digital-pr
Digital PR Takeaways From The Leading Insurance Brand of 2024
Published: 09/01/25 - Updated: 10/01/25
SIMPLY BUSINESS
As we start 2025, Simply Business stands out as one to watch. Topping the Brand Index, Simply Business ended 2024 with a staggering growth score of 408%. Looking at this from a digital PR perspective we are going to identify the tactics driving their success and give you some ideas to enhance your digital PR efforts in 2025.
What is the Brand Index?
The Brand Index is our unique, and free, benchmarking tool. It evaluates top performing brands across various industries, providing insights into market leaders in specific niches. For this article, we looked at the following metrics to define success:
- SEO Growth Score: How effectively the brand has increased organic search visibility.
- Branded Search Interest: An indicator of consumer awareness and trust in the brand.
- Social Media Following: A measure of engagement and online community growth.
From the top 50 biggest brands in the UK insurance vertical, Simply Business stands out with an overall growth score of +408% and an SEO growth score of +1219%. Other notable performers include Allianz (+57%), Howden Insurance (+52%), Budget Insurance (+29%), and Goskippy (+22%).
Who is Simply Business?
Simply Business is a UK based insurance provider specialising in small businesses. Their customers are landlords, sole traders, and SMEs. They offer tailored coverage options. By knowing their audience and having this at the heart of their marketing efforts, they have emerged as an industry leader. Their growth trajectory in 2024 reflects a strong product offering and an exceptionally well-executed digital PR strategy.
How Has Simply Business Accelerated Its Growth with Digital PR?
Simply Business has successfully implemented a multifaceted organic strategy to grow its brand authority and online presence. Here are some of the tactics they have used that have contributed to their impressive growth.
Tactic one: A Comprehensive Knowledge Centre
Simply Business hosts an extensive ‘Knowledge Centre’ featuring news, guides, and resources for small businesses and landlords.
There are multiple new pieces of content added every week and the knowledge hub currently has 3.3k referring domains pointing to it alone from authoritative and relevant sites such as The Guardian, Business Insider and Entrepreneur.
Content topics include everything from evergreen content such as ‘how to do a self assessment tax return’, to market predictions that position them as industry experts, to responding to reactive changes that will affect their target customers such as the new GSPR that came into effect in Dec 2024.
Covering reactive topics means their target audience positions them as a trusted source of truth, and a partner in business that can be lent on for more than just the insurance services they provide.
Tactic two: Leveraging First Party Data and In-Depth Reports
In addition to regular content, Simply Business publishes detailed reports, such as their ‘2024 Landlord Report’, a thorough analysis of the UK’s private rental market. These reports perform well in the insurance sector, providing unique insights from a specific audience that media outlets are eager to cover.
As well as providing insights to customers and an opportunity for press coverage, reports like these reinforce their expertise, will earn backlinks from high profile publications and will strengthen brand authority and E-E-A-T.
Tactic three: LargeScale 360 Campaigns
Simply Business has used all elements of digital marketing, including social media to promote campaigns.
Their ‘Business Boost 2024’ campaign is the perfect example. Simply Business Offers £25,000 to a deserving small business and they have run this campaign yearly since 2020. This consistency has allowed the brand to continue to build on its trust and position in the industry. It has positioned itself as a brand that cares about its customers.
Their campaigns always have a strong call to action. The messaging is attractive to publications and businesses which will mean significant organic engagement, making it a dream for earning backlinks.
This year alone, it achieved 145 backlinks and widespread traction across social platforms.
Tactic four: Evergreen Resources
Simply Business’s ‘Business Name Generator’ is a great example of an evergreen resource that continually drives traffic and backlinks.
Not reliant on specific data, the tool remains relevant over time whilst directly addressing the needs of its target audience – entrepreneurs looking to start new businesses.
Interactive tools like this compel publications to link back, ensuring long-term engagement without extensive outreach.
Tactic Five: Integrating Traditional Advertising
Their digital PR is complemented by a cohesive offline strategy. Their latest TV advert leverages nostalgic marketing with an 80s theme and a catchy tune, reinforcing their image as a relatable and dependable brand.
Why Has This Digital PR Strategy Worked So Well?
The exceptional success of Simply Business can be attributed to its unwavering consistency and focused approach to digital marketing. Their steady output of high quality content that speaks to their audience, combined with campaigns that build brand authority and trust, has paid off.
Every campaign and resource is aligned with the needs of their audience, ensuring they stay at the front of their minds. This is achieved because their marketing teams share a unified message across digital and traditional platforms, creating a seamless brand experience.
5 key takeaways for brands to employ in their Digital PR strategies for 2025:
- A strong digital PR strategy will have multiple types of digital PR within it – don’t rely just on hero campaigns or just on reactive content, the strongest DPR strategies will utilise multiple workstreams to build a varied and balanced backlink profile.
- Relevance is everything – define your niche and target audience and stick to it, both for your organic growth as we know Google values relevance highly, and also for your customer perception.
- Be loud and proud about your digital PR initiatives with the whole marketing team. Share the benefits of digital PR and your plans to deliver on specific business goals. Having the whole team as advocates will bridge greater alignment across all channels. Trust and integrity within marketing functions will create consistency in messaging, and content for consumers.
- Invest in evergreen resources that provide long-term value – Evergreen tools like Simply Business’s business name generator illustrate the value of creating interactive resources that continuously attract backlinks over time. These resources give your audience what they need. It grabs their attention and holds it, in a world where they are constantly bombarded by content. Not only does it benefit your audience. This type of creative helps build consistency, trust and integrity across your marketing functions.
- Consistency is key, digital PR is a tactic that should be used on an ongoing basis rather than through ad hoc campaigns if you want to see maximum and sustainable growth.
Want to know how you can see success like this? Speak with our Digital PR department today
Shakira Sacks
Shakira is an experienced senior PR leader with 9 years experience in the industry building brands organically through PR strategies combining data and creativity. Joining the agency in early 2024, Shakira leads on the creative and reactive PR offerings here at Kaizen, focusing on new business, product development and innovation.