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June 16, 2022

Insurance Marketing Tools for Top Performing Agents and Brokers - Plus How to Use Them

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Collect dec pages upfront, write more new policies, and sell more multi-line policies. Sign up for an InsurGrid demo.

As an insurance agent or broker, it's essential to market your business effectively to bring in new prospects, generate leads, and drive more sales. However, with an already full work schedule, streamlining your marketing efforts as much as possible is important. Luckily, insurance marketing tools and best practices can help you generate more leads and increase conversions. By learning more about these tools, which ones makes sense for you, and how to use them effectively, you can improve your insurance marketing campaigns and get the results you're looking for. 

What are Insurance Marketing Tools?

Insurance marketing tools are new technologies or online platforms that help insurance agents and brokers manage the insurance marketing and sales process. These innovative tools help automate processes that were largely manual in the past. Various insurance marketing tools can help target new customers, generate leads, improve communication with prospects and customers, and streamline scheduling. The best tools will easily integrate with your existing tech stack and help you improve productivity.

Why do Insurance Agents and Brokerages Need Marketing Tools?

In order to compete in today's insurance market, agents and brokerages must make the most of the marketing tools at their disposal. In addition to having a website, it is important to use social media, content marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO) to reach potential clients. 

While insurance agency marketing takes a considerable amount of time and effort, it is an important part of growing your business. By focusing on your unique selling points and differentiating your agency from the competition, you will develop an effective marketing strategy that will help you attract new clients and grow your business.

Insurance professionals must seek leads across various platforms that require traditional and digital marketing to capture and convert leads effectively. While manual processes work to develop insurance leads, insurance agents may fail to grow their customer base due to slow processes that leave little time for onboarding new customers.

Marketing tools designed for the insurance industry can help both captive and independent insurance agents create marketing plans that increase conversions and improve the customer experience. For example, insurance agency software is equipped with multiple capabilities to help you run your business and can either be implemented on a standalone basis or as a software suite to help you maintain client relationships. 

How Will InsurGrid Support Your Marketing Tools?

Declaration pages offer a summary of policy information that makes it easy for customers to understand their coverage and provides insurance agents with vital information when preparing a quote, selling a policy, or handling a renewal. 

InsurGrid takes the traditional dec page collection process and automates it so you can get the information you need without having to worry about the back and forth of email and phone tag. Simply send a link to your client or prospect, they fill out the form, and you'll automatically be notified when their dec pages are avaliable for you to view. . 

This powerful tool can be used in tandem with other software to provide a seamless customer experience. Quickly follow up with new leads, get the information you need to provide a quote, and move potential customers through your sales funnel without any delays. InsurGrid has helped over 1,800 agents save hundreds of hours and close $82 million in premium , making it an essential tool for any insurance agent or broker.

How to Determine Which Tools You Need

 It can be challenging to cut through all the noise to determine which tools best match your marketing strategy. Before seeking new insurance marketing tools, consider examining your target audience, existing clients, and insurance marketing ideas to draw in new customers. The information you gather can help you understand the needs of both potential and existing clients and better perform a competitor analysis to see how you can improve. The tools you choose should address pain points and bottlenecks in your marketing and onboarding processes. Our guide covers some of the marketing tools most commonly used by insurance agents and brokers.

Website Builder and CMS Platforms

Both agency and personal websites are essential for any modern insurance marketing campaign. Website builders can help you create a modern website with functionality to allow customers to request a quote, file a claim, or pay bills. A content management system is a platform that powers your website and content. Many website builders and CMS platforms offer a free version that can allow you to try the software without making an investment. However, paid plans typically offer more features than the free plan provided by the same company.

Tips on How to Use

  • Choose a website builder with business functions like email campaigns and quote calculators. 
  • Utilize free templates within your website builder to create a clean, modern, easy-to-navigate design. Wix has dedicated insurance templates with built-in functionality designed for the industry.
  • While you might consider a free plan to try out a website feature, it's not the best option for long-term professional use because you'll be stuck with a subdomain.
  • If you choose a CMS instead of a website builder, coding knowledge is helpful. 
  • A CMS requires hosting, development, and third-party applications. However, it also allows you to move hosts, change domain names, and make other changes to your site.

Content Distribution Networks (CDNs)

Content distribution networks (CDNs) provide an extra layer of hosting that makes your website faster and more reliable. By serving files across a distributed network of servers, a CDN can make the site load faster and help with security, 

Tips on How to Use

  • Learn how CDNs are added to different website types. A web hosting provider might have a built-in CDN. CMS systems usually support CDNs through the use of plugins. Self-hosted websites require more setup.
  • When choosing a CDN, test these critical metrics: end-user DNS response time, peak hour performance, connect time, cache hit/miss, throughput, and API integrations.
  • If you choose a custom CDN, leave room in your budget to hire a developer for integration.
  • Consistently monitor your CDN to optimize performance and identify potential misconfigurations that could cause performance decline.

