Travel Insurance: How People Search For Insurance

How people search for travel insurance
Connecting Brands Understanding search opportunities in the online travel insurance space An iCrossing white paper by Gregory Lyons
photo by the_tahoe_guy @ Flickr
ConneCting Brands. UnderstAnding seArch opportUnities in the online trAvel insUrAnce spAce
Contents
INTRODUCTION METHODOLOGY SUMMARY TRENDS IN THE TRAVEL INSURANCE MARKET THE WORLDS MOST DANGEROUS COUNTRIES TRAVEL INSURANCE: DONT FORGET THE BACKPACKERS ONLINE MARKET LEADERS: WHOS THE TRAVEL INSURANCE KING? TOP BRANDS: HOW VISIBLE ARE TRAVEL INSURANCE BRANDS? LINK EQUITY: WHO GETS THE MOST VOTES? DEMOGRAPHICS: ITS ALL ABOUT WOMEN LINGUISTICS: PEOPLE WANT IT CHEAP MOBILE: THE NEW FRONTIER SEASONALITY: WHEN SHOULD I LAUNCH THAT CAMPAIGN? ABOUT ICROSSING APPENDIX: COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS 3 4 5 7 13 16 19 29 32 35 41 46 49 52 55
AN iCrossing WHITE PAPER BY gregorY LYons
COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD, HEARST GROUP
2 2
connecting BrAnds. UnderstAnding seArch opportUnities in the online trAvel insUrAnce spAce
introduction
There have been some major world events this year that have impacted our ability to travel, from of the eruption of the Icelandic volcano to the political unrest in Thailand. The Research & Insight team at iCrossing thought it would be interesting to investigate whether these events had an impact on the Travel Insurance category and take a look at the wider category as a whole. These kinds of events have meant that travellers interest in their travel insurance policy has increased as uncertainty around their trips has grown. Many passengers have been left stranded abroad forced to make their own way home at their own expense. This report covers the travel insurance sector and aims to identify the main categories within that space, who the top competitors are, the demographics of travel insurance, search linguistics, mobile search and any seasonal and event driven trends. Summer has traditionally been the peak season for travel insurance so it seemed the perfect time to take a look at the state of the travel insurance market.
photo by the_tahoe_guy @ Flickr
connecting Brands. ConneCting BrAnds. UnderstAnding seArch opportUnities in the online trAvel insUrAnce spAce
Methodology
Keyword, demographic and competitor data was ollected using a combination of external and proprietary tools. iCrossing analysts then analysed the data to identify key categories and insights. Seasonality and key events were analysed by the Research team to identify patterns within the travel insurance market. Semantic and syntactical analysis was conducted on the keyword data set to create a linguistic profile of the travel insurance market, providing an understanding of the language people use when they search. Search volumes were analysed to identify the key categories within the travel insurance sector as well as analysing volumes around specific keywords and keyword groups to identify popular linguistics and linguistic structures. Competitors were ranked on their performance in natural search, based on how they ranked over the entire keyword set and individual categories, factoring in weightings based on the importance of each keyword and how the competitor ranked in the search engines. The data was analysed for the month of May 2010 and seasonal data was taken for the months January December 2009. Natural search rankings were taken in June 2010 and may have changed by the time this report is published.
summary
Women are 12% more LikeLy to searCh for traveL insuranCe than men
p Searches for travel insurance have dropped in recent years, probably due to the global economic downturn. However natural disasters and political unrest have fuelled localised and temporary uplifts in the numbers of people searching for information about travel insurance p People in the UK are most often searching for travel insurance in relation to European destinations, with the most popular financial/ buying related qualifier being cheap
p There are several specific travel insurance niches (student, business, ski) where competition is less fierce, allowing smaller players to enter the market p High street names dominate when people are searching for branded travel insurance, however it is the web-only companies that dominate in the generic travel insurance space where ranking for head terms such as travel insurance or holiday insurance is key p Women are 12% more likely to search for
p The UK market is heavily dominated by generic travel insurance search terms, as consumers are unsure or unaware of which specific policies to go for. This opens up educational opportunities
travel insurance than men p 99.9% of search is happening on desktop computers as opposd to the mobile web (0.1%)
photo by bartlec @ Flickr
snapshot of the UK travel industry
the uks outbound market feLL at the fastest rate on reCord Last year as businesses sLashed budGets and Leisure traveLLers opted for a stayCation
p The UKs outbound market fell at the fastest rate on record last year as businesses slashed budgets and leisure travellers opted for staycations(1). p The Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed that the number of UK visits abroad fell 15% in 2009 compared to 2008 the largest slump since records began in the 1970s. p The corporate market has been particularly hard hit, falling almost a quarter. p The unpackaging DIY holiday trend, led by the Brits, is apparently how the world will shop for holidays in future. Responding to this demand, a rash of new travel comparison websites have appeared to help build dynamic packages, and offer a welcome degree of consumer protection. p Consumers are trading-up despite the recession as the humble UK B&B goes boutique and pub restaurants have chic room add-ons. p The UKs inbound market also suffered, albeit to a lesser degree, with international visitor numbers down 6.3% to 29.9m. Business trips to the UK fell by 20%, however revenue from visits by overseas residents rose to 16.6bn from 16.3bn in the previous year.
p According to the ONS, those travelling overseas are going for longer, with the average stay rising to 10.5 nights in 2009, from 9.9 nights two years earlier. p Although the UK economy is slowly recovering from the recession in 2010, the travel industry maintains a cautious outlook, particularly given the disruption earlier this year from the volcanic ash cloud and strikes by British Airways cabin crew. p According to a recent report by Tourism Intelligence (tourism-intelligence.com), price-savvy Brits are leading the world in seeking the most cost-effective holidays. p One of the dominant trends in the UK travel insurance market over the last five years has been the shift towards more annual policy sales as opposed to single trip policies. (*)A staycation (also spelled stay-cation, stacation, or staykation) is a neologism for a period of time in which an individual or family stays at home and relaxes at home or takes day trips from their home to area attractions.
photo by chantrybee @ Flickr
Trends in the travel insurance market

