Audience research
Part of Why the broad market label fails, and how to research insurance buyers in five steps
Business insurance target audience in England: segment by exposure, buying role and FCA PROD 4.2 target market
Define a business insurance target audience in England using official business counts, employers' liability triggers, buying roles and the FCA PROD 4.2 test.
A useful target audience is a group of businesses sharing a relevant risk, decision and buying context. "Small businesses in England" is too broad. A building contractor with employees, a home-based consultant and an online retailer face different exposures and buy cover in different ways.
What to take away
- Define the audience by shared risk, decision and buying context, not broad labels like small businesses in England.
- Use official counts to size the pool, then segment by the exposures that change the insurance problem.
- Employing someone is the clearest trigger for a legal coveremployers' liability insurance of at least £5 million.
- Separate the people involvedinitiator, information holder, decision-maker, payer and policy user.
- Keep the editorial reader group, the commercial segment and a regulated firm's formal target market distinct.
Size the pool with official counts
The business population estimates for 2025 put the private sector in England at 5.0 million businesses, against 361,000 in Scotland, 194,000 in Wales and 139,000 in Northern Ireland.
Most are small. Across the UK, 5.64 million businesses were small, with 0 to 49 employees. Growth since 2010 has mainly come from non-employing businesses, which is why firm size alone tells you little about insurance need.
Begin with the decision
Write down what the research must change. It might decide which trade receives a guide, which questions a comparison journey asks or where human help is needed. Convert opinions into questions you can test by observation or interview.
Start with the likely users. In the discovery phase of a government service, teams find out who their likely users are and what they are trying to do. Apply the same order here before you build personas. The audience research guide sets out the five steps.
Segment by insurance relevance
Use characteristics that alter the insurance problem. Employment is the clearest. You must get employers' liability insurance as soon as you become an employer, to cover you for at least £5 million, from an authorised insurer.
The legal basis is section 1 of the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969, which requires every employer carrying on any business in Great Britain to insure against liability for injury or disease sustained by employees.
You can be fined £2,500 every day you are not properly insured, and the certificate must be displayed where employees can access it.
You do not need it if you only employ a family member or someone based outside England, Scotland and Wales. A sole trader with no staff is therefore a different segment from a sole trader with one employee. See employers' liability insurance for that question.
Add the other traits that matter: trade, use of subcontractors, premises, customer type, claims history and sensitive data.
These point towards covers such as public liability, professional indemnity, commercial property, business interruption and cyber, which each need their own audience check. Do not assume company size predicts any of them. The demand signals article shows how needs appear as a firm grows.
Separate the people involved
In one firm, an owner may approve spending while an operations manager supplies risk details and an accountant sends payroll figures. A broker or trade-body adviser can influence the route.
Identify the initiator, information holder, decision-maker, payer and policy user, and recruit across those roles. The team roles article shows how these map to a firm, and the buyer personas guide shows how to record them.
Check regulatory meaning
Editorial audience research is not the same as an insurer's regulatory target market. Under FCA Handbook PROD 4.2, a target market must be identified at a sufficiently granular level, taking into account the characteristics, risk profile, complexity and nature of the insurance product.
Identifying a target market is distinct from the individual assessment at the point of sale. Keep three records apart: the editorial reader group, the commercial acquisition segment and any formal target market a regulated firm supplies. If they do not align, stop and ask who owns the definition. The UK regulations article covers compulsory covers and penalties.
A worked segment table
The table shows how two firms in the same size band split into different audiences. The firms are invented.
| Firm | Insurance trigger | Evidence to record | Audience label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sole trader plumber, no staff | No employees, so employers' liability is not triggered | Employment status, work location | Self-employed, no employees |
| Builder with three employees | Employs staff, so £5 million employers' liability applies | Payroll count, certificate | Employer with staff |
Write a testable audience statement
Use this structure: "We are researching [buying role] at [type of business] in [English location scope] who recently [insurance event], to decide [specific product or content decision]."
Add inclusion, exclusion and diversity criteria. Note the evidence source, sample period and unanswered questions. Review the statement after each research round.
Test the statement against borderline cases before using it. If a multi-site business, franchisee or subcontractor cannot be classified consistently, refine the exposure criteria.
Before you act
- Write down what the research must change.
- Size the pool with official counts for England.
- Segment by characteristics that alter the insurance problem, starting with employment.
- Identify the buying roles involved in one firm.
- Check regulatory meaning against FCA PROD 4.2.
- Write a testable audience statement with inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Common questions
Why is small businesses in England too broad a target audience?
A building contractor with employees, a home-based consultant and an online retailer may all be small firms, but their exposures and routes to cover differ. A useful audience shares a risk, a decision and a buying context.
How should you separate the people involved in an insurance purchase?
In one firm, an owner may approve spending while an operations manager supplies risk details and an accountant sends payroll figures. Record each role and recruit across them.
What is the difference between editorial audience research and a regulatory target market?
A regulated manufacturer must identify a target market under PROD 4.2 at a sufficiently granular level. Editorial research does not replace that, so keep the three records distinct.
