Direct Line pet insurance

DIGITAL MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN

KINGSTON UNIVERSITY
DIGITIAL COMMUNICATIONS & ANALYTICS
Executive Summary
This is a digital marketing communication plan for Direct Line pet insurance. Currently, Direct Line is
struggling to convert people into consumers and need new strategies to captivate people into their
brand. In this document digital marketing plans are made to help Direct Line in obtaining a larger
audience, this is done by dissecting the internal and external properties of the pet insurance industry.
This document includes an analysis of customer attitudes towards pet insurance, a SWOT table, an
analysis of unique selling points offered by the competitors in the industry, the suggestion of smart
race objectives, new strategies, a pen profile, and also a campaign schedule with KPI’s all in the
ambition to help Direct Line’s pet insurance business grow. Marketing techniques such as SEO and
SMM are recommended for Direct Line’s pet insurance brand because they are some of the most
effective ways of obtaining conversions. A further analysis into what social media Direct Line should
use for SMM and the tools they should use for SEO are explained later in this document along with
suggestions regarding the implementation of these techniques.

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Contents

1. Situation analysis...............................................................................................................................3
1.1 Customer Analysis.......................................................................................................................3
1.2 Competitors.................................................................................................................................3
1.3 Market Trends..............................................................................................................................3
1.4. SWOT.........................................................................................................................................4
2. Objectives..........................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Objective 1..................................................................................................................................4
2.2 Objective Analysis.......................................................................................................................4
2.3 Objective 2..................................................................................................................................5
2.4 Objective Analysis.......................................................................................................................5
3. Strategy.............................................................................................................................................5
3.1 Segmentation...............................................................................................................................5
3.2 Positioning...................................................................................................................................5
3.3 Pen Profile...................................................................................................................................6
4. Tactics................................................................................................................................................6
4.1 Social Media Marketing (SMM)..................................................................................................7
4.2 Implementation............................................................................................................................7
4.3 Example of Daily Instagram Posts...............................................................................................8
4.4 Example of Biweekly Facebook Posts.........................................................................................8
4.5 Search engine optimization (SEO)...............................................................................................9
4.6 Implementation............................................................................................................................9
5. Action and Control..........................................................................................................................10
5.1 Campaign Schedule...................................................................................................................10
5.2 KPI’s..........................................................................................................................................10
References...........................................................................................................................................11

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1. Situation analysis
1.1 Customer Analysis
As of 2022, 62 percent of all households in the UK own a pet, this equates to 34 million pets in the
country (Clur, 2023), regardless of this as of 2021 only 42 percent of all pet owners in the UK have
pet insurance (Mintel, 2022). This suggests only nearly half of pet owners in the UK find value in
owning pet insurance while the rest do not and there is evidence to suggest why not all customers
have pet insurance. In 2023, 63 percent of all pet owners in Britain were interviewed and admitted
they would not be able to afford to take care of their pets if they applied for pet insurance due to the
UK’s cost-of-living crisis (Harrison, 2023).
The ‘cost of living crisis’ refers to the increased price of living essentials adjusted because of inflation
(Hourston, 2023). 53 percent of all pet owners in the UK admit the cost-of-living crisis has made them
reconsider protecting their pet with insurance in an attempt to reduce their cash output and 10 percent
of all pet owners in the UK admit they do not have a pet insurance policy due to the cost-of-living
crisis (Harrison, 2023). This suggests internally the UK’s pet insurance industry is not at fault for the
majority of pet owners not owning a pet insurance licence, but external properties are.
An advantage Direct Line does have is being one of England’s leading car insurers. This is important
because they can directly refer consumers from their car insurance straight to their pet insurance, this
sets a strong foundation for effective referral programs to be created. Consumers that were with Direct
Line prior to the pet insurance are likely to have trust already built with the brand which is important.
53 percent of all consumers state having trust with a brand is a valuable and essential relationship they
want before purchasing a product, service, or experience (Kushmaro, 2021).
1.2 Competitors
In the UK as of 2022 Petplan is the leading brand for pet insurance with a total of 27.3 percent gross
written premium (Research and markets, 2022), Red Sands is the second largest pet insurance brand,
Pinnacle Insurance becoming third and Direct Line being forth (Mintel, 2022). Regardless of the steep
competition, there is potential for Direct Line to become the leading brand for pet insurance due to the
large audience they can advertise to those that do not have a pet insurance licence.
In terms of unique selling points (USP’s), Petplan have a various amount whereas Direct Line do not.
USP’s are features that distinguish a product from its competitors (Deland, 2022), an insufficient
amount of USP’s can lead customers astray to another brand. Petplan offers physical and online
consultations, diagnostic tests, prescription medicine, surgery, and specialised care, and more
(Petplan, 2023) when Direct Line’s only notable USP is PawSquad; an online vet service (Direct Line,
2023). Direct Line not providing enough USP’s for their pet insurance not only could deter potential
customers from getting a licence, but could also influence existing consumers that are currently with
Direct Line’s pet insurance to search for another pet insurer such as Petplan.
1.3 Market Trends
In terms of market, there is information to suggest the pet insurance industry in the UK is growing
inadequately. The pet insurance industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of at least 6 percent during
2021-2026 (GlobalData, 2022) when typically, an industry should be expected to grow at a CAGR of
at least 8 percent (Shark Finesse, 2021). A CAGR is the annual growth rate of an investment over a
certain number of years (Martin, 2022). The pet industry having a low CAGR suggests the
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investments made by companies within the industry are likely yield a return that could be seen as
inadequate to sustaining their business and thus leading to risks. A SWOT table will be displayed
summarising the strengths, weaknesses Direct Line have and the opportunities and threats that could
appear.

