Des Moines runs on insurance and insurance has a perception problem
The world's third-largest insurance hub, with more insurance and annuity headquarters per person than any other American city. Its carriers compete for customers and talent against an industry many see as old-fashioned.
Benchmarks in this market
- Qualified broker & advisor inquiries
- +161%Qualified broker & advisor inquiries
- Applicant quality on recruitment campaigns
- +44%Applicant quality on recruitment campaigns
- CAC on compliance-reviewed annuity funnels
- -29%CAC on compliance-reviewed annuity funnels
Illustrative ranges for engagements of this type, not verified Des Moines-specific client data. Orientation, not a guarantee. Your starting point changes the range.
How we work here: Remotely from our Lahore office, with CT coverage for calls and travel for kickoffs. We don't claim a Des Moines office we don't have.
Clients across every market
What's actually different about the Greater Des Moines area
Des Moines has been called the 'Hartford of the West' for over a century, and it still fits. It's the world's third-largest insurance capital after Hartford and New York, with more insurance headquarters per person than any other major U.S. city. Over 100,000 Iowans work in insurance and financial services in the metro.
Principal Financial Group anchors that identity. It was founded in 1879, has a five-building headquarters campus downtown and employs about 20,000 people worldwide. In West Des Moines, Athene Holding, backed by Apollo Global Management, sits at the center of the fixed annuity and retirement income business.
F&G Annuities & Life and EMC Insurance Companies also have their headquarters downtown. EMC has been here more than a hundred years and ranks among the nation's top 60 insurers by premiums written. Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, on Grand Avenue, insures most of Iowa.
That means the people you're marketing to here, like broker networks, MGA principals and actuarial and product teams, know insurance inside out. Generic 'protect what matters' messaging gets seen through right away by people who've spent their careers pricing risk.
Insurance is losing young talent to tech
Industry turnover has risen from 8–9% to about 12–15%. The median insurance worker is 44, against a national average of 42, and only about a quarter of the workforce is under 35. Younger candidates see insurance as old-fashioned and take offers from InsurTech and tech companies. For a Des Moines carrier, that's a marketing problem before it's an HR one. Recruiting and employer brand now compete with customer acquisition for budget.
Being #3 means working for national attention
Hartford and New York get a century of built-in recognition. Des Moines has to earn it in every piece of national content, every industry conference and every thought leadership piece. The market's depth doesn't automatically bring the recognition a carrier here deserves.
Lead with your track record
A century-old carrier or MGA has underwriting history, financial strength and licenses across many states. A broker or risk manager checks those first. Most local insurance marketing leads with brand feeling instead of the proof that buyer is looking for.
Annuities sell slowly, through advisors
Athene and F&G sell fixed and indexed annuities through advisors and broker-dealers, and compliance reviews every claim in their content. A funnel built for consumers buying direct doesn't fit a product an advisor recommends months after first contact.
What usually moves first in Des Moines.
Based on what tends to be the binding constraint for companies in this market. Your audit may point somewhere else. We go where the numbers say.
Industry playbooks relevant in Des Moines
Specific playbooks for Des Moines businesses
The part clients actually remember.
Not the reports. The uncomfortable conversation that changed the trajectory.
We were running two different companies out of one website and wondering why neither side converted well. Splitting them was obvious in hindsight and something we'd never have done ourselves.
We'd been quietly tracking diversion data for years because it was good practice, not because we thought anyone would pay for it. Turns out the properties we most wanted as clients had been asking every hauler for exactly that, and nobody was answering.
We'd been telling practices we'd get them paid faster for years. Nobody had told us that wasn't actually what was stopping them from switching. The fear of switching itself was. Once we addressed that directly instead of the speed pitch, everything else got easier.
Des Moines questions, answered straight.
Yes. Recruiting and employer-brand marketing use the same skills as winning customers: a specific audience, a real reason to choose you and a funnel built to convert, aimed at candidates instead of policyholders. Insurance's image problem with younger workers is a positioning problem, and positioning is what we do.
Let's look at your numbers.
A free 30-minute teardown of your funnel, ads, and site, run against what actually works in the Greater Des Moines area. You keep the findings either way.