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Most independent insurance agents understand sales well and are really good at it. It’s fundamental to the success and growth of an agency.
Marketing is also vital to your business. It’s how you turn cold calls into warm leads and grow your book of business.
Your approach should largely depend on the needs of your customers, so it’s critical to adopt an effective approach to your marketing strategy.
An insurance agency marketing strategy should be unique – in the end, it needs to be based on the needs of your customers, just as with your sales strategy, rather than just your sales efforts. You have to think about how you want to attract customers to your agency.
According to recent stats from Facebook, although insurance agents play a vital role to people looking to purchase insurance, online channels are particularly important at the evaluation and research stage for Millennials, where 44% evaluate auto and 33% evaluate property insurance. In addition, among those surveyed, the majority of auto and property insurance purchases occur over the phone or at an agent’s office. But the trend is toward purchasing insurance online, particularly for Millennials.
Because this generation makes up an ever-larger portion of insurance buyers with each passing year, insurance companies and agencies need to adapt and ensure that their online purchase process is easy and seamless. Plus, the cost of communication becomes less expensive with the Internet. It is easier to advertise online than via traditional marketing methods such as direct mail.
Digital marketing is a much more personalized way of reaching your audience and enables you to test what works and what doesn’t. It helps ensure your agency continues to remain top of mind. You can drive traffic to your website and generate leads for follow-up much easier than in the past.
Insurance website designs should make an excellent first impression and function seamlessly across all devices – desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. There’s no reason for independent agents to have sub-optimal website designs that aren’t easy to navigate. Professional website designs are neither expensive nor time-consuming to build if you contract with an experienced insurance team that understands how to position an agency brand, how to market to businesses and consumers online, and create compelling content for lead generation.
Insurance websites should offer gated content for each of your products and services with a strong Call to Action (that can include a form for name, phone number, email address, etc.) to generate prospect leads or to get a quote, or an email newsletter sign-up to capture emails. A local phone number (matching the area code of your target market) should be easy to find on each page.
Look at your website to see how easy it is to get information about a specific product. Whether it’s auto or homeowners insurance or a business product, can you find the information easily? Is the Call to Action prominent on the web for prospects to contact you or take the next step like fill out a form for a premium indication or quote? Is it easy for clients to file a claim or pay a bill? Are these features and benefits available to a customer so that he or she can perform a transaction from anywhere and anytime?
One important tactic in optimizing your website is to keep it fresh and current with blog posts and new content. This is great for SEO (search engine optimization) and for your agency’s thought leadership within a particular niche. You become the resource for prospects and clients to tap into for current information, trends, news, and new product offerings. Content strategies are an important part of the equation in having an enhanced website.
Paid Facebook ads are a great way to build a following and advertise your products. The opportunity for local businesses to advertise on Facebook can be inexpensive if you work with an experienced insurance team. Facebook ads allow you to acquire a new customer and build your agency’s brand awareness. As so many customers spend time on Facebook (80% of all Internet users use Facebook), advertising on this platform is a way for you to reach a targeted audience to increase leads, sales, and revenue. It’s also measurable so you can see what ads are and aren’t working for your agency.
Buying Facebook ads can also help you break into new markets, help with SEO, and increase the number of visitors to your website. Your competitors are buying ads, so you have an opportunity to reach consumers and businesses in your area (or on a national basis) that are looking for the insurance products you offer.
Look around and everyone has their smart device in their hands, making calls or on social media. Getting online is just as important as getting out and pressing the flesh (this was never so apparent amid COVID-19 when in-person meetings were not possible). Most successful insurance agency owners lead by example. Craig Rowe from Clear Risk has 8,162 followers on Twitter, and Craig is a great example. He’s made a commitment to personally use social media to grow the agency’s business. Check out his Twitter profile, where he posts regular updates and comments.
In addition to Twitter, you and your agency should also have a strong presence on LinkedIn — particularly to reach C-suite executives and business professionals. Other social media platforms on which you should have an agency presence (personal and professional) include Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. A video is a great way to create content and reach targeted audiences in a unique way.
Your insurance agency should appear in the search results of your search for an insurance company. How you get your agency to appear on Google or other search engines requires an ongoing effort comprised of several techniques.
This includes working with an experienced SEO team to develop a keyword strategy for those products and services you would like to rank for on search.
This could be for local SEO or national, depending on your agency’s market needs and any campaigns you are also creating. Your website will be optimized using the keyword strategy developed. Additionally, blog articles, videos, and all content created will be implemented using the keywords to help drive traffic to your site.
Your online success in insurance agency marketing also involves setting up Google My Business. Setting up your Google My Business listing is one of the easiest and most effective ways of setting your agency up to be found online. Increasingly more search queries are becoming geographically specific and Google’s algorithms have been developed to take into account user’s intent.
For example, a consumer types in search: “I need home insurance from an agent near me.” You want to be the insurance company that comes up in search! Getting the description about your agency right is important when setting this up, which can be done by insurance marketing experts who do this all the time.
Digital marketing — from optimized websites to content marketing (blogs, video) and email campaigns, Facebook ads, a strong social media presence, and SEO strategies — takes focus for real success. The pay-off is significant when done right and can add to your agency’s growth. Key in all of this is ensuring the management of your online agency’s marketing strategies and tactics. It’s not about being one and done. It’s all about consistency and being able to pivot to address today’s consumer demands.
The insurance industry can always benefit from improving marketing practices. Stay tuned for more articles related to insurance marketing or contact us today for professional marketing services.
Agency Tsunami is the digital marketing division of Neilson Marketing Services, which has provided the insurance distribution sector with innovative marketing and communication solutions for over twenty-five years. With our Agency Tsunami program, we have implemented an integrated marketing strategy that includes optimized websites supported by high-quality SEO and Social Media for hundreds of insurance retailers and wholesalers. Our goal is to help your insurance business perform and generate new opportunities. Give us a call at (800) 736-9741 to learn more about how we can do that for you.
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