How to build a successful insurance scheme for your association
a case study
Over many years, but especially since the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact it had on association’s traditional income streams, revenue diversification has been a huge topic for association leaders and one we get lots of questions on here at TAF.
Many associations have tried to launch new member services with the aim of providing greater value to members and also finding new ways to generate income, though with varying success.
Insurance has been one of the main services associations turn to – building a sector-specific offer for a product that is universally needed, but many have struggled to drive uptake or make their scheme a success.
To help members, we have developed this case study in alongside Partners& and TAF member NAPIT, about an insurance scheme they have built that has achieved impressive take up and delivered results for the association and its members.
The case study
Background – Challenge
NAPIT is a membership organisation for the building service and fabric sectors – primarily electrical contractors, heating engineers and renewable energy installers. Like many trade organisations, NAPIT offers value added and inclusive support services to their members including training, technical support, legal & HR support – and insurance.
Retaining and growing the membership is a challenge in today’s competitive environment. The pandemic has impacted every business sector in different ways. For many, the world they inhabit has changed irrevocably.
As part of the process to design an insurance offering, Partners& and NAPIT focused on understanding the risks and issues facing members and the priorities for NAPIT. As a result, maximising value for existing members and, as a result, enhancing member retention was fundamental.
What we do - Support
The NAPIT Insurance offering was designed to provide another valuable service that the membership needs. Aligning with a trusted partner was important in order to really understand the membership demographic and their specific needs.
The majority of NAPIT members are small businesses – either sole traders or involving one or two employees of a limited company. Insurance isn’t something they have the time to spend researching – they simply need to find the right covers for the specific type of work they carry out, for the right price.
Working with both NAPIT and their insurer partners, Partners& carefully developed a tailored package based on the insurance needs of members.
Technology underpins the offering, and the branded NAPIT Insurance website includes an efficient quote and buy online service supporting members’ preferred approach to buying insurance.
It’s then about getting the offer out their and building awareness. Using Partners& marketing expertise and working in partnership with the NAPIT team, they then introduced the NAPIT Insurance brand to NAPIT members. By engaging with the NAPIT marketing team and Partners&’s in-house Insurance advisers, they were able to develop communications and initiatives that are relevant and worthwhile for members – helping them to understand more about the insurance they have and why they need it.
As well as the digital side of things, Partners& supported NAPIT and its members with attendance at industry EXPOs, and by producing newsletter articles which demonstrate thought leadership and highlighted the solutions offered to support them. This helps to truly connect the offer with the membership and understand the challenges both they and NAPIT face.
The results – Perform
Partners& aims to deliver the best traditions of broking – those based on relationship and sound technical advice. By combining this approach with modern thinking and intelligent use of technology, we’ve delivered a quote and buy system that NAPIT members can use at a time that suits them. It’s available 24/7, 365 days a year – not just during office hours.
But it’s not just about click and buy. NAPIT members are advised and supported by a personable team of qualified, professional advisers based in our specialist centre near Reading. As a result, NAPIT Insurance is on hand to answer questions and provide advice, resulting in better outcomes for the members. The offering is underwritten by Hiscox who provide a superior claims service – support when it is needed most.
Since October 2020, NAPIT Insurance has:
- Transacted over 5,000 policies, representing almost a third of membership
- Achieved a total premium spend of approximately £1.7m GWP
- Generated more than £250k revenue for NAPIT since launch
- Anticipated annual revenue after three years expected of £175k p.a.
- Embedded the insurance offering as a fundamental benefit of joining NAPIT
- Achieved gold standard Investor in Customers Award, demonstrating our commitment to deliver a positive experience for members
In summary, we have established a proposition that provides NAPIT members with the insurance cover they need – enhancing confidence in their member organisation and delivering outstanding results.
Find out more
You can find out more about Partners& on the TAF website, or get in touch with their team to find out about how to launch your own association insurance scheme:
why start an awards competition?
Awards are more popular than ever. It’s all about being superior in sport, quality, service, industry, etc. If you wish to improve your brand recognition and your revenue, starting a business award program can be a real game-changer and quite beneficial for everyone associated, including the organizer, sponsors, program judges, everyone recognized with a nomination, and of course the worthy winners.
Awards as a source of revenue
There are usually two types of awards competitions:
- Paid awards – entrants pay a fee to enter the awards
- Free awards – entrants are either members of an association/membership organization and pay an annual fee that includes nominations for the awards or the awards competition is sponsored by a large organisation/corporation and entrants can enter for free
Both options are powerful tools to increase the revenue of your organization and are often the main source of revenue for some associations or membership organizations.
Obviously, starting an awards competition does not automatically mean increasing your revenue. In order to be successful, such programs should be approached strategically and every step should be planned well in advance.
It starts with understanding why other companies would consider being part of your awards.
It’s great marketing
Awards celebrate success and hard work, but also make for great PR opportunities. They’re a fantastic marketing tool, full stop! Any business can improve brand awareness and acquire new customers by simply being nominated, let alone winning an accolade.
