Google exec: Online life insurance has great future

Speaking at LIMRA’s Marketing and Research Conference in Boston last month, Payton Dobbs, manager of Google’s Financial Services Online Sales, said that online users are expected to double in the next decade, including those looking for life insurance.

“Consumers have moved from simply researching, to buying and now virtually living online,” said Dobbs. “This is the perfect opportunity for the life insurance industry to capture this audience.”

“In conjunction with Harris Interactive, Google has found that 43 percent of potential customers are shopping for life insurance online and with the rapid adoption of mobile technology, the opportunities are limitless,” he said.

Dobbs advised the audience of life insurance professionals on the three keys to online success: you must be found online; you must provide relevant information and you must be accountable, making sure that customers have easy access to the information they need.

Dobbs also discussed specific strategies to drive business, such as using analytic tools, targeting messaging with embedded links to drive prospects deeper into your website, and adding click-to-call phone numbers at every step to make it easy for consumers to finish the transaction.

Dobbs challenged his audience with the question: “There are 10 million online life insurance consumers, how will you win this market?”