# Marketing a product nobody wants to think about: overcoming low engagement
Ask a homeowner to name their car insurer. Most can. Ask them the last time they spoke to that insurer, and you get a blank stare. For millions of policyholders, the relationship with their insurer is a single annual event: the renewal notice. The rest of the year, the insurer effectively does not exist.
This is the core marketing problem in insurance. You are selling a promise about a future misfortune (a crash, a fire, a death) that customers actively do not want to imagine. Engagement is low by design, because thinking about your product means thinking about something bad.
Your job is to build salience (how easily your brand comes to mind at the moment of decision) without triggering the anxiety that makes people avoid the category altogether.
Three forces work against you.
It is a "grudge purchase." People buy insurance because they must (a lender or regulator requires it) or because dread pushes them to. Nobody feels joy handing over a premium.
The product is invisible. Unlike a phone or a coffee, there is no daily object to reinforce the brand. The policy sits in a drawer or an inbox.
Success looks like nothing. If a customer never claims, they experience a year of paying for something that "did nothing." The best outcome for the insurer (no claim) feels like the worst value to the customer.
This creates the renewal cliff: engagement spikes for a few days around renewal, then falls to zero. Marketing that only shows up at renewal is fighting on price at the worst possible moment.
The winning insurers stop marketing the policy and start marketing the feeling of being handled. The product is not the coverage document. It is confidence.
Concrete example: instead of "Comprehensive auto coverage from $X per month," a message like "If you break down at 2am, one tap and we are on the way" sells the moment of relief, not the contract.
This reframe matters because fear-based messaging often backfires. Behavioural research on threat appeals shows that when you scare people without giving them an easy, immediate action, they cope by avoiding the message entirely. A useful primer is the Extended Parallel Process Model, which explains why "threat plus low efficacy" leads to denial rather than action.
Rule of thumb: every time you raise a risk, pair it with a simple, doable step. Never leave the customer holding the fear alone.
The goal is to spread engagement across the calendar so your brand is already familiar (and trusted) before renewal arrives. Think of this as designing a touchpoint calendar, a planned sequence of low-friction, useful contacts.
Send things customers actually want to open.
None of these mention price. Each builds the "you are handled" feeling.
Tie contact to the customer's life, not your billing cycle.
Most insurers treat claims as a cost centre. In marketing terms, a claim is the one time the customer finally sees the product work. A smooth, fast, human claim experience is the single most powerful piece of marketing you own, because it converts a stranger into an advocate at their most emotional moment.
The reverse is also true: a painful claim creates a lifelong detractor who tells everyone.
You want to be remembered without being feared. Some practical guardrails.
Lead with control, not catastrophe. "Here is how to stay covered on your trip" beats "Accidents abroad can cost thousands."
Use specificity to reduce vagueness. Vague risk is scarier than concrete risk. "Water damage is our most common home claim, and here are three ways to prevent it" is reassuring because it is actionable.
Normalise the product. Show ordinary people, ordinary moments. Insurance marketing that feels light and human (many well-known campaigns use mascots or gentle humour) works precisely because it lowers the dread of the category.
Match the channel to the emotion. Price and admin can go by email or app. Anything touching loss, health, or death deserves a warmer channel and a human option.
🎬 [VIDEO: "The Science of Fear Appeals in Advertising" — youtube.com — a clear explainer on why scaring your audience often reduces action, with marketing examples]
Salience grows through repetition, but only if each contact is welcome. The pattern to aim for is a simple loop:
1. Trigger: a relevant, real-world moment (a storm forecast, a renewal, a life event).
2. Action: one easy step the customer can take (tap to check cover, download a checklist).
3. Reward: a small feeling of being safer or smarter.
Every completed loop makes the next contact more likely to be opened. Over a year, you move from "the company I pay once" to "the company that looks out for me."
Beware the anti-pattern: contact that is all trigger and no reward (constant upsell emails) trains customers to ignore you, which is worse than silence.
Knowledge check
1. According to the lesson, what is the core marketing challenge unique to insurance?
2. The lesson defines 'salience' as the goal of insurance marketing. What does salience mean in this context?
3. Why does the 'renewal cliff' make price-based competition especially disadvantageous for insurers?
4. Select ALL correct answers. Which forces does the lesson identify as making insurance engagement structurally low?
Select all the correct answers.
5. Select ALL correct answers. The lesson recommends reframing insurance marketing from 'product' to 'peace of mind.' Which statements reflect this reframe?
Select all the correct answers.
Opens and clicks are easy to count and easy to fool yourself with. In a low-engagement category, tie marketing to outcomes that predict retention and lifetime valuelifetime valueLifetime Value: the total revenue (or profit) a customer generates throughout their entire relationship with your business.View full definition →.
Metrics worth tracking:
A caution on data: insurance touchpoints often involve sensitive information (health, home, family). Whatever engagement you build must respect privacy rules in your market and honour consent. Trust is the entire product. One creepy, over-personalised message can undo a year of goodwill.
When designing any insurance campaign, run it through four questions:
1. Does it raise a fear? If yes, does it also give an easy action? (No orphan fear.)
2. Is it useful even to someone who never claims? If not, it will feel like a bill.
3. Does it tie to the customer's calendar or ours? Prefer theirs.
4. Would a real person be glad to receive this? If you hesitate, cut it.
This keeps you on the right side of the line between "present and trusted" and "annoying and avoided."