The tried and tested way of making cold calls is an archaic practice nowadays. Step into a new day and give social media a try. The way that you use social media to keep in touch with friends and family is also the way that you can have a presence in your current (and potential) client’s lives. Engaging with insurance clients over social media is how everyone is doing business these days.
Social media is another tool you can use to show customers your expertise when it comes to insurance, it can be used for promotions, and it can be a way to get referrals too. Think of it as another way to reach your customers, kind of like advertising, but it feels more personal.
Of course there are basics that need to be covered when it comes to social media – you need to have an account, profile photo, business information, followers, and you have to have some sort of content connected to your business.
Each platform has millions of followers, unique features and different ways to reach its members. Below are some suggestions to increase your social media presence:
Facebook Marketing
Let’s start with the king of all social media – Facebook with it’s over a billion active users, half of which check their accounts daily. If you are using only one network for engaging with insurance clients, then this should be it! The beauty of Facebook marketing is that it can be targeted, so you can specify a location, age, sex, and even interests. The first thing to do is set up a page with your agency’s information and make sure to invite friends and clients to like the page.
Whoever has liked your page will be able to see whatever you post on their news feeds. Make sure to post links to your blog posts or articles. Use the page to announce promotions or give out coupon codes for customers. You can also run an ad to promote your business page and get people to like the page. If you really want to make sure that certain posts reach your audience, try Facebook Promoted Posts and for a small fee your post will be more likely to be seen.
Twitter Marketing
Twitter has over 315 million monthly active users and when it comes to engaging those users you have to do things differently than just posting links, pictures and comments to your Twitter account. With only 140 characters per tweet, engaging with insurance clients on Twitter is quick, but not necessarily easy.
To get in touch with Twitter’s active users, engage with them in Twitter chats. Check for a twitter chat that you can take part in, join the conversation and give your two cents. Just try not to do a hard sell, keep note of possible leads by following them or making a Twitter list.
Start a new #hashtag campaign to promote your agency and engage followers with a challenge. The San Francisco Food Bank challenged followers to spend less than five dollars a day on food and had them tweet about it using the #hungerchallenge hashtag. Their followers posted about their experiences, learned about surviving on five dollars a day and helped spread awareness on hunger issues.
Google Plus Marketing
Engaging with insurance clients over Google plus may not be a priority for many, but it has its advantages. Whoever has a Gmail email account also has a Google Plus account, so that means there is a potential to reach 900 million people. But you definitely can not treat a Google Plus account the same way you would any of your social media accounts. It really is not about engagement, but about having a presence.
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To be included in Google’s search results, your business should have a Google Plus account. The first thing to come up in a search is your business’ Google Plus page, so your page should be updated and have interesting content. Couple a solid Google Plus page with great SEO for your website, then Google will probably put your website ahead of your competition in search results.
Customers reviews are important to a Google Plus page, reviews that are posted to your page also boost your company’s SEO. You will not be able to filter the bad from the good reviews, but it will give your business credibility. Using the reviews as a way to get in touch with customers is also a way to show that you care about them so try and reply to your clients.
LinkedIn Marketing
Over three million companies have LinkedIn accounts but only 17% of small businesses use the platform. One thing you can do is launch a campaign to engage your followers, by asking a question connected to insurance or your agency. Something like,”What is the first type of insurance that you bought?” or “Who is your favorite insurance agent?” Then you can use the answers to post as status updates on your page and use it to build engagement.
You can also pose a question to other agents and keep the conversation going while increasing your business’ visibility.
The Final Word
By engaging your followers you are creating interest and getting people to talk about you and your business. Once you have made that connection then you can sell them something!
Remember to link your social media accounts by including the different handles into your pages so that your followers will be aware of your various accounts. You can also cross promote posts or links and once clicked people are lead to your different pages.
Try to keep a balance when it comes to the content that you are posting – for every post about your business, put up 3 posts that are more of a soft sell. It is also a good idea to be consistent with your posts, and get something out there on a regular basis.
Do not be afraid to be creative when it comes to social media, because it is a way to make meaningful connections with your customers!
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