The automotive culture in the United States has made auto insurance a necessary part of American life for many. Now, it seems that more people are turning to the internet to look for discounted rates, something online marketers may want to consider when looking for a captive audience.
According to new research from comScore, more people are heading to insurance company websites and aggregator sites to get quotes for their auto insurance. During the fourth quarter of 2010, 724,000 quotes were submitted to visitors of these sites.
Susan Kleinman, director at comScore, says such sites are now producing 8 percent of online quotes, a number that is expected to continue to grow.
“The online auto insurance market has been dominated by only a handful of insurers over the past few years, with GEICO and Progressive comprising over 50 percent of all quotes submitted online,” said comScore director Susan Kleinman. “But as more consumers look to the internet to shop for insurance policies, there is an opportunity for more insurers to break into the online market.”
Despite this increase in online presence from insurance companies, online marketers in the industry seem to be behind the curve. In an interview with eMarketer earlier this year, Michael Costonis, manager of insurance practice at Accenture North America, said the insurance industry was trailing even the banking sector, which he described as “behind the rest of the world in terms of online sophistication of marketing.”
