Consumer Interest in TrustedChoice.com Growing, Big ‘I’ Chair-Elect Says

Insurance consumer interest in Trusted Choice, the national brand created for the members of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or Big “I”) is growing, according the association’s chair-elect.

David Walker, president of Hartland Insurance Agency in Hartland, Mich., and the incoming volunteer leader of the Big “I,” said that before the association launched Project Cap – the consumer/agent portal intended to drive online referrals to independent agent members of the IIABA – hits to its TrustedChoice.com website enjoyed a lackluster two-to-three thousands hits per month.

When Project CAP was first launched in July 2013, the two sites “were on very separate tracks,” Walker told an audience of insurance professionals at the convention held by the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas in San Antonio in June.

Now, Walker said, “Trusted Choice has become the face of Project CAP” and the hits to trustedchoice.com since the launch of the portal “have gone through the roof.”

Hits to the website are growing by about 10 to 20 percent each month, Walker said. In May 2014, for instance, the site recorded 152,000 hits.

“So, we’re seeing terrific growth on the TrustedChoice.com website … and that links to CAP,” he said.

Walker said in the beginning Project CAP had a lot of skeptics, himself included. He said many people were concerned about the kinds of consumers who would be attracted to the marketplace and that method of buying insurance.

But, he said, the demographics for the personal lines-focused marketing effort “are way off the charts.”

As it turns out, more than 40 percent of referrals have been for values in excess of $30,000; more than 50 percent are married; more than 60 percent of referrals are picking maximum limits of liability and only 16 percent are picking minimum limits of liability.

“What that’s telling us is that we’re getting the referrals that we want,” Walker said. “The testimonials for the referrals have been spectacular.”

Another unexpected development in the Trusted Choice/Project Cap venture is that even though the initial focus has been on personal lines of insurance, there is a growing interest in commercial lines, he said.

The association has taken notice and will be ramping up the focus on commercial lines later this year.

“We’re not pivoting, but we’re adding more commercial lines …,” Walker said. “It will be more about asking questions and providing solutions to people in business. But we are moving the commercial lines side of it starting in the third quarter or fourth quarter of this year.”

Walker also announced that two more insurers – Motorists Mutual Insurance Company and Travelers – have signed on as investment carriers the Trusted Choice brand.

And he urged the agency principals to go online and sign up for trustedchoice.com.

“We need to get you signed up so that you show up on that trustedchoice.com website so that you get the referrals,” Walker said.