Connecting Brands Understanding search opportunities in the online travel insurance space
photo by nattu @ Flickr
trends in the travel insurance The number of people searching for travel insurance has fallen in recent years. The recession and corresponding tightening of belts has meant that people are less likely to buy travel insurance than they were 2 years ago. But despite the recession, a recent poll showed eight out of 10 of those made redundant were planning to travel and do it in style hotels not hostels and short-hop planes not long-haul buses.
trends in the travel insurance
8 out of 10 peopLe made redundant stiLL pLan on takinG a hoLiday and to do it in styLe
Year on year trends searches for travel insurance

If we look at the chart below we can see how search interest for travel insurance fell in 2009/2010 compared to 2008 and even though we are now technically out of the recession, search volumes for travel insurance have not returned to 2008 levels. As people try to cut travel costs, travel insurance is often the first thing to go as people often cannot see the real value of taking out holiday insurance.
2008 2009 2010 2008 2009 2010
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
When the voLCano erupted, searCh for traveL insuranCe shot up
global events: iceland volcano

When the Icelandic volcano erupted, searches for Iceland volcano increased dramatically. What is interesting is that at the same time searches for travel insurance also increased and when searches for Iceland volcano reached their peak and started to decrease, so did searches for travel insurance. It is likely that due to all the travel chaos caused by the volcano people were searching on travel insurance to see if they would be covered and what protection was afforded to them. Global events often have an effect on what people are searching for; therefore we thought it would be interesting to take a look at a couple such events to see how they affected travel insurance search.
iceland volcano travel insurance
iceland volcano
travel insurance
Ja Ja n n Ja 3 2 Ja 3 2 0 n 0 n 10 1 10 1 Ja 0 2 Ja 0 2 0 n 0 n 10 J 17 10 1 an 20 Ja 7 2 1 0 n 10 J 24 0 2 an 20 Ja 4 2 31 10 n 0 31 10 Fe 20 10 b Fe 20 10 Fe 7 2 b 0 b Fe 7 2 10 1 0 F 4 b 14 10 eb 201 Fe 20 F 21 2 0 b e 21 10 b 2 010 Fe 8 20 M 2 b 28 10 ar 7 010 M M 2 2 ar 01 ar 1 01 0 M 7 2 0 Ma 4 2 0 ar r 0 1 14 10 M 21 0 M ar 20 ar 20 28 10 21 10 2 A M pr 01 ar 20 0 28 10 Ap 4 2 r 1 01 20 A 0 1 pr 10 Ap 20 r 1 10 Ap 4 2 r 1 01 A 8 2 0 pr 01 A 1 20 0 2 pr 10 Ma 5 2 18 y 010 A pr 20 M 2 2 2 10 ay 01 M 5 2 Ma 9 2 0 ay 0 0 y 2 10 M 16 10 M 20 ay 20 ay 1 2 10 M 9 0 Ma 3 2 ay 20 0 y 10 3 1 1 M 62 0 J 02 un 0 ay 0 1 2 10 J 6 0 M 3 un 20 ay 20 13 10 30 10 20 10 Ju 20 n 10 Ju 6 2 0 n 13 10 20 10
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global events: Civil unrest in thailand