Social Media Marketing Tools for the Insurance Industry

Social media tools can help you schedule posts, create drip social media campaigns, and offer new avenues of communication. Some social media platforms offer free marketing tools to help you organize and automate your social media marketing posts. 

Scheduling Tools

Posting regularly to social media platforms can seem impossible during busy enrollment periods. A social media scheduler can help you optimize posts for customer engagement while saving time and increasing efficiency.

Design Tools

Different social media platforms are used to target different customers. Each of these platforms uses different formats, but all are highly visual. Social media design tools can help you optimize images for thumbnails, memes, or short messages. Design tools can help you optimize images for multiple platforms, add text, and create videos.

Tips on How to Use

  • Set specific goals for each social media platform before choosing the tools you need.
  • Learn the purpose of each type of social media tool. Some tools are multi-taskers, while others are designed specifically for scheduling or organizing content. 
  • Invest in social media analytics tools to track how well your posts and marketing campaigns perform.
  • Favorite creators in photo libraries, so you can quickly find photos to use for your posts and social media.
  • Try video maker tools to turn photos and video clips into professional content.
  • Invest in social media tools designed for engagement to put relevant content into a single inbox for easy follow-up and replies.
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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.

Email Marketing Tools

Email marketing tools can help insurance agents automate customer emails, find and verify emails, and remove unengaged subscribers. For example, Hunter.IO can automatically find the address of a professional or company and validate any email address. Email list builders can help you develop and categorize clients into an email list. Conversely, email scrubbers help agents avoid marketing to an invalid email list.

Tips on How to Use

  • Look for email tools that are user-friendly, easy to set up, and scalable for a growing email list.
  • Seek tools that integrate with your existing software for seamless functionality.
  • Use email automation tools that allow you to create templates for policy renewals, birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays.
  • Use deliverability tools to track your email service providers (ESP) deliverability results, including whether your email landed in the inbox, spam, or promotional folders.
  • Use email personalization tools to help you create personalized emails with customized photos and text.

Advertising Platforms

Digital marketing is essential for success in modern business. Online business advertising allows you to target customers across multiple platforms and maximize your ROI on ad spend. Popular platforms like Google and Microsoft are most effective because of high user intent. Advertising on social platforms is great for generating interest and retargeting visitors who have already shown interest in your services.

LinkedIn Ads

Both independent insurance agents and insurance agencies frequently work with commercial customers. LinkedIn Ads are a great choice for driving B2B sales. Using the platform for a few minutes each day can help agents target a unique audience, create easy and compelling ads, and boost content across devices to start generating leads in minutes.

Facebook Ads

The sheer number of active users on Facebook makes it an essential part of any marketing campaign. By harnessing the power of Facebook Ads, you can make more connections, accomplish business goals tailored to your preferences, build an online home for your business, and proactively reach new customers.

Google Ads

Google displays ads on various websites and creates ads to display when people search certain keywords. By selecting specific keywords agents can more effectively reach the most relevant audience.

Tips on How to Use

  • Utilize long-tail keywords to generate leads on Google Ads
  • Google Ads takes users directly to your website. For this reason, it's important to make sure your website is functional, educational, well designed, and contains testimonials.
  • Google Ads are more complex than Facebook. Therefore, it's critical to be patient while testing results.
  • Target local users with Facebook Ads.
  • Try Carousel Ads on Facebook to tell a story.
  • Optimize your landing page for mobile devices because over 50% of insurance searches are performed on mobile devices. 
  • Use the Facebook Content Dashboard from Insurance Splash for free content ideas to post.
  • Use targeting tools on LinkedIn to target the right leads and ultimately achieve a higher conversion rate.
  • Use Message Ads on LinkedIn to send direct messages to your prospects to spark immediate action.
  • Build ad campaigns around specific goals by choosing between LinkedIn Ad objectives, including awareness, consideration, or conversion.
  • Keep video ads under 30 seconds for best results.
  • Build all social media ad content around a succinct. 
  • Have a clear call to action.

Phone Call Tracking Tools

Call tracking tools transfer calls through call tracking software that traces the phone number to a specific advertising campaign and collects caller data. The entire process works within seconds and isn't noticeable to the caller. Phone call tracking tools make it easy to understand how prospects are finding your agency.

Tips on How to Use

  • Strategically place calls to action on each of your landing pages to lead the prospect into calling.
  • Set up your account to assign a different number to each marketing channel you're advertising on.
  • Use different numbers based on the keywords you're using in different marketing campaigns.
  • Assign phone numbers to specific geographic locations to decide where to expand your business.
  • Use call tracking integrated with CRM to filter successful calls and use recordings as a learning tool.
  • Make changes gradually using the results of call tracking analytics.

