After marketing and selling their products in a certain way for decades, it's easy to understand what a jolt the Internet gave to insurance sales and marketing. As the industry has gotten more comfortable with the capabilities and realities of it all, carriers need to refine their approach for today and the future.

Insurers have to offer what research and consulting firm Celent calls a hybrid approach to their Web presence, according to Matt Josefowicz, who directs Celent's insurance practice. Carriers can reach online customers through a variety of ways: via the carrier Web site, search engines, or a comparative rating or lead-generation site that describes a carrier's products. "There is no one way to attract and retain online shoppers," he says.

There has been too much focus in the past on the 100 percent online shopper, Josefowicz asserts, since those customers are fairly few. He estimates only one in 10 shoppers conducts all personal auto business on the Web, and the number is even smaller for other lines. Web-initiated and Web-influenced sales, though, are significant pieces of the market. "The people who eventually call a call center or an agent typically have started the process online," says Josefowicz.

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