Insurance marketing is always a challenge for many agents. After all, with so much competition today, it’s difficult to stand out from the crowd. More and more businesses are clamoring for the consumer’s attention. You need to be able to grab their attention and persuade them to purchase your products and services. Many people have different ideas when it comes to marketing for agencie, but there’s no real step-by-step guide that will show you the way to success. Everyone has their own way of doing things, and you simply have to find a method that works for you. But, there might be a few things you’re not aware of, things that may be vital to anyone who wants to do marketing for their insurance agency. That’s why we’ve put together this blog post about the 5 things nobody will tell you about insurance marketing.
1. You don’t have to spend more to make more.
You’ve probably heard the saying, “You need to spend money to make money.” Of course, with many endeavors, this is true, but it’s also a favorite saying among marketers and advertisers. After all, things cost money – from the paper that ads are printed on to airtime where you play your commercial so you can reach your audience. Producing ads and marketing materials also cost money, because people have to actually create them. Traditional advertising, that is, TV, Print, and Radio ads, can cost a company tens of thousands of dollars, and not many insurance agencies have this kind of budget.
However, while this was true thirty or forty years ago, today it’s not quite so clear-cut. These days, we have a powerful tool – the Internet. People today can connect to the world from anywhere, especially with the popularity of smart devices. The World Wide Web is truly the great equalizer, bringing information to people all over the world. In fact, according to recent stats, about 40% of the world’s population has a connection to the Internet – that’s roughly over 3.5 billion people! With Mark Zuckerberg, of Facebook, investing heavily into his “WIFI Drone” project, that number will continue to sky rocket. Now, that’s a lot of people you can potentially reach with your marketing message!
The great thing about the Internet is that it’s virtually free, or relatively inexpensive, to reach consumers using this tool. Social media is an especially effective tool to reach people. It’s free to create social media accounts for your insurance agency, and to reach out to other people. Targeted ads and messages on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn are also quite inexpensive, and you can spend as little as 5-10 dollars a day to reach hundreds of people. So, while you do have to spend some money, it won’t break the bank.
2. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel
Now, some people may think insurance is boring and that with such advanced and sophisticated ideas that people have today, agents need to think outside the box. Innovation and new ideas are good, of course. If you are willing to experiment and try out new ideas, go ahead. However, there’s no need to invent a whole new approach. While your tools may be different, it’s still the basic and the tried-and-true methods that work and produce results.
It would be interesting to try new ways of doing things, but you also need to keep your eye on your bottomline. If you stick with the basics, which, in the case of insurance agents, is providing good service, showing your clients you care and treating people the right way, then you’ve already won 90 percent of the battle. These “boring” things are what your clients are looking for, after all. Because of the intangible nature of insurance, customers judge you based on your relationship with them, not whether your new jingle or logo is hip or not.
3. Online ratings and reviews count a lot towards local rankings
Insurance agencies generally work within a 25-mile radius around their physical office location. That means, if people are using search engines like Google or even looking through Facebook, then they will probably use search terms like “Insurance agent in [city name]” or “insurance agents near me.” This is actually a great opportunity for agents to get good rankings on search engines, as it not only ensures people can find them, but if there isn’t a lot of competition, they can easily get to the front page of results. Many consumers don’t look for a specific agent, or company, by name. The majority of search queries are for products like, “Auto insurance [city name} or “Homeowners’ insurance” {city name} or “Life insurance” {city name}, and it goes on…… You want to be easily found for all of those keywords that accurately represents your most popular products and services within your retail trading zone.
While there are many SEO techniques you can use for insurance marketing, one of the best things you can do (and do right now) is to get some good ratings and reviews (R&Rs) on sites like Yelp, G+, Facebook, and other local review sites. Plus, when you do get reviews from consumers, other potential customers will see them and they might be persuaded to give you a call. So, if you haven’t already, encouraged your customers to leave you their honest reviews on these sites, you should do so right away. Of course, make sure you don’t annoy them or break any rules, and also, don’t forget to read their reviews, thank them, and use those R&Rs to improve your services where they mijght be applicable. . R&Rs is one of the most popular online activities for internet users today. Google and the other search engines will reward you commensurately by being an active participant with R&Rs.
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4. Mobile is the future
So, we’ve mentioned that the Internet can really help you with your insurance marketing efforts, and nearly every successful SMB is using SEO, social media, online directories and online reviews to drive sales and professionally manage their online reputation. That’s why you’ve got to take it further and look to the future; and the future of marketing is on mobile. These days, people spend about 65% of their digital media time using mobile devices. That doesn’t mean that people aren’t using their laptops and desktops anymore. People still make transactions on their thems, but more often than not, they make first contact with a brand or business using their mobile device. That means that you need to catch them while they’re on their tablets and smartphones and ensure that your content is mobile-friendly. If your material isn’t mobile friendly and people can’t look or read them properly, then they may get frustrated and simply tune you out.
5. It takes time and execution
While it seems like everything moves at a lighting pace these days, the truth is, succesful insurance marketing still takes time. While the mechanics have gotten faster thanks to technology and you can literally create a message and send it out in one second, to see results, you still need some patience and time for it to all come together. Time and execution are the keys to success. You still have to nurture your audience, so they are prepared to receive the message you want to send them. You also need time to get data, because, again, thanks to technology, you can gather a lot of data in a short amount of time, but you need to review and interpret them, then make adjustments to find out what works and what doesn’t.
Unless you’re extremely fortunate or at the right place at the right time, you won’t find overnight success. And why would you want something so fleeting as 15 minutes of fame? To build your business and for you to find long-term success, you want to build things right and start with a good foundation that will support you for years to come. Always remember, “Measure twice and cut once.”
Marketing for insurance agencies isn’t always clear-cut and straightforward, plus there are many regulations and compliance issues agents need to carefully follow. Often, agents will get a lot of advice on what to do, but there are a few things that they need to figure out for themselves. Of course, once you learn about these things that they don’t tell you about marketing for insurance agents, you can use this knowledge and improve your efforts and blow away your competition.
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