AardvarkCompare.com

Jonathan Breeze

Insurtechs are currently spreading like wildfire throughout the financial world, with new startups offering consumers a wide array of options for managing their insurance. However, this also means that insurtechs find it increasingly difficult to stand out in a saturated field. So what can these startups do to achieve the right type of growth?

In a market crowded with false promises and quick schemes, the real driving force of a great insurtech business is the trust it has with its customers. Getting people to love what you do is likely the greatest challenge you’ll face as a business leader, yet it’s the inflection point between lagging behind the pack and leading the industry as a visionary in your field.

Finding the trust threshold

Financial services require a high degree of trust in order to operate, much less be successful. No customer is going to bother with an insurtech they don’t trust – it’s their money, after all. They’ll simply go elsewhere if they’re wary of your service.

Each client has a unique trust threshold; meeting this bar is essential to gaining new business. Some clients are harder to cater to than others, depending on how much of your trust they require. For example, senior citizens are typically more reticent to adopt any new financial service because they aren’t able to take the same risks that a young person would.

Some companies take advantage of this risk aversion – or the lack thereof. Lemonade, for example, caters to younger time-poor renters who don’t require the same level of trust as seniors. Because their expenses are lower (no families or mortgages), they can more easily recover from financial disaster, and are therefore more likely to need a different strategy compared to a baby boomer.

Start-ups should aim for lower trust thresholds to create more rapid growth and attract a long-term customer base. Building this level of success in the physical domain requires a variety of strategies, but the most effective methods always return to trust. Word of mouth and reviews in the physical word build your presence, while consistent, reliable content digitally shows your knowledge as an insurtech expert.

“Establishing trust often comes last in a start-up business plan. Hiring, marketing, and branding often come before what ends up being the most crucial aspect of your long-term business strategy”

Increasing domain authority

Creating great content in the digital space replicates the effects of good word-of-mouth in the physical world. By establishing your authority as an expert, you create a deeper level of trust with your audience. Publications that recognize your level of knowledge will write about you, lending their authority to yours.

Furthermore, don’t overlook the value of search engine optimization (SEO) in creating growth. It’s not just about driving visitors to your site: When your content ranks highly in Google or Bing, your reputation as an industry voice grows. It’s similar to the growth of trust in the physical world; the more that is written about (or by) you from trustworthy organizations, the greater the shared results.

What startups always miss

Establishing trust often comes last in a start-up business plan. Hiring, marketing, and branding often come before what ends up being the most crucial aspect of your long-term business strategy

It’s a mistake to put off building trust – even for an earlystage start-up. Because it takes time to build trust in both the real and digital world, you should start immediately – even if you don’t think you’re ready.

Any project you embark on should be written about and published, either in real-time or comprehensively at the project’s end. By disseminating content early on, you build a foundation of knowledge that easily turns into trust as your company expands.

The outdated MBA method of building, testing, releasing, and only then telling the world doesn’t work in a global business environment. What’s more, if you’ve been working on something for a certain amount of days, weeks, or months and haven’t started building your online presence, you’ve passed up countless opportunities to create new trust through greater content. Starting as early as possible avoids these errors and keeps your company on a fast track toward success.

Finding a niche market

Few selling points attract investors better than a niche market. When you have 100 customers who truly love you and your product, you’re in a better place to scale and grow than if you have 1000 customers who merely like you.

Your content strategy lends itself well to understanding who is reading your work – and also why. Content that creates engagement with customers – spurring comments and discussion – helps you identify exactly who your ideal customer base is. Your most popular content acts as a blueprint, helping you shape your exact product to build trust with your consumer base.

This is the real advantage of building trust early on. By highlighting a particular issue a subset of your market faces, you can build your company around helping customers overcome this specific problem. Extrapolating on your chosen issue leads to a bigger market – and bigger growth.

Customers don’t realize they have a problem until you help guide them to the solution. By asking yourself which products you can build that your customers will love, you’ll build a path toward the right solutions. From there, it’s all about building trust with your base, then maintaining that reliance all the way toward your insurtech business’ success. Start with a bit of trust and love, then watch as your insurtech soars above the competition.