and buys the cheapest. A broker cannot win that comparison and should not attempt to, because the entire mechanism is designed to reduce the decision to one number.

What the comparison cannot do is establish whether the cover fits, ask the questions that reveal an exposure, or be present when a claim is disputed. Brokers who compete on price in a market built for price comparison lose steadily; those who compete where comparison sites cannot operate do considerably better. The decision is which market you are in, not how hard you try in the one you have.

1. Marketing an insurance brokerage against comparison sites means changing the ground

Do not fight on their terms.

Price comparison works for simple, standardised risks and works badly for anything requiring judgement. Concentrating on the second category is not a retreat but a recognition of where a broker has a genuine advantage.

2. Concentrate on complexity

Where advice has value.

Commercial risks, unusual property, businesses with several activities, non-standard histories and anything a form cannot capture. Customers with a complication have usually tried a comparison site already and found it could not process their situation.

3. Lead with the claim, not the premium

The moment the product is tested.

Who they speak to, who argues on their behalf, and what happens when a claim is disputed. This is the difference the customer will actually experience, and it is invisible in a price comparison.

4. Explain what cheap policies exclude

Specific rather than general warnings.

Excesses, exclusions, conditions, and the situations where a policy will not respond. A customer who understands what they are not buying can make a real comparison, and this is precisely the information a comparison site does not surface.

5. Use your commercial book properly

The most defensible part of the business.

Business insurance requires judgement, annual review and someone who understands the operation. It is also harder to disintermediate, which makes it worth more attention than a personal lines book under permanent price pressure.

6. Build professional referral relationships

Where good commercial enquiries originate.

Accountants, solicitors, property agents and trade associations encounter businesses with insurance needs constantly. These relationships take years and they produce enquiries that never appear on a comparison site.

7. Make renewal a conversation

Retention is the whole economics of broking.

An automatic renewal notice invites a customer to shop around; a call reviewing what has changed demonstrates the value and frequently identifies additional needs. This is the highest-return activity in a brokerage and it is routinely automated away.

8. Be visible locally and personally

The advantage a platform cannot copy.

A named person, an address, a telephone number answered by somebody who knows the account. For many customers, particularly business ones, this is the entire reason to use a broker at all.

9. Keep every claim of this kind compliant

A regulated activity throughout.

Financial promotions, comparisons with competitors and statements about cover are governed by rules in most jurisdictions. Confirm what applies before publishing marketing material, and make sure anybody writing it knows.

Ask commercial clients what they were worried about before they placed the business with you. The answers are almost always about understanding their risk and being supported at a claim, which tells you exactly what your material should be about rather than what it usually contains.

Conclusion

Compete where price comparison cannot operate rather than on the ground it was built for.

Concentrate on complex risks that a form cannot capture, lead with what happens at a claim, explain specifically what cheaper policies exclude, prioritise the commercial book as the more defensible business, build referral relationships with accountants and solicitors, treat renewal as a conversation rather than an automated notice, use the personal and local presence a platform cannot copy, keep all of it within your regulator's rules on financial promotions, and ask clients what actually concerned them before they chose you.