Recent civil unrest in Thailand has increased searches for travel insurance in Thailand. Peaks around searches for travel insurance coincided with news reports about the unrest. This is likely because people searched for information about their policies given the situation in Thailand. Perhaps they were also more likely to book travel insurance given the delicate situation in Thailand.
13th April tourists warned of violence in Thailan
13th April tourists warned of violence in Thailand
May 22nd Thailand un more news about the c
May 22nd Thailand unravelling more news stories break about the civil unrest Jan Feb Mar Apr May
2010 2009 2008 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2010 2009 AN iCrossing WHITE PAPER BY gregorY LYons 2008

11
there are more searChes for european & ameriCan traveL insuranCe than for the rest of the WorLd
people in the UK want european travel insurance

As well as searching for generic travel insurance many people in the UK search for travel insurance for a specific geographical region. By knowing which areas people are more interested in, you can better target your product offerings, website optimisation and marketing campaigns. Below we can see how interest in travel insurance for different holiday destinations by UK searchers varies across the world. The darker the colour, the more people in the UK who are searching for travel insurance for that region. We can see that a lot of people are searching for European travel insurance, while, surprisingly not so many are searching for other international destinations such as South America or Asia. However, we need to consider that search figures obviously correspond with the volume of travel to that region.
LOWER
HIGHER

LOWER HIGHER
12
The worlds most dangerous countries

photo by prakhar @ Flickr
the worlds most dangerous
Insurance is generally taken out to cover risk. Given this, we though it interesting to take a look at whether search volumes are higher for countries deemed riskier than average. We looked at several data sources on the worlds most dangerous countries and then looked at the number of UK searchers looking for travel insurance for that country. The top five are shown overleaf.
14
the worlds most dangerous
MONTHLY SEARCH VOLUMES
south afriCa is the most popuLar of the danGerous Countries, partiCuLarLy this year as tourists fLoCked to the WorLd Cup
Although these countries are dangerous countries to visit and therefore you might imagine buying insurance would be a top priority, there is not a lot of interest in travel insurance for them.
350
170
73
73 58
South Africa
Brazil
Russia
Sri Lanka
Pakistan
South Africa tops the list as this year the World Cup was hosted there and people would have been travelling from the UK to South Africa in greater numbers than usual.
15
Dont forget the backpackers

photo by fesoj @ Flickr
dont forget the backpackers
Segmenting the market is important in order to better understand and target new potential customers. With that in mind, we have broken down the travel insurance search space overleaf.
17
dont forget the backpackers
GeneriC traveL insuranCe makes up 75% of the market
This tree map shows the relative popularity of each category within the travel insurance market. Generic searches for travel insurance makes up approximately 75% of searches within the sector, with generic holiday insurance searches in second place. This implies that the majority of people dont know exactly what type of insurance they are looking for,or that they dont know what is available to them.
This presents an opportunity to educate and inform travellers. The largest niche group of travellers within the travel insurance space was backpackers travel insurance with over 30,000 UK searches per month. If you include student and gap year travel insurance searches that number rises to just under 50,000 searches a month.
18
Whos the travel insurance king?

photo by kjunstorm @ Flickr
19
Understanding where you are placed in your market and who your competition are is an important factor to success. By knowing your competition you can learn from them, observe what tactics they are using and ultimately, outperform them.
20
the top 5 keyWords represent 50%oftra veL insuranCe searCh
the entire travel insurance market

