What You Need To Know About Insurance Marketing
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Marketing and sales are the main drivers of your insurance agency, and one cannot exist without the other. Think about it; sales propel your business forward, and if you're not selling policies, then it means your agency has no revenue, customers, or a future. On the other hand, marketing helps you increase your brand awareness and generate leads that eventually convert to customers. So, if your sales department is the car that drives your business's success, then marketing is undoubtedly the fuel.
A well-planned and executed insurance marketing strategy can help you create a loyal customer base and enhance your profitability. Unfortunately, most insurance agencies only prioritize sales and ignore marketing, which is where they go wrong. In this article, we'll highlight everything you need to know about insurance marketing, including what it entails, why you should create strategies, and how to measure their success.
What is Insurance Marketing
Insurance marketing is all about selling your policies and promoting your agency to your target audience. If you're relatively new in the market, there's a high chance that only a few people know of your existence. This means that no matter how favorable your insurance policies are, you're not making sales or generating leads because your brand awareness is low.
Insurance agents are usually excellent salespeople, and they have no difficulties converting leads into customers. They, however, have a hard time marketing insurance products because insurance marketing is not straightforward. For starters, the benchmarks of success vary & are less obvious, and there are tons of marketing ideas to try out.
How Does Insurance Marketing Work
When it comes to insurance marketing, a one-size-fits-all approach never works. You need to tailor your marketing strategies to your agency's goals, which are heavily dependent on your target customers.
For instance, if your marketing goal is to increase brand awareness, you need to adapt your strategy to make sure that you are advertising to the right audience based on their needs, geographical location, gender, online preferences, etc. You also have to keep monitoring the effectiveness of your strategies and improving them as you go along.
Understanding the Different Types of Insurance Marketing Strategies
There are various effective marketing strategies, but ultimately, you should choose the ones that help you meet your business needs. The two main categories of insurance marketing are;
Online Insurance Marketing Strategies
Online insurance marketing strategies entail promoting your agency and its services on digital platforms. This includes;
- Landing pages: Consumers often find insurance topics complex, and they need pages dedicated to the information that they need. For instance, if a prospect needs details on the best homeowners policy, you should have a specific page on your website dedicated to this. Make sure the landing pages also have CTAs (Call to Action) so that you can still generate leads.
- Online reviews: This is one of the most affordable yet effective online insurance marketing strategies. Customers trust other customers more than they trust your business. In fact, statistics reveal that more than 90% of customers go through online reviews before making a purchase. So, encourage your loyal clients to leave reviews on your online profiles.
- Social media marketing: almost everyone is on social media nowadays, and if you're not leveraging your social profiles to market your insurance agency, then you're missing out on a lot. Run social media ads on various platforms including Facebook, and Instagram, depending on where most of your customers are active. You should also use LinkedIn networking to build professional relationships.
- SEO: search engine optimization helps you increase your online visibility. And, the truth is that if you're not appearing on the first pages of Google, then your web traffic is likely low. Studies show that only 25% of web users go past the first page, so make sure you work on-page and off-page SEO.
- SEM: search engine marketing involves marketing your insurance agency on search engines such as Google and Bing. This way, when a customer looks up your products online, your advert is among the first listings.
Offline Insurance Marketing Strategies
Currently, most insurance agencies are focusing on online marketing, but some offline marketing tactics are still as effective. They include;
- In-person Events: this is where your insurance agents go to events to interact with potential customers and educate them on insurance and how you can best assist them.
- Handing out business cards: they make you more accessible, and if the prospect ever needs insurance, they will likely call you.
- Referrals: this entails creating programs where your current customers or partners refer customers to your insurance agency for a discount on their policies.
Looking for ways to promote your agency on social media? Level-up your agency's social media presence to attract new clients with our 15 social media sales templates.
What Are the Benefits of Having a Good Insurance Marketing Campaign
You're probably wondering, why do I need insurance marketing? Well, here are the top benefits of implementing a good insurance marketing campaign.
- It increases your sales: if more people are aware of your agency and products, they will purchase from you. Some marketing strategies also increase your credibility, making you more trustworthy.
- It enhances your brand awareness: before you start pushing sales, first build your brand, as this will enhance your visibility. Marketing also helps you educate your customers about your products, ultimately making you seem reliable.
- It helps you identify strategies that work: by trying out various campaigns, you're able to optimize your marketing strategies and focus on the ones that yield the most results.
- It helps you earn your customers' trust: customer trust is equivalent to gold in the insurance world. You'll be able to build a solid customer base which will then increase your revenue.
- It helps you build your reputation: your agency's reputation is critical to its profitability. Insurance marketing helps you engage with your customers in a transparent manner, shining a positive light on your brand.
Insurance Marketing to Millennials
Most insurance agencies focus on baby boomers, but this strategy may put them out of business. Currently, millennials are the largest generation globally, so you should channel most of your marketing strategies towards them.
You should, however, note that old-school tactics may not work, and you need to adapt your marketing strategies specifically for Millenials. Some of the things they need from insurance agents include being understood, authentic messaging, customized policies, automation & technology, and a streamlined buying process.
How Social Media Affects Your Company's Marketing Strategy
Currently, there are over 4.4 billion people on social media, which is a 115.59% increase in users within six years. If you're not leveraging your social media accounts to promote your business, then you're wasting your available resources. The beauty of social media platforms is that they give you a wide reach and humanize your brand.
They also allow you to interact with your customers on a personal level making social media one of the most effective reputation management tools. The best part is that there are free social media tools that you can use to increase your engagement rates.
The Importance of Branding in a Competitive Market
There are multiple insurance agencies in the market. How can you differentiate yours from the rest? Through branding!
Branding is more than having an impressive logo and attractive brand colors. It's also about your brand tone, brand promise, brand association, and overall brand personality. Branding also encompasses all the features that distinguish your business and services from those of other agencies and helps you position your agency in the mind of your customers. This way, every time they need insurance products, you're the first business that comes to mind.
Different Ways to Measure Success for Your Insurance Company's Marketing Campaign
There are various metrics you can use to determine how successful your insurance marketing campaign are;
- Return on investment (ROI): this is the amount of revenue you generate from your campaigns against the amount you used to advertise your services.
- Website traffic growth: since you started running your advertisement, how many more website visitors have you generated?
- Leads generated: there are two aspects to this KPI. You should look at the marketing qualified leads (prospects that are most likely to turn to customers) and sales qualified leads ( leads that are very close to making a purchase)
- Referral traffic: these are the customers that visited your website or offices from other websites or from customer recommendations.
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): this is the amount you spend trying to convert a lead to a customer. If your marketing strategies are effective, your customer acquisition costs will be low.
- Customer retention rate: your marketing strategies should not end when you acquire a customer. They should also focus on retaining the client so that they remain loyal to your business.
Increase the Profitability of Your Agency Through Insurance Marketing!
Effectively marketing your insurance agency is the key to revenue generation and high profitability. Make sure you customize your insurance marketing strategy based on your target audience, their needs, and your business goals to ensure your campaigns are successful.
With a marketing tool like InsurGrid, your clients can quickly, easily and securely share their insurance information.
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You should also check out our YouTube page, as it has several videos on interesting and innovative techniques customers use to market their agencies.