1.4. SWOT

Strengths Weaknesses

- Direct Line is already known as a reputable

brand.
-Direct Line have a limited amount of USP’s.
- Pre-existing customers that have Direct
Line’s car insurance will have trust within
their pet insurance.

Opportunities Threats

- 62 percent of all households in the UK own

a pet which means there is a large audience
for Direct Line to appeal to (Clur, 2023).
- Only 42 percent of pet owners have pet
insurance which gives Direct Line a
lucrative chance to advertise to people that
are not with a pet insurance brand (Mintel,
2022).
- The pet insurance industry in the UK is
expected to grow at CAGR of at least 6 percent
(GlobalData, 2022) when it should be growing
at least 8 percent; this suggests a risk of loss of
investment (Shark Finesse, 2021).

2. Objectives
2.1 Objective 1
Achieve a 35 percent growth in the amount of new policyholders within the span of one year by
offering new USP’s to customers that sign-up to acquire a pet insurance policy via Direct Line’s
online website. This will be achieved by aiming for the website to have at least 30 policies browsed
per day for the whole year, a newsletter sign-up and social media following increase of 20 percent in
the year and an increase of 10 percent of customers who use the brands referral company in the year
as well.
2.2 Objective Analysis
Direct Line’s pet insurance brand is currently suffering from a low amount of USP’s. To solve this
issue new incentives should be included with obtaining a Direct Line pet insurance licence. As
Petplan is the leading pet insurance brand in the UK and are owners of a multitude of USP’s, Direct
Line should host various polls and questionnaires online in an attempt to investigate what USP’s
customers would want to see from a pet insurance brand that is not currently done. Excluding this,

