Why is insurance a trade press sector with a national press problem?
Insurance is well served by specialist trade titles, but less so by national newsrooms. The sector supports a healthy weekly trade press, and titles such as Insurance Post and Insurance Times cover the market closely. That coverage is useful for reaching peers and buyers. It also lets a communications team feel visible despite reaching few people outside the industry.
The economic importance of the sector is significant. Underwriters, brokers and managing general agents move money and employ people at a scale that would justify more national attention than the sector earns. Our financial services work sits mostly in this gap.
Four routes lead outside that trade cluster. Here they are in the order we would test them for a new client:
- Proprietary data you already hold and are not publishing
- A customer story that compliance will let you tell
- A regulatory or market moment where you have standing to comment
- Executive profile built over years
The national and business beats that touch insurance are worth mapping before you pitch. These are six to look out for:
- Personal finance and consumer money desks.
- City and financial services correspondents.
- Insurance and pensions specialists at the broadsheets.
- Technology and fintech reporters covering Insurtech.
- Business newswires.
- Broadcast business bookers.
Route one: what data do you already hold and are not publishing?
Most insurers hold data no journalist can obtain anywhere else. Claims frequency, average settlement times, fraud detection rates, repair costs, cancellation patterns and pricing movements all sit in systems built for underwriting. National business and consumer desks may run a well-framed data story because the numbers are new and the source is credible.
The work is turning an internal dataset into something a reporter can use. That means one clear finding, a comparison over time, and a method note so the desk trusts the figure. If your claims data shows average settlement times falling from 21 days to 14 days over the two years to March 2026, that is a story a personal finance desk can run. Aggregate and anonymise before anything leaves the building, and get sign-off on the exact figure you will stand behind.
Cadence matters more than any single release. A quarterly index, published the same way every time, teaches journalists they have something to expect. That is how a brand becomes the source a desk calls when the topic comes round again.
The data that travels is the data that might impact a reader’s choices. Motor and home pricing, claims delays, fraud and premiums map onto questions a personal finance desk fields every week. Underwriting-only metrics rarely leave the trade press bubble, no matter how clever they are. Frame the finding around the policyholder and a generalist reporter has a reason to run it. Keep the headline clean, make material qualifications clear and include detailed methodology.
Route two: how do you tell the customer story down a compliant path?
A customer story has the best chance of reaching national press when a real person will go on the record about a claim. The obstacle here is rarely the journalist. It is the data protection, reputational and regulatory risk that a legal team sees in a named policyholder talking publicly.
Bring compliance and legal in at the idea stage rather than at sign-off. Agree the consent wording, the review workflow and the red lines before you approach anyone. Where a named case is impossible, a composite built from real detail and labelled as such can still be effective. The reporter wants the moment the claim was paid, or the moment it was refused, and what it meant to the person on the other end.
Timing helps as much as consent. A claims story lands hardest when it attaches to a season or an event the desk is already covering, such as flooding, storm damage or the cost of a household renewal. Build a small bank of willing case studies before you need them, with a clear process for establishing consent, so you can move when a reporter asks. The person’s own words do the work. Your job is to clear the path so they can speak.
The broker, managing general agent and carrier each sit at a different point in that story. A broker advises the client and places the risk. An MGA underwrites with delegated authority on a carrier’s behalf. The carrier holds the capital and the risk. Getting those terms right in the pitch is the difference between a journalist trusting you and quietly deleting the email.
How do you earn standing to comment on a regulatory moment?
Standing comes from a named spokesperson with a track record and a prepared position, established before the moment arrives. A regulatory shift from the Financial Conduct Authority, a market-hardening cycle or a large industry loss all create demand for informed comment. The firms that get quoted are the ones already known to the desk with a clear view on the record.
Preparation is the whole game. Draft your position on the likely developments now, clear it internally, and have an established spokesperson, who can speak in plain terms, ready to act. A well-timed reactive comment is worth more to a reporter than a white paper delivered a week after breaking news. Standing is earned in the months before the story, and spent in the ninety minutes it breaks.
