How P&C insurers can do better holiday gifting this year
C-suite executives believe that gift-giving generates a positive return on investment. But a true gift isn't self-promotional.
This time of year, P&C insurers are thinking about how they can show their appreciation to customers.
I am the founder of Packed with Purpose, a corporate gifting company with a social mission. Here are some common questions I receive about what makes the most effective gifting strategies, along with my answers.
Question: How do insurers typically handle holiday gifting?
Answer: Typically, insurance providers send holiday gifts to their clients and partners as a way of thanking them for their business during the year. The gifts are predictable: tins of flavored popcorn, branded mugs, boxes of chocolate. While these traditional gifts achieve the work of saying thank you. In this way, they miss an opportunity to strengthen and deepen insurers’ relationships with clients and partners.
Question: How can P&C insurers use holiday gifting more strategically?
Answer: One way is to avoid sending gifts that have your own logo on them. A true gift isn’t self-promotional. If you do send a branded item, like a beer Koozie or a luggage tag, try putting your client’s logo on it instead. Better yet, leave the logos off altogether.
To take that a step further, insurers can choose to not give material gifts at all. Research from the University of Toronto shows that recipients think experiential gifts improve relationships better than material gifts. So consider getting your clients or partners tickets to a concert (if they like music) or a gift certificate to a restaurant in their area (if they’re into food).
If you’re set on giving traditional, material gifts, consider buying a product made by a socially conscious enterprise. For example, chocolate-covered espresso beans from Women’s Bean Project, which employs chronically under-employed women, will make a stronger impression than your classic chocolate gift box. After all, study after study shows that people expect businesses to have a conscience.
That’s particularly true for millennials, who now make up 35% of the workforce and are approaching their 40s. This means they’re likely in decision-making roles at many of your client companies. The 2019 Deloitte Global Millennial Survey found that millennials’ opinions on businesses are getting more negative every year, “in part due to views that businesses focus solely on their own agendas rather than considering the consequences for society.”
It’s not hard to find nice gifts made by socially conscious organizations. There are hundreds to choose from online!
Question: What do you say to executives who presume this will drive up the cost of gift-giving?
Answer: On the one hand, they’re right: corporate gifting isn’t cheap. In the U.S. alone, it’s a $16 billion market. But if insurers are going to spend that money anyway, wouldn’t they rather do it in a way that’s actually impactful?
On the other hand, if you consider the value of your clients’ business, the amount spent on gifts is relatively small. For example, spending $100 on a gift for a family practitioner who spends $10,000 on their malpractice premium is a no-brainer.
But there’s an even more important consideration here. Gifts are most effective when brokers view them as part of a larger marketing and communications program. Every gift should be sent with the intention of producing a business outcome. For example, you can include a card that thanks the client for their business this year and asks for a time to talk about their plans for the coming year. Or thank them for a recent referral. This will keep you top of mind as other potential referrals come their way.
Gifts are a communication tool. They’re the perfect opportunity to spur a conversation that might not have otherwise happened. During that conversation, you have the chance to get to know your client better and deepen your relationship.
The gift, therefore, becomes one of the most cost-effective tools available to grow your business: that small investment buys you an opportunity to talk about your clients’ future plans when they’re feeling warmly toward you.
Question: Is the winter holiday season the only time insurers can use gifting to their advantage?
Answer: No. There are opportunities all year long.
Insurers can use gifting to their advantage on the anniversary of when a high-value customer signed his or her initial contract. Contract signing happens all year round. I mentioned thank-you gifts for referrals above. You can use gifts to thank clients for any number of things. And insurers that host events and conferences often use gifting as a way of thanking keynote speakers.
It may seem counter-intuitive, but in some ways, gifting can actually be more impactful in January (or, really, any month besides December). Think about it: during the holidays, people are inundated with client gifts. Your clients may struggle to remember who gave them what, particularly if most of the gifts look the same. Then there’s the problem that people take time off during the holidays, meaning your gift may not even achieve the goal of keeping you top of mind.
In January, gifts dry up, but workers are back in the office, meaning they’re more likely to notice what you send. For example, if you have a client who buys professional liability insurance from you, sending them a thoughtful thank-you gift in January, along with a note wishing them well for the new year, may be more impactful than sending a branded notebook right before Christmas. Then, in a follow-up conversation, you can talk about your working relationship and the contract for the coming year.
Question: What else should gift-givers know?
Answer: Corporate gifting research shows that while 83% of C-suite executives believe that gift-giving generates positive ROI and has intangible benefits, only 32% of people feel confident in choosing the right gift for clients and business partners. To increase your confidence, focus not only on the gift itself but the gift as part of your larger client management strategy: what, how, and when can you give to bolster the relationships that matter most? Answer that question, and your gifts will have significant impact.
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