Prospecting Data Tools

When finding specific contact lists or missing key contact details for an email or phone pitch, prospecting data tools can help. For instance, you can contact prospects who visit your website or find email addresses with just a name.

Tips on How to Use

  • When choosing prospecting data tools, ensure they provide verified data, automate repetitive tasks, improve productivity, and are scalable to grow with your needs.
  • Don't go overboard buying prospecting tools. Instead, invest in tools that accomplish multiple tasks and slowly build a lean tech stack that integrates well together.
  • Use prospecting data tools to identify and contact decision makers for B2B sales. 
  • Utilize filters to create different prospecting lists for various target markets.

Door Knocking Apps

Door knocking can still be a vital part of insurance sales. The organization is pivotal to any successful door-to-door marketing campaign. Door knocking apps can help you stay organized and map out your game plan. Multi-feature tools can help you set a schedule and work with multiple agents.

Tips on How to Use

  • Use an app with a live location tracker to keep up with agent activities.
  • Assign geographic locations to specific agents and analyze the stats from each agent for comparison.
  • Use your door knocking app to set schedules and send reminders.
  • Use your door knocking app to set and meet goals.
  • An in-app GPS feature helps reps find the fastest routes to their next location, taking into account time-wasting obstacles such as traffic and roadwork.

SEO, Content & Market Research Tools

69% of insurance consumers searched online before scheduling an appointment. Content marketing that incorporates SEO and valuable information can generate more traffic to your website. Some of the most popular tools in this category offer SEO guidance, competitor analysis, content marketing, and keyword research tools.

Tips on How to Use

  • Analyze your keyword list with a keyword research tool to prioritize keywords with higher value and lower competition.
  • Add alt text to images to improve your on-page SEO.
  • Google Business Profile is one of the most effective ways to rank high in local search results. Use yours to position your contact information prominently and highlight client reviews, featured photos, and recent blog content.
  • Consider paid advertising.
  • Use market research tools to analyze the keywords used by your competitors.
  • Try tools with heatmap generation to determine which pages are most popular, which pages prospects are avoiding, and where potential bottlenecks exist that make users abandon your website.
  • Consider free tools before dipping into your sales budget for tools with the same features.

Survey and Online Reviews Tools

Survey tools can help you create simple surveys that help you learn more about your existing customers to discover best practices for marketing to prospects. With the right tool, you can generate questions, automate survey sending, and analyze data compiled from responses. Compiling the results can help you improve your marketing results, track lead sources, and ultimately, increase sales.

Tips on How to Use

  • Set goals for what you hope to achieve with a survey before devising questions.
  • Try and keep your scale the same or as close to the same as possible throughout all of your answers to avoid gathering conflicting data.
  • Avoid leading questions that could lead to false results.
  • Include a progress bar to let users know when they're getting close to the end of the survey.
  • Use customer surveys to determine customer satisfaction levels after meeting with a claims adjuster.
  • Use survey questions to ask customers about services they'd like to receive from your company.
  • Choose survey tools with data analysis and reporting capabilities.
  • Compare different types of survey data to see if the information tells the same story.

Analytics and Reporting Tools

Analytics and reporting tools like Google Workspace can help you generate highlight reports that give you an overview of trends and key metrics in your organization. Reports that use measurable analytics can help you better understand marketing results to understand which lead sources offer the highest conversion rates. Automated data collection improves efficiency and saves time while providing the opportunity to generate reports that provide insight into user behaviors as well as customer behavior.

Tips on How to Use

  • Use data analytics for more than simply tracking traffic flow trends. 
  • Use predictive analytics to gain actionable insights into your business.
  • Examine reports for potential security risks.
  • Use audience reporting in Google Analytics to create custom visitor segments based on age, gender, career, interests, etc.
  • Set goals to track in analytics and assign traffic levels or monetary numbers for these goals.
  • Examine the actions of users visiting your website to better understand the conversion paths they take and ways you can improve conversion speed.
  • Use analytics tools to send alerts about significant traffic flow changes.
  • Add annotations to reports to include relevant information that will be useful in future marketing research.

Modern Insurance Marketing Tools Help Improve Performance

Traditional marketing techniques often take time away from critical sales tasks and can be difficult to track for improved success. Modern insurance marketing tools utilize advanced technology to offer essential information and immediate connections that speed up slow processes and lead to more conversions. By learning more about insurance marketing tools, you can find new ways to increase lead generation, improve your conversion rate, and offer a better customer experience. When insurance marketing tools integrate seamlessly with each other, you can provide customers with a streamlined experience that improves your conversion rates.

InsurGrid is a tool that allows agents to collect dec pages without the back-and-forth emails. Send a link to your clients and InsurGrid's non-technical process handles the mess. InsurGrid has helped over 1,800 insurance agents collect 70,000 dec pages . Ready to learn how to collect dec pages in a fraction of the time of traditional methods? Sign up for an InsurGrid demo.