October 1 - 3, 2000, The Westin Providence, Providence, R.I.

Building an Online Community

Successful Internet Sites Get Customers to Stick With Them
By David Pilla

To successfully develop a niche market Internet site, a company must make it sticky: The site must attract viewers, hold them for long periods of time and keep them coming back for more.

Three Internet insurance veterans explained their strategies for stickiness in a presentation to insurance professionals at a technology conference sponsored by A.M. Best Co. Christina Mancini, chief executive of Captive.com LLC; Brian Lawlor, industry manager for VerticalNet Inc.'s PropertyAndCasualty.com; and David Willis, PropertyAndCasualty.com's editorial director, spoke at "E-Fusion: Where Insurance and Technology Converge," held Oct. 1-3 in Providence, R.I. Full coverage of the event is available online at http://www.ambest.com/e-fusion.html.

The three key factors that contribute to a Web site's stickiness, Mancini said, are "content, community and customizability."

Mancini said content had been "the key to our success." Captive.com attracted and retained visitors by providing as much information as possible on alternative risk transfer-related topics. It invited associations and domiciles to post information on the site, giving them exposure while adding to the free information Captive.com had to offer.

The community component of Captive.com's strategy offers networking opportunities for the site's visitors and members. "Ask the Expert" and "Captive Chat" forums give visitors specific information, while in turn supplying data for the Web site. Visitors are encouraged to sign up for a mailing list, giving Captive.com the chance to "push" information to them.

Registration for captive conferences and the sale of captive-related products are other aspects of the community approach.

The third stickiness factor is "customizability." Captive.com is planning a customizable Web site similar to MyYahoo!, where the Web portal Yahoo! allows individual users to configure their own page with items that appeal to them.

Willis said the freshness of a Web site's material is an important element for return visits. "We update our site daily, with seven to 27 new articles added throughout the day," he said. An events calendar is updated daily, and new products are added to the site's catalog and shopping cart areas as often as possible.

"Our goal is that people should be coming back every day," Willis said.

Willis also emphasized focus. "When we started, we tried to be everything in insurance," he said. "We realized quickly that we had to be more focused, so we narrowed our focus down to property and casualty insurance, and we've done very well."

Lawlor added that keeping the Web site's platform simple and knowing the audience will lead to a better, more interesting Web site design. "You should have opportunities to help your visitors find answers to the questions they have," he said. "Keep the platform simple and personal."

Lawlor said PropertyAndCasualty.com will add new features, including varying levels of access for visitors and members with different needs. "An agent may have access to the sites of three out of 20 companies in our network, for instance," he said. Eventually, insurance policies may be accessible via password through the site.

Captive.com LLC, based in Southington, Conn., is an online business exchange and information source for alternative insurance professionals.

VerticalNet Inc., based in Horsham, Pa., owns and operates 57 "marketplaces" that cater to specific professional fields, of which PropertyandCasualty.com is one. Each online marketplace offers news and other content, as well as interactive capabilities and commercial opportunities.