The below graphics show who the market leader is in each travel insurance category. The numbers associated with each website represent their relative weighting. The heavyweight of the online travel insurance market is Money Supermarket, ranking first for important terms such as travel insurance and holiday insurance. The top 5 keywords in this sector represent 50% of travel insurance searches, highlighting the importance of ranking well for head terms. The graphs on the left highlight this visually, with each block representing a keyword and the size the importance of that keyword.
Top 5 Keywords
Rest of keywords
moneysupermarket.com (83,868)
comparethemarket.com (24,473)
insureandgo.com (23,612)
cheaptravelinsurance.com (19,587)
travelinsurance.com (19,501)
21
baCkpaCkers traveL insuranCe is the LarGest of the speCiaList CateGories With over 30,000 searChes a month
Backpacker travel insurance

Backpackers travel insurance is the largest of the specialist categories, with over 30,000 searches a month. It is dominated by a mixture of specialist and generic insurers. This is a space where smaller sites will find it easier to compete, with large websites such as Money Supermarket only ranking 10th. It opens up the space for smaller sites to carve out a niche.
insureandgo (4,000)
travelinsurance.co.uk (2,671)
endsleigh.co.uk (1,180)
thebackpacker.net (1,157)
duinsure.com (1,106)
22
ski traveL insuranCe is another popuLar CateGory With just under 30,000 uk searChes a month
ski travel insurance

Ski travel insurance is another popular category with just under 30,000 UK searches a month. Many of the heavyweights such as Money Supermarket and Compare the Market do not feature as prominently in this category and some of the sites that do feature are not as optimised as they could be. This opens up the space for strong players to enter the market.
rance.essentialtravel.co.uk (3,190)
travelinsurance.co.uk (2,241)
ski-insurance.co.uk (1,928)
cheaptravelinsurance.com (777)
23
snoWboard traveL insuranCe is not as popuLar as ski traveL insuranCe, With 10 times feWer searChes
snowboard travel insurance

Interestingly snowboard travel insurance is not as popular as ski travel insurance, with 10 times fewer searches.
snowcard.co.uk (284)
boardsure.com (178)
travelinsurance.co.uk (162)
insureandgo.com (136)
snowinsure.com (62)
24
whos the travel insurance king?
the top 2 terms in this CateGory make up 63% of searCh
single trip travel insurance

The single trip travel insurance category is dominated by many of the big names in travel insurance: Money Supermarket, Insure & Go and More Th>n. With just over 25,000 monthly searches it is the third largest specialist travel category. This category is highly dominated by its head terms, with two search terms making up 63% of search in this area.
moneysupermarket.com (5,142)
insurance.essentialtravel.co.uk (1,872)
columbusdirect.com (713)
morethan.com (661)
25
this is the first CateGory Where a hiGh street brand has featured in the top five.
Multi trip travel insurance

The fourth biggest category, multi trip travel insurance is dominated by a specialist provider, Multitrip.com. This is the first category where a high street brand has featured in the top five.
multitrip.com (3,863)
halifax.co.uk (686)
endsleigh.co.uk (623)
moneysupermarket.com (434)
direct-travel.co.uk (378)
26
one of the smaLLer CateGories, it presents an opportunity for speCiaList businesses to enter the spaCe
Business travel insurance

The business travel insurance category is a relatively small category with only a handful of keywords that are worth targeting. Heavyweight MoneySupermarket only ranks 26th in this category. This presents an opportunity for specialist business travel insurance providers to enter into and rank well in this space.
columbusdirect.com (1,095)
travelinsurance.co.uk (709)
morethan.com (305)
aatravelinsurance.com (303)
27
speCiaList providers dominate this spaCe
student travel insurance

The student travel insurance category is dominated by specialist insurance providers such as STA Travel and Endsleigh which together represent 55% of the total online student travel insurance search space. Amongst the head terms in this category, student travel insurance is 7.5 times more important than the next closest keyword: travel insurance for students.
statravel.co.uk (1,906)
endsleigh.co.uk (603)
cover4students.com (359)
etravelinsurance.co.uk (219)
insureandgo.com (189)
28
How visible are travel insurance brands?