A good benchmark
Participating in an awards competition is a good way to see how a company compares against the rest. Whether this is then used to convince future clients into doing business, or helps the company improve various aspects of their work, it’s always a win-win, no matter the benchmarking results.
Improved social trust
A business getting short-listed for an award is essentially viewed as a 3rd party endorsement. It can improve social trust in the nominated brand, which can then be used as a sales pitch, help retain existing clients, improve relationships with suppliers, stand out from the competition, etc.
Awards attract talent
It’s a way to strengthen a company’s hiring power. Award-winning companies pitch themselves as the best and this helps them attract better talent, which in turn empowers them to take their business to the next level.
Employee motivation
Awards essentially recognize the hard work of a company’s employees so an award or two often boosts staff morale and motivation. It also shows people what’s great about the company they work for and this gives them pride to be a part of that.
How to make it work?
Laying the groundwork
Set a budget and make sure you have some of it dedicated to marketing and the tools you’ll be using to make the program a pleasant experience for everyone involved. Consider your pricing strategy as well, it’s quite important. Figure out the key dates like entry submission, judging rounds, winner announcements, etc.
Building toward success
An awards program has a lot of moving parts and you will need a dedicated staff to keep everything on track. It helps to have people working on specific goals for the program with set deadlines. Remember that getting your awards ready for accepting entries requires an enormous amount of work.
Getting the right tools for the job
One of the big struggles with organizing a successful program is staying organized. At this point, no matter how big your team is, you will need a reliable end-to-end awards management platform. This is basically where a tool like Evalato takes over and helps you literally every step of the way.
- Streamline and automate your work. Saves you time and makes your program look top-drawer and highly professional. Not only that, but the platform is also highly flexible and customizable so you can tailor everything down to the last detail.
- User-friendly and modern interface. This is another important element, as it directly affects how entrants and program judges perceive your awards. It also guarantees that both judges and entrants have a blast being part of your program, so they’ll gladly come back for more.
- Create a site for your awards. This is quite an important part and should be a big focus in the preparation of your call for entry. And even if you have your own website, the platform integrates easily with it, so you’re still making the most out of it.
- Powerful entry submission. Collect more submissions with a sleek and adaptive submission portal. The application process can be customized with various powerful options.
- Easy communication and follow-ups. Whether you wish to send notifications to remind people about submitting their entries, or to instruct judges about their duties, you have the tools you need.
- Custom evaluation phase. You can set up the entry evaluation to your exact requirements, choose various scoring types with custom criteria, scales, and weights, then invite people to the jury panel, create public voting rounds, etc.
- Announce the winners. Then easily set up a gallery of all award entries, so people can admire them long after. You get to showcase program applications, results, judge comments, individual votes in just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Analyze data and improve. Benefit from an always complete picture with real-time scores, votes management, a results page, and many features that help improve and grow your awards.
Focusing on awards credibility
On one hand, with Evalato you get a secure and fully GDPR-compliant solution, but that’s not enough. To add actual credibility to your program, consider inviting some big names from your industry to judge program entries. Having judges who are well-known will greatly increase the prestige and legitimacy of your awards.
Sponsors as a source of revenue
Sponsors and partners are crucial stakeholders that can really help with growing your program and your revenue. Here it’s important to understand why they would be willing to sponsor your awards to make them a compelling offer.
The buzz
Awards are the darlings in any industry and that’s what makes sponsors take notice. It’s a chance for them to reach a wide audience, or at least strengthen brand recognition. Which is always a win for them.
The feel-good
An awards competition often serves a good cause. They can be about distinguishing excellence in science, supporting environmental efforts, pushing innovations, etc. A good cause is something that any company is happy to get behind.
awards as an indirect source of revenue
Business awards not only directly increase your organization’s revenue but also provide excellent business opportunities that indirectly contribute to the overall growth of your business. It’s why business awards are such an excellent business opportunity.
Get new business leads
No matter how large a database of existing clients you have, an awards program will attract some extra attention to your brand. And this naturally brings many new business leads, which is always good for business.
Strengthen your brand
That extra attention to your brand will of course strengthen it considerably. An awards program is a long-term project and as time goes by, the awards will grow and the benefits to your brand will get bigger and bigger.
Extra publicity for your organization
Not saying here you’ll automatically get free publicity simply because you’re organizing an awards competition. But awards generate a ton of online buzz, media coverage, shares, likes, and commentary across all channels.
New business partnerships
Because everyone’s fascinated by award competitions, there’s great potential for negotiating new business partnerships, even with companies that aren’t part of the industry you operate in. Awards are great for branching out as well.
awards as an indirect source of revenue
Awards are a lot of work if you go the old-school route of spreadsheets, folders, endless emails, etc. But this can be so much easier with a good platform that tracks, stores, and helps you manage every stage of entry submission and judging for your program. Saving hours upon hours of work is another way you’ll be increasing your revenue, should you decide to start your own awards program.
Evalato is the next-gen awards management software designed to suit all your needs – free testing is available and no credit card is required.
Published originally on Evalato on June 2, 2022.