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Direct Line should create incentives such as pet training, referral programs and special bundles as a
baseline in an attempt to give their insurance more value.
Regarding the time of the objective, it is suggested an average business grows between 15 to 45
percent every year (Baremetrics, n.d.); the mean of the two percentages being 30. Direct Line should
strive to grow their number of new policyholders by 35 percent instead of the average 30 as they have
the advantage of already owning one of the largest car insurance brands in the UK, this suggests a
large opening for customers to join via referral. Referrals are also claimed as one the most effective
marketing methods with 60 percent of all marketers stating that referrals generate a high volume of
leads (Efti, 2019). The aim to increase website visits is also trying to be achieved as it is suggested
that customers spend more of their time browsing online websites compared to offline stores (Chiu, et
al, 2019), and research was found that 51 percent of all customers spend more of their money online
compared to offline stores too (Whistl, 2018).
2.3 Objective 2
Achieve a pet insurance policy retention or increase of at least 90 percent within the span of one year
by making pet insurance policies more affordable and offering personalised renewal offers via Direct
Line’s website. This will be achieved by aiming to increase the customers retrieved by referral
programs by 20 percent, increase the usage of customer discount coupons by 30 percent and give
customers that sign-up to Direct Line’s pet insurance a 5 percent depreciation on their plan every year
if they choose to either maintain or obtain a better plan.
2.4 Objective Analysis
As of 2022, 20 percent of all pet owners plan on switching to a cheaper policy within 12 months
(Mintel, 2022), this suggests that the remaining 80 percent do not though. Aiming to give pet
insurance owners an incentive to at least keep their current licence instead of getting a cheaper one,
and aim to increase the amount of customers that either maintain or obtain better policies from 80 to
90 percent will not only directly lead to Direct Line experiencing an increase in their total revenue,
but it will also satisfy customers that want additional benefits with their licences. The aim to increase
the customers received from referral programs is implemented as it is one of the most influential
techniques to convert potential customers to customers (Efti, 2019).

3. Strategy
3.1 Segmentation
Families, specifically parents should be the primary target for Direct Line, in the UK during 2022
dogs and cats were the most common household pets in that year, with an estimated 13 million dogs
and 12 million cats living in homes (Statista Research Department, 2022). In 2012, research was
conducted, and it was found that 29 percent of all families in the UK owned a dog in their household
which was only second to 38 percent of all families not owning any pets at all (Statista Research
Department, 2021). Families having the likely chance to at least own one pet suggests that Direct Line
have a prime opportunity to advertise their insurance policies towards them. Sky News (2013) related
research about British families and their relationships with the animals they owned, this research was
conducted by Ancestry.co.uk (n.d.). The research found that 90 percent of all pet owners thought of
their pets as part of the family. Nearly one third of families in the UK own a pet which also means
there potential for one third of all families in the UK to convert into Direct Line insurance policy
holders.
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3.2 Positioning
Direct Line should strive to become the best pet insurance brand for all families in the UK. As of
2022, in the UK Petplan is the leading pet insurance brand (Mintel, 2022), but there is an opportunity
not taken by the brand that can be taken by Direct Line instead. Petplan position themselves as “the
UK's favourite pet insurance provider” (Petplan, 2023). As the word “family” is not mentioned in
Petplans positioning, Direct Line can take advantage of this and claim themselves as “the UK’s
favourite pet insurance for families.” Though Petplan is currently the generally favoured brand out of
the two, if Direct Line took the approach to advertise towards families’ parents could be incentivised
to purchase their pet insurance policies from Direct Line instead of Petplan for the fact Direct Line
specifically positioned themselves to incentivise towards them. A pen profile of the ideal Direct Line
pet insurance customer will now be illustrated.
3.3 Pen Profile