photo by frielp @ Flickr
29
how visible are travel insurance brands?
Off-line messaging and brand marketing can drive online traffic. Search volumes for generic terms such as travel insurance are approximately 10 times higher than branded travel insurance search.
30
how visible are travel insurance brands?
GeneriC searCh is approximateLy 10 times hiGher than branded searCh
The graph below shows UK monthly search volumes or travel insurance searches that include brand terms. It is interesting to see that high street brands are dominating, while internet only brands do not have as strong a presence.
This highlights the importance of brand affinity and how off-line messaging can translate into online success.
45,000 40,000 35,000 30,000 25,000 UK Monthly Search Volumes 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 Post office Tesco Direct line Saga Virgin AXA Endsleigh Sainsburys Halifax STA Travel
While sites such as the Post Office and Tesco may not be as successful as Money Supermarket and Compare the Market when it comes to non-brand travel insurance searches, with respect to branded searches Money Supermarket and Compare the Market have very little brand presence in the travel insurance space.
31
Link equity: who gets the mosts votes?

photo by mikebaird @ Flickr
link equity: who gets the most votes?
In the online natural search space inbound links to a site are like votes of confidence in the eyes of search engines, in a nutshell, the more high quality links a site has pointing at it the better that site will rank in search results.
33
link equity: who gets the most votes?
money supermarket Comes out top With over 2.6 miLLion Links
The network map below shows a snapshot of the online travel insurance market with some of the bigger sites highlighted and the total number of backlinks to the site shown for each site. In the map below the small blue circles represent websites and the lines between them links between sites.
You can see that the main players have hundreds of thousands if not millions of sites pointing at them. In the map below we can see that Money Supermarket comes out top with over 2.6 million links, which correlates to the rankings and competitive landscape information we saw before.
We can use this information to gauge competitiveness, looking at the networks sites are part of and where your customers are, where conversations are likely happening and which websites are potentially worth targeting as part of an outreach campaign.
34
Demographics: its all about women

photo by kevindooley @ Flickr
35
demographics: its all about women
Understanding the demographic makeup of your audience is important in order to target content and online messaging. Each travel insurance category will have its own demographic with some forms of insurance more popular with young audiences and some with an older audience.
36
your Customers are 12% more LikeLy to be Women
Whole travel insurance market

Here we take a look at the demographics for the whole of the online travel insurance market. You can see from the graphic below that the largest demographic for online travel insurance are women aged 35-49, with older generations (50-64) more likely to search for travel insurance than younger generations (25-34). This data suggests that in families it is often the mother that takes care of buying holidays and travel insurance, explaining the larger percentage of female searchers and the older demographic.
35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 05% 0%

18-24 25-34 35-49 50-64 65+
44%
56%
37
baCkpaCker traveL insuranCe is aGain dominated by femaLe searChers
Backpacker travel insurance

Backpacker travel insurance is again dominated by female searchers (are young male travellers too cavalier to worry about travel insurance?) Unsurprisingly the demographic for these searchers is younger than for generic travel insurance, with the majority aged between 18-34.
35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 05% 0% 18-24 25-34 35-49 50-64 65+
39%
61%
38
as With previous CateGories it is the Women that Lead the Way in ski traveL insuranCe.
ski travel insurance

As with previous categories it is the women that lead the way in ski travel insurance searches (by a factor of 14%). The demographic for this sector is older than for backpacker insurance but still younger than for generic travel insurance, with the majority of searchers aged between 18-49.
35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 05% 0% 18-24 25-34 35-49 50-64 65+
43%
57%
39
business traveL insuranCe has an oLder demoGraphiC

