Building a reputation is an important aspect for any business. Having credibility and trust are the cornerstone of a successful and thriving insurance business. As an insurance agent, people rely on you to safeguard their property or their enterprise. In the old days, word of mouth was the way to go. That certainly helps with the marketing but there is a slight problem with that. Information can get distorted. There is also the risk of people not endorsing your product further. How do insurance agents know that this type of referral converts customers?
With the help of current technology, online marketing enhances the word of mouth process. Even better, it can help insurance people target your audience in more specific manner, broaden their reach and do it in less time that it will take Mr. Smith to go out to his front porch for the morning paper.
Just to add, while this article specifies techniques non-captive agents can use, there are some tips that can also benefit some captive agents. Depending on the limitations of your parent insurance company, you should be able to apply many of these techniques.
Here are the 7 ways to make internet marketing work for non-captive insurance agents:
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Using SEO keywords or phrases
SEO or Search Engine Optimization refers to the process in making your website most visible when a person makes a search for a specific topic, in this case, insurance. Working like a traditional advertisement you see in tv, people only pay attention to the first few things they see. Refer back to the time that you have to search for something in a search engine. For example, you might want to look for a restaurant in your area that serves Indian food. There might be hundreds of Indian restaurants in your area. You don’t want to look at all of that! You would only focus on the top 10 or even less, top 5. SEO helps your website to remain on that top 10 or that first page. Studies show that remaining on the first page of search results can earn you 50% of more people visiting your website! This helps you remain fresh and relevant time and time again for customers who will be searching for your services.
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PPC or Pay Per Click Advertising
Besides using keywords or phrases in the insurance agent marketing, Pay Per Click is another way to gather more visitors. These types of ads are shown along with the search results to attract consumers to click on them to assist on what they were looking for. There is an investment to this, as the name suggests. The company you hire will charge you every time that someone clicks on the ad. On the other side, there is a great ROI since you allocate the budget for these type of ads. If your PPC ad is shown first and above all the normal unpaid searches, you garner more than half of the ad clicks on that page.
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Social Media Marketing
We have come a long way from the dial up days and sending pigeons to neighboring cities to announce that we have new wares to sell. Social media nowadays are not the only place where grandma could put pictures of her last trip pictures. It is a place where one could do business. One has to keep in mind that in social media marketing, the main emphasis is being social. An insurance agent can set up their insurance company’s webpage. This becomes an avenue where their “fans”, in this case, their customers could follow and interact with your company. It can take up a lot of time to manage this but it is worth the investment. A good online presence establishes the company’s name, brand and the most importantly of all, relationships. Relationships equals trust. Social media growth leads to business growth. Customers who trust you, trust the company and would more than likely patronize your business.
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Email Marketing
If you have customers that are not much on social media sites, there’s another way to do your internet marketing. Bring back customers with your email marketing! There might be some, and this might be a very limited number, who does not want or interact through the vast social media platforms. But everyone almost has an email! If a customer decides to opt in for your email subscription, it’s your most valuable avenues in keeping in touch with your customer. News, updates or promotions could be sent through your email newsletters. This keeps you at the forefront in your customer’s mind. Plus, being able to forward this email to friends and family is the easiest way to spread around the word. No more lost pigeons!
An insurance agent must observe proper email marketing etiquette. Don’t overwhelm by sending emails too often or send too infrequent that you’re forgotten. Consistency is key!
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Keep their attention with Content Marketing!
This is the strategy where one uses different platforms that produces content that will convince your customer to avail of your products or services. This can be done through blogs, articles, videos or ebooks. The main purpose of content marketing is to demonstrate relatability and leadership in the insurance agency. Blogs or blogging is the most common form of content marketing. This type offers a more ground to earth way of reaching out to consumers without the intimidation factor. One could also discuss the leading aspects and growth in the insurance agency and how it applies or affects your customer’s current wants and needs. Authenticity builds yours credibility. The more credibility you have, the more that your customers will keep on partnering with you.
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Affiliates and Link Building
Besides building a relationship with your customers, partnering with other businesses who share the same core values can help tremendously with trust. This is another way the “word of mouth” process online helps the growth in your business. If a person is on a website they trust but might be on the hunt for a different service or product, the first thing they do or ask is ask for recommendations. If you were recommended on that website, this gives a firmer belief that your insurance company will be worth their time (and hopefully, their money!) Or else, why would you be recommended? Be careful when choosing the sites and businesses to partner with. You want these companies be reputable, trustworthy and be of quality. Because birds of the same feather…
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Be accessible everywhere! Have a mobile website!
What did people do before there were drive throughs? Or delivery? Nowadays, everyone shops online. Not only in that, they like to do their errands on the run. The mobile website or app addresses that concern. You might think that a website is enough. The main difference website and a mobile is how customers access your site. A mobile website is geared towards the small screens that cellphones have. Your graphics and message won’t appear small or distorted. Ease of access is what a mobile website offers for your customer!
These are only a few ways that one could you social media marketing for insurance business. There are a lot of resources out there so why not make the internet work for you?
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