By  Ikeoye Oyetoro

Insurance brokers have been advised to embrace contemporary social marketing strategies in order to increase their bottom line and relevance

The advice was given by a South Africa frontline Social Marketing and Business coach, Mr John Horak during the visit by delegation of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) to South Africa recently.

According to Horak, insurance clients all over the world have become more sophisticated and demanding, necessitating the need for operators to be ingenious in their marketing strategies.

Identifying marketing as the core concern of insurance brokers, Horak noted that most huge investments made on prospecting for clients had usually yielded low returns because such strategies  were not tailor_ made for the needs of the clients.
“Companies that are desirous of doing well in their marketing endeavours must now begin to embrace the plethora of social marketing avenues available on the web”.

He specifically identified the face book, blog, twitter and other IT interactional devices as avenues for marketing insurance to a large clientele, without expending huge budgets.

Also sharing his thoughts on branding, Horak opined that insurance brokers should not only brand themselves but also their services; “ You have to be prepared to be known and identified with a course and wave your flag constantly in order to stand out in the ocean of global competitors”.

In his presentation, the Chief Executive Officer of Metropolitan Life, South Africa, Mr Peter Doyle disclosed that the company had about 10million clientele base with capitalisation of about N210 billion and underscored the pivotal roles of insurance brokers who contribute about 60% to the business of the company.

While asserting that there were various challenges confronting the operators, Doyle said that the potentials for growth were still tremendous for resourceful brokers  in the continent.

Responding, the President of the NCRIB Dr Teslim Sanusi disclosed that the business trip by the Council  to South Africa, after a similar visit to United Kingdom, was  meant to appraise members with the changing trends in insurance business in that country, reputed to have made phenomenal growth in insurance operation.

He assured that the NCRIB will continue to sustain contacts with operators in the continent for the mutual benefits of the various bodies and the growth of insurance broking profession in Nigeria