Business travel insurance has an older demographic than the usual travel insurance demographic, with the highest number of 50 to 64-years-olds from any category.
35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 05% 0% 18-24 25-34 35-49 50-64 65+
41%
59%
40
Linguistics: people want it cheap

photo by bonnieann1815 @ Flickr
linguistics: people want it cheap
Understanding the language people use when they search is important when looking to rank well. By matching up the language on your site with the language people use when they search, you are more likely to rank for those queries.
42
peopLe are interested in findinG Cheap traveL insuranCe
The next two graphs look at some of the linguistics used by searchers in the UK when looking for travel insurance.
You can see in the graph below that people are interested in finding cheap travel insurance, while the phrase low cost is not as popular. In the graph below the numbers down the left hand side represent the number of UK monthly searches.
120,000
100,000
80,000
UK Monthly Search Volumes
60,000
40,000
20,000
0 cheap cheapest quote quotes buy cheaper low cost discount free
43
over 65 traveL insuranCe is the most popuLar
Below we can see that Over 65 travel insurance is the most popular of the age-related searches and that singular searches (Over 65, Over 70 ,etc) are more common than their plural equivalents (Over 65s, Over 70s).
18,000 16,000 14,000 12,000 UK Monthly Search Volumes 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 Over 65 Over 70 Over 75 Over 80 Over 65s Over 70s Over 60
44
LookinG at the Word CLoud We Can see that insuranCe types are popuLar quaLifiers
The word cloud below shows a visual representation of the types of words people use when searching for travel insurance. The larger the word the more often it is used. For the purpose of this visualisation the words travel, holiday and insurance were removed.
Looking at the word cloud we can see that insurance types are popular qualifiers (annual, single, ski etc) as well as financial qualifiers (cheap, cheapest), people are also looking to find the best deal, searching using phrases such as comparison and reviews.
backpackers student family sports backpacker uk european worldwide
comparison cheap trip compare reviews cheaper ski single online gap quotes multi winter
health quote direct
cruise business cheapest budget year best
annual
45
Mobile: the new frontier

photo by jorge quinteros @ Flickr
Mobile usage and mobile search is a rapidly growing market, there are now over 15 million people in the UK 1 using the mobile web . Mobile is big but how relevant is it in the insurance market?
1 Econsultancy Mobile Statistics Compendium April 2010
47
15+ miLLion uk mobiLe internet in 2009
Travel insurance searches are still predominantly conducted on the desktop with only 0.1% of searches done using a mobile phone. The graph below shows mobile search phrases along with associated monthly search volumes for the UK.
800 700 600 500 UK Monthly Search Volumes 400 300 200 100 0 travel insurance cheap travel insurance
Desktop search
Se ar ch D es kt op
99.9%
Mobile search
ar ch
0.1%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
holiday insurance
ob
ile
Se
cheap holiday insurance
direct travel insurance
compare travel insurance
travel insurance uk
cheapest travel insurance
48
When should I launch that campaign?

photo by jurvetson @ Flickr
When should i launch that campaign?
Having an understanding of seasonal trends can help you plan activity. Knowing what time of year people start thinking about travel insurance will let you plan marketing campaigns, content plans and help direct off-line activity.
50
When should i launch that campaign?
pLan ahead to aChieve maximum suCCess
Each sub-category of travel insurance has its own seasonal pattern and we looked at a couple of examples below. The heatmap shows the seasonality for three different areas of travel insurance, the darker the colour the more searches there are in that month.
Keywords
Travel insurance
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
Mar
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Ski insurance
You can see that for generic travel insurance the most popular months for searches are in the summer months. What is interesting is that people are searching and buying travel insurance around the same time as their holidays and are not planning ahead with their insurance purchase. The key time of the year for ski insurance, unsurprisingly are the winter months of December to March, with the number of searches building up in November. Interest in business travel insurance remains fairly constant throughout the year, including the summer months; which is interesting as you might expect searches in this area to drop in the summer months.
51
About iCrossing
About icrossing
iCrossing UK is a digital marketing agency that specialises in search and social media. We design and build search and social media strategies for some of the worlds biggest brands, including The Coca-Cola Company, Toyota, Virgin, Bank of America, and TK MAXX. iCrossing UK is part of iCrossing, one of the worlds largest, digital marketing agencies, which employs 600 staff in 12 offices around the globe, including 100 staff based at UK offices in London and Brighton. iCrossing has won numerous accolades, including the number one-ranked agency for both paid and natural search in Forrester Researchs 2009 Wave report of US search marketing agencies, OMMAs Search Agency of the Year, Best Use of Search at the Revolution Awards and a finalist for Revolutions Agency of the Year award. We are also the only agency with two Forrester social-media case studies to its name. iCrossing is a unit of Hearst Corporation, one of the worlds largest diversified media companies.
For more information please visit www.icrossing.co.uk or contact us at results@icrossing.co.uk London 2nd floor 22 Chapter Street London SW1P 4NP Tel: +44(0)20 7821 2300 Fax: +44 (0)20 7828 2866 Brighton Moore House 13 Black Lion Street Brighton United Kingdom BN1 1ND Tel: +44 (0)1273 828100 Fax: +44 (0)1273 828101
53
Appendix: competitive analysis

