The Comparison War – An Insiders View

by Patrick Altoft on February 19, 2009 / 3 responses

This is a guest post from the Insurance Blog an insiders view on internet marketing in the comparison industry.

We’re the little guys in the big corporation. We’re the insiders in the establishment. For the last few years we have been exposing companies in our sector of UK comparison sites. We’ve been telling you, the reader, what it’s like to work inside a large company and how the playing field now includes unethical data sharing and underhand tactics to get marketing exposure.

Our boss doesn’t know who we are – that’s why we remain anonymous – we’ve slammed our own company a few times so what you read is the truth. We’re honest and opinionated!

Insiders View started as an insurance blog and for the most part, it is. However, we also provide information on some of the latest techniques used by online companies to increase sales on the Internet. As one comment on an affiliate forum says:

He outs all the insurance companies…and no one knows who runs it, reckon there would be a contract on his head.

Source: Affiliates4u

I’m going to give you two key areas to look out for in the comparison market:

Battle is about to begin

It’s going to be a war. Billion dollar affiliate sites like moneysupermarket have become comparison sites. They’re now being challenged with the rise of cashback sites such as quidco and greasypalm. Consumers are being educated by clever journalism from UK newspapers. Customers are now getting educated – they can now make a choice. The third fighting faction is the existing, smaller affiliate sites.

They’re all competing for the same space. They want eyeballs, clicks and sales. But, they’re now offering direct payouts to consumers, that’s something that not even the large comparison sites can handle. The power of the smaller sites with low overheads and customer payouts could just push the market over the edge…exciting stuff…are you ready for the change?

Who is the Fairest of Them All?

Reputation Management is going to be vital. The press have always played an enormous part in the success or failure of companies (just look at celebrities). When Norwich Union quietly launched zuzzid.co.uk last year (now in the deadpool) it supposedly provided impartial, user generated reviews on insurance companies. Was it impartial? No. Just like Admiral own confused.com or Budget own comparethemarket.com – there’s always a vested interest.

There are tons of companies out there indulging in SEO sabotage and mass defamation. Staying on top of your brand in the press but more importantly in the search results is going to be fundamental. If your SEO company hasn’t spoken to you about dominating the results for your company name, perhaps it’s time to hire someone else?

Now one last, bonus point. We’re going to be publishing some leaked insurance data (think AOL data leak). Subscribe to the Insiders View RSS feed if you want to be first to know.

Post category: Marketing Tweet

Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Branded3, a Leeds SEO & Digital Agency specialising in SEO, Web Design, Development & Social Media.