Track the calendar the regulator publishes. Consultation deadlines, policy statements and thematic reviews are visible months ahead, and each one is a moment where a prepared firm can be useful to a reporter working at speed. Assign one spokesperson per theme so the desk always reaches someone briefed. Keep the position short enough to quote and specific enough to matter. A view that could have come from any firm in the market is less likely to be used.
Why does an executive profile take three years rather than three months?
An executive profile compounds slowly and then pays dividends. A single byline or panel appearance changes little. A named leader who publishes a consistent view, shows up in commentary, speaks at the right events and builds an audience over years becomes a person journalists call first.
This is a long-term programme, built steadily. Bylined articles, considered commentary, conference platforms and a genuine presence on LinkedIn all feed the same reputation. Sequel Business Solutions grew its LinkedIn following to 5,000+ over three years by applying a consistent posting schedule on its profiles.
Channels reinforce each other. A byline gives a conference a reason to invite the speaker, the talk gives LinkedIn something worth posting, and the posts give a journalist a public view to react to. Run them as one programme with a single owner and a calendar, and the reputation accrues to a named person the desk can picture.
What did Sequel do to earn 200 pieces and 16 awards and nominations?
Sequel ran all four routes at once over a sustained period. A London market insurance technology business, it generated more than 200 pieces of coverage across three years, won 16 industry awards and nominations over the same three years, and grew its LinkedIn following beyond 5,000 over that period.
The volume came from a mix of proprietary insight, disciplined award entries and a leadership team willing to comment on the market. None of it was a single campaign. It was a programme that kept feeding the same beats until the coverage compounded. The full detail sits in the Sequel case study.
What did Vitesse do to shift its share of voice in the London market?
Vitesse earned national attention by pairing a clear market position with a credible spokesperson. Vitesse, a payments business serving the insurance market, secured a profile in The Times and lifted its share of voice among London market peers over the life of the programme.
The Times profile did not happen in isolation. It followed a period of building the firm’s standing on the specific problem it solves for insurers, so that a national journalist had a reason to write about the company rather than the category. Share of voice moved because the firm became the name attached to its niche. The Vitesse case study carries the fuller picture.
That standing was built intentionally over the life of the programme. We placed the leadership team where insurance decision-makers were already reading, tied the firm to a single problem, and kept the message consistent until it stuck. National interest followed the specialist credibility rather than preceding it. A payments company is rarely an obvious national story on its own, so the work was making the insurance angle legible to a City reporter.
What does not work in insurance PR?
Several habits reliably waste budget in this sector. The common thread is content built for the firm rather than the reader, pushed at outlets that were never going to run it.
- Jargon-dense releases that a generalist desk cannot decode.
- Product launches with no data and no customer behind them.
- Thought leadership that states the obvious and commits to nothing.
- Chasing every trade title while ignoring the national beats that reach buyers.
- Waiting for a spokesperson to be cleared only after the news has broken.
Volume is the trap. A hundred releases into the trade press feels like activity and at best, just reaches the same few hundred readers each time. One checkable data story or one named customer, placed on a national desk, does more for a firm’s reputation than a quarter of announcements.
See how we built share of voice for Sequel and Vitesse.
Frequently asked questions
How do insurers get in the national press?
Insurers reach national press through four main routes: proprietary data, a real customer story, a regulatory moment where they have standing, and an executive profile built over years. Data and customer stories tend to move the fastest. Profile is the slowest to build and the most durable once it exists.
What do insurance journalists want from a press office?
National journalists want a clear finding, a named credible source and a fast response. They want a figure they can check and a spokesperson who will say something specific. A method note and a named contact matter more than the number of releases you send.
Should an insurance broker do PR or advertising?
A broker weighing the two should think about what each buys. Advertising buys controlled placement and wider reach on your scheduled content. PR earns third-party credibility that advertising cannot manufacture. The two can work together, with earned coverage carrying trust and paid media carrying reach.
How long does insurance PR take to work?
Data-led and customer-led coverage can land within the first few months of a programme. An executive profile takes around three years to build to the point where journalists call you first.
