Let’s take a look at what worked when it comes to insurance marketing last year. Here are the insurance marketing trends of 2016:
Personalization
In order to reach clients, personalization is the name of the game. This means online you have more than just a website with your business details, your website also has more information about your agency, your products and what sets you apart from the rest. Plus points if you have a blog that is filled with content that concerns your clients, advice and posts about the products you offer.
To make you stand out from the rest of the crowd, you could improve your website so that your clients can login and check their accounts anytime they need to – payment dates, policy information, customer service form. This real-time access to policy and claims will be invaluable. This will also improve your customer service and allow you to track and gather data that you can use to improve your services. Improving your agency management system will let your agents access their client information anytime and that should boost customer service too.
In 2016, businesses employed personalization to reach more clients. Keep that in mind when thinking about your website because this is your end goal. Being personal also includes social media and emails, letting your personality show adds a flair that makes you appear that you care about your clients.
Mobile
The move from desktop to mobile is something to consider and mobile marketing was certainly one of the biggest insurance marketing trends from last year. Most consumers own a smartphone now and are using it more and more to surf the web, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. With people moving to mobile, start looking into your website and see how it fares when accessing it on a smartphone or even a tablet. Some functionalities may not translate well and affect your client’s user experience.
You will probably have to work with your website developer if there are any problems. Responsive Web Design makes sure that your website can be accessed and used the same way when using a smartphone.
Videos
Thanks to Facebook, video exploded last year and will continue to be one of the biggest insurance marketing trends this year. Informative, educational videos keep people engaged and are a great way to reach your clients. Videos are often shared through social media too so having videos is dual edged in that it can be content for your website and online on the different platforms.
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Videos do not need to be a full production and expensive. You can start with your celphone, just make sure that you can be seen and heard clearly. People are used to this type of user generated video, and it goes back to making things personal.
Videos had a new life in 2016 with the use of live video in Facebook. Facebook users, media companies, and businesses used the platform to keep in touch, sell something or share what they are doing.
Enhance Analytics
Data is king and we are not talking about cell phone connectivity. Whatever data you can get about your customers is useful and can be harnessed to enhance customer service. Data can come from email newsletters, website and social media information.
Marketing analytics keep track of campaigns, gives you clues on effective marketing channels, etc. While web analytics isn’t just about how many pageviews your website gets but gives you information about how your clients interact with the site – what post resonates, which forms were downloaded, etc. Based on these analytics you can adjust your website or email and marketing campaigns. This will also allow you to identify opportunities for cross-selling that you have not had in the past.
Automation
A lot of the work with social media, online advertising and content creation can now be automated. Long established platforms have made posting in social media easier in terms of the timing of when things can be scheduled. But don’t think you can totally handover the reigns to platforms like Hooutsuite, it is still important that your creative imprint is there to promote your brand.
Innovations
Even though the insurance industry has used bundling to get better discounts for their clients some companies are venturing to a-la-carte options. On-demand insurance solutions are being explored by venture capitalists and startups like Trov and Cuuva.
And there have been talks about peer-to-peer (P2P) insurance from Lemonade, a startup that plans to change how insurance is bought. The peer-to-peer business model is nothing new outside of America, as Germany has friendsurance and the United Kingdom has Guevara. P2P policyholders pay premiums into a pool and at the end of the policy period if there is any money left, the policyholders get the money back.
Content Creation
The internet is it’s own ecosystem and everything in it is somehow connected. Google search is very important and you have to keep your website up to date with Google’s requirements. SEO, social media, reviews and the list goes on with how to keep your website at the top of search lists. Content fuels everything on the internet and good content, compelling stories in particular, help your marketing campaigns sink or swim.
People are wary of direct advertising. That’s why companies have resorted to native advertising, where the ad looks like editorial content, but it’s a paid ad. Websites like Buzzfeed and the Huffington Post are examples of businesses that have mastered native advertising. A lot of Buzzfeed’s native ads even become viral, they really think of ways to be creative and engage audiences.
While it is good to have evergreen content on your blogs try to keep social media time sensitive. Ways to engage with your audience is by giving time-limited updates. Say you are at a football game or community event, post to social media where your booth is located and invite people to visit and get a prize. If you hold a seminar on insurance, give live updates to show people how the event is going. Doing these things keep your audience checking on you and what is happening.
These are just a couple of ways that you can use trends for last year to your advantage. The next time your client or prospective client is doing a Google search, goes on social media or reads about insurance, they might be looking at your content instead of the competition.
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