photo by footloosiety @ Flickr
The list overleaf details the top websites in the Travel Insurance category, listed in order of Natural Search presence. The weight is a score calculated using iCrossings proprietary Search Visibility Index tool which takes into consideration site ranking, positional click through rates and search volumes to generate an overall picture of how a site is currently performing.
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money supermarket is ranked the hiGhest With 83,869
overall travel insurance

01. 02. 03. 04. 05. moneysupermarket.com comparethemarket.com insureandgo.com cheaptravelinsurance.com travelinsurance.co.uk 83,869 24,474 23,613 19,587 19,501 06. 07. 08. 09. 10. insurance.essentialtravel.co.uk direct-travel.co.uk gotravelinsurance.co.uk confused.com columbusdirect.com 16,359 16,076 15,377 10,196 8,555
56
insure and Go is ranked the hiGhest With 4,327
Backpacker, student and gap year travel insurance

01. 02. 03. 04. 05. insureandgo.com travelinsurance.co.uk endsleigh.co.uk statravel.co.uk duinsure.com 4,327 3,236 3,026 2,125 1,174 06. 07. 08. 09. 10. thebackpacker.net columbusdirect.com insurance.essentialtravel.co.uk 247travelinsurance.co.uk gapyear.com 1,157 848 826 567 498
57
insuranCe essentiaL traveL is ranked the hiGhest With 3,232
ski and snowboard insurance

01. 02. 03. 04. 05. insurance.essentialtravel.co.uk travelinsurance.co.uk ski-insurance.co.uk insureandgo.com cheaptravelinsurance.com 3,232 2,403 1,981 1,408 825 06. 07. 08. 09. 10. travel-insurance.net snowcard.co.uk columbusdirect.com skicover.co.uk comparethemarket.com 774 638 634 529 514
58

Travel Insurance: How People Search For Insurance

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Travel Insurance: How People Search For Insurance

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How people search for travel insurance

photo by the_tahoe_guy @ Flickr

AN iCrossing WHITE PAPER BY gregorY LYons

COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD, HEARST GROUP

photo by the_tahoe_guy @ Flickr

AN iCrossing WHITE PAPER BY gregorY LYons

COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD, HEARST GROUP

AN iCrossing WHITE PAPER BY gregorY LYons

COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD, HEARST GROUP

photo by bartlec @ Flickr

AN iCrossing WHITE PAPER BY gregorY LYons

COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD, HEARST GROUP

snapshot of the UK travel industry

photo by chantrybee @ Flickr

AN iCrossing WHITE PAPER BY gregorY LYons

COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD, HEARST GROUP

Trends in the travel insurance market

photo by nattu @ Flickr

AN iCrossing WHITE PAPER BY gregorY LYons

COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD, HEARST GROUP

trends in the travel insurance

Year on year trends searches for travel insurance

2008 2009 2010 2008 2009 2010

AN iCrossing WHITE PAPER BY gregorY LYons

COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD, HEARST GROUP

trends in the travel insurance

When the voLCano erupted, searCh for traveL insuranCe shot up

global events: iceland volcano

iceland volcano travel insurance

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trends in the travel insurance

global events: Civil unrest in thailand

13th April tourists warned of violence in Thailan

13th April tourists warned of violence in Thailand

May 22nd Thailand un more news about the c

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trends in the travel insurance

people in the UK want european travel insurance

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The worlds most dangerous countries

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the worlds most dangerous

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the worlds most dangerous

MONTHLY SEARCH VOLUMES

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Dont forget the backpackers

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dont forget the backpackers

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dont forget the backpackers

GeneriC traveL insuranCe makes up 75% of the market

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Whos the travel insurance king?

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Whos the travel insurance king?