Another year looms in front of us and it is time to start planning on how to reach clients through your blog. If you’re a non-captive agent, then you can use blogs to help your business. After all, blogging is another way to sell your brand and all of your insurance products. But most of all it is a way to keep in touch with your customers and show them that you have their interests at heart.
Now, what should you blog about? Don’t worry you don’t have to do all this on your own! Talking to clients, friends and family, looking at pop culture, the weather and current events are a sure fire way to come up with engaging and relevant blog posts that your clients will find useful in their everyday lives.
Here are a couple of things to think about when brainstorming topics for your blog
- Keep your customer in mind – look back to conversations you have had with clients and list the most common questions that were asked. For sure the questions that your customers have asked are on the minds of other people too. Make sure to include solutions to issues within the post so that your clients know the next steps they need to take.
- Crowdsourcing – talk to your friends and family to ask them what they want to know about insurance or what questions they have about getting insurance. Using your social media sites are also a good way to get in touch with your followers and show that you are interested in their needs. A quick question on your Facebook page or Twitter account just takes a couple of seconds and builds a lot of goodwill. You can also link your blog post to Facebook and Twitter to get some traffic between the sites.
- Keep things simple – try to avoid using industry jargon. Instead, use straightforward sentences that are easy to understand. A blog has to be informal so write how you would talk. What are the words that you use when explaining insurance to your clients? Picture the client in front of you and start writing.
- Use real life stories – To make it easier for your clients to understand the importance of having insurance, tell them a story of how having insurance (or not!) affects other people’s lives. It could be about how parents got life insurance so that their children would be taken care of in the future. Or real life costs that insurance can help cover for clients and their loved ones. You could even do a feature story and interview local officials, agents, and clients to givea face to the story. People relate to stories of other people and see the value of doingthings based on the experiences of others. Make sure to include a picture, to give a face to the story.
- Get artsy – use pictures, graphics and create your own images using apps like PicMonkey or Canva. Infographics are also a catchy way to explain a topic and make it easier for your clients to understand insurance topics.
- Look to the weather – each season has it’s own set of issues that clients have to deal with. For homeowners when winter comes along they need to winterize their homes to save on heating costs. Before going on summer road trips, customers can bring their cars to their mechanics for a check and oil change. This is a soft sell approach that shows your clients that you are thinking of them.
- Behind the Scenes – show your clients a typical day in the office, talk about your agency’s values, your agency’s goals, or why you love being an insurance agent. Customers are giving you their hard earned money and this way they can get to know you a little more and trust you even more.
- That’s entertainment! – With a title like “What you can learn from (insert TV show/movie) about insurance” you can reach customers through their favorite shows or movies. Talk about renter’s insurance with the Big Bang Theory and all the collectibles in their apartments. Getting travel insurance before embarking on a life journey like Julia Roberts in Eat, Pray, Love. The possibilities are endless and very relatable.
- Pet and kids – the most topics that get clicks online are pets and children. How many hours have you spent watching videos of dogs, cats and that hamster eating a tiny burrito? Or how about babies trying to fight sleep or trying things for the first time. And guess what, there is insurance for both of them! Letting your clients know the different kinds of products available for their beloved pet, giving tips on how to keep them healthy, etc. is a niche market that is full of obsessed owners. Of course, parents care about and think so much about the future of their children so giving them ideas on how to take care of them is always invaluable.
- Show me the money – list the different ways that clients can save money whether in everyday life or in obscure auto, home and other insurance discounts. Everyone likes a good deal and some even feel a sense of accomplishment when they save money.
- The secret world – Using titles like “The Secret World of (insert insurance product here)” is a way to hook readers into reading your blog post. It makes them feel like they are going to learn something special, important and essential to their lives.
- Local news – watch or read local news and comment on how the story affects the community. You can also relate the occurrence or statistic you find in a news story to an insurance plan you offer. Local insurance risks like crime, weather, etc are another way to make insurance more relevant and understandable to your clients.
One of the most important things is to have fun and show your personality. These 12 ideas will lead the way to great blog entries and will let your clients know that you are thinking about their needs. Hopefully, this will nudge them in the right direction to purchase insurance from you!
{{cta(‘a46d80bb-d885-4af7-94f1-7bf677e9271a’,’justifycenter’)}}