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4. Tactics
4.1 Social Media Marketing (SMM)
It is ideal for Direct Line to use SMM to help accomplish the first objective. This tactic was selected
because of the substantial potential of reach SMM can provide. Dublino (2023) states that in the 2023
“Social Media Marketing Industry Report”, 86 percent of marketers said that their SMM gave more
exposure to their businesses, 76 percent found it increased traffic, 64 percent offered that it generated
leads, 56 percent felt that it developed loyal fans and 55 percent said that it had improved sales.
4.2 Implementation
It is essential for Direct Line to implement interactive activities such as polls and questionnaires for
their audience on their social media pages, especially Instagram and Facebook. The reason Instagram
should be chosen as one of Direct Line’s primary social media pages is because Instagram is the
platform that succeeds in obtaining the most conversions for interaction when compared to other
social media platforms. In 2020, Instagram accounted for 67 percent of the 290 billion social media
interactions, this included reactions, comments, shares, retweets, and likes on brand-owned content;
these are the best conversions for interaction out of all social media platforms (Lauron, 2023).
Though Instagram is the leading social media for interaction, it generally has a young audience. Dixon
(2019) conducted research and found out that Facebook had more users for people aged 35 to 44
compared to Instagram by 3.7 percent, more users for people aged 45 to 54 by 3.2 percent and more
users for people aged 55 and over by 3 percent. As the key demographic suggested for Direct Line’s
pet insurance are people aged from 25 to 70; the average of the two numbers being 47 to 48, it is
essential for Direct Line to also make Facebook one of their primary social media when creating
interactive posts because this is where the majority of the demographic will be.
In terms of content, either interesting animal facts, benefits of having a Direct Line pet insurance
licence, limited-time deals or 5-star rated customer experiences should be posted daily on Instagram
and Facebook at a minimum. Polls and other interactive forms of content should be posted on a
biweekly basis in an attempt to investigate what customers want to see innovated into the brand in
near future. An example of the form of daily and biweekly content that should be posted will now be
shown.
4.3 Example of Daily Instagram Posts

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4.4 Example of Biweekly Facebook Posts
4.5

Search engine optimization (SEO)

It is ideal for Direct Line to use SEO to accomplish the second objective. This tactic was selected
because SEO is one of the most crucial processes to dictating the success of a website. Websites that
rank high on search pages are usually considered high-quality and trustworthy by the engine thus
giving the perception that the website is credible (Muthoni, 2021). SEO was also selected because
Direct Line can participate in optimising their keywords for free by searching what websites show up
first when searching for a niche such as pet insurance and reviewing what keywords those websites
use.
4.6 Implementation
It is essential for Direct Line to partake in onsite and offsite SEO. Direct Line should practise
optimising their onsite optimization by using Google Analytics and also their offsite optimization by
using Google Search Console. Google Analytics should be used to gauge how many unique users
click on Direct Line’s pet insurance website, how many times they have visited, what pages they
visited, how much time they spent reading on each page and how high the bounce rate was per day
(Deverick, 2023). Improvements to the Direct Line website should be made regarding the aspects that
have the least audience retention and enhancements should be made regarding the aspects that have
the highest.

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Direct Line should also optimise their offsite SEO by searching terms that are related to the pet
insurance industry into Google Search Console. The search console will monitor organic traffic,
keyword ranking, traffic data and more of any term searched into it (Google, n.d.). Direct Line can
use Google Search Console to scout for current trends that customers are searching for and the
keywords they use while searching for them (Google, n.d.). Direct Line should also use Google
Search Console to find out what keywords their competitors such as Petplan use for their websites as
they might have excellent SEO already. After discovering what keywords work the most effectively
Direct Line should start implementing them into their own website. As the aim of this goal is to obtain
customers through giving them personalised and reduced offers terms such as “affordable pet
insurance” and “cheap pet insurance” should be entered in as well in an attempt to optimise the
keywords for the demographic of customers that search for having an affordable pet insurance licence.

5. Action and Control

5.1 Campaign Schedule

5.2 KPI’s

Objectives KPS’s

- Website Traffic: The number of people that

Achieve a 35 percent growth in the amount of
new policyholders within the span of one year
by offering new unique selling points to
customers that sign-up to acquire a pet
insurance policy via Direct Line’s online
website.
visit Direct Line’s pet insurance website over a
specific period of time (Twin, James, and
Jackson, 2023).
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of
people that accessed a specific link or
advertisement compared to the total impressions
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 of it (Twin, James, and Jackson, 2023).

- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): A metric

Achieve a pet insurance policy retention or
increase of at least 90 percent within the span of
one year by making pet insurance policies more
affordable and offering personalised renewal
offers via Direct Line’s website.
that is made to measure how satisfied customers
are with a product, service, or experience
(Cascade Team, 2022).
- Customer Retention Rate: The percentage of
customers who continue to return to Direct Line
over a specific period of time (Cascade Team,
2022).

References
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Clur, K-B. How Many People Have Pet Insurance in the UK in 2023? Statistics & FAQ. Available at:
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