Very few insurance agents consider themselves digital marketing experts. While this is understandable and acceptable, choosing to ignore digital marketing isn’t.
Digital marketing involves marketing products or services through any type of digital technology, such as email or social media. While policies and deductibles are second nature to insurance agents, optimal social media posting times and A/B testing are often foreign.
If you’re in the insurance industry and intimidated by digital marketing, you’re in the right place. This guide was designed with you in mind. Enjoy these practical and efficient digital marketing tips for insurance agents and agencies
Types of Digital Marketing for Insurance Agents
There are multiple types of digital marketing avenues but to keep this guide as efficient as possible, we’ll be tackling the ones that make the most sense for the insurance industry. Consider any of the following when planning your digital marketing approach.
SEO
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a common digital technology approach for insurance agencies to take. But because SEO algorithms and theories are continuously evolving, it can be difficult to keep up with current practices. Working with a professional can be beneficial, especially if you have limited knowledge about keywords and page ranking data.
But if you do know more than just the basics of SEO, focusing on longtail keywords, especially for your location, is the best approach for insurance agents to take. This could include keywords such as:
-Car insurance in Denver
-Florida home insurance policies
-How much is renters insurance in Chicago
Once you’ve selected your keywords, make sure each page is built around its target keyword. This should of course include your homepage, but also each blog post and service page. Work with your website designer to ensure all title tags, meta descriptions, headlines, and images are optimized as well.
Social media
Want to know where to start? Try google searching your business’s name, if your yelp account is the first search result, you may want to update that profile.
Insurance agents, or any business for that matter, can’t ignore social media marketing. Although it’s intimidating, it’s incredibly effective when properly executed. Social media marketing for insurance agents takes place on several platforms, including:
- YouTube
- Yelp
All can be effective, but we do have recommendations based on your goals. Facebook is the heavyweight and should always be part of a social media marketing effort. Yelp is great for local efforts while long-form LinkedIn content can appeal to commercial clients.
You’re likely to find younger clientele on Instagram while Twitter can provide smaller agencies with equal screen time (Facebook can limit your organic reach).
When it comes to social media, you don’t have to tackle all the mediums. Unless you have a social media marketing team, it’s best to choose one or two platforms that make the most sense for your area, target audience, and overall business goals.
Email campaigns
Email campaigns are still effective, despite its reputation for being dated. The key to a successful email campaign is A/B testing. You’ll also want to invest in unique campaigns for each different service you provide.
Sending a generic email campaign to someone specifically searching for renters insurance probably won’t do much to sway them. But send them five to six emails specifically about the benefits and inside tips on renters insurance could tip their scale.
Learn more about email marketing campaigns for insurance agents.
Video
What was once considered a novelty marketing approach, video has quickly become a digital marketing necessity. However, it’s a method you need to approach professionally.
A few live streams on your Facebook group page is a great way to get your feet wet, but when it comes to videos featured on your homepage or email campaigns, you’ll want to invest in a professional service. 88% of video marketers are satisfied with their ROI on social media., so it’s a fairly safe investment.
If the idea of talking into a camera terrifies you, whiteboard animation can be just as successful. Again, work with a team to get the best results and return on your investment.
PPC advertising
PPC, or pay-per-click, advertising is often met with a bit of skepticism. Don’t write it off just yet, but make sure you do a bit of research before diving in. The competition is steep for insurance keywords so once you find a few you want to target, make sure you have someone experienced monitoring your ads’ performances on a routine basis.
Of course, you want to make sure that the ads are bringing in leads, but it’s more about quality rather than quantity. You don’t want to pay the same amount per click for a renters insurance lead as you do for a homeowner’s policy lead. You want to make sure your advertising dollars are providing you with the best possible return.
PPC is perfect for a new real estate agent or recently founded agency with a new website or minimal web presence. You can still be found via your target keywords without waiting for rank organically. However, you’ll need to keep a close eye on your budget and results to make sure you’re getting enough bang for your buck.
Automated marketing software
Working with marketing software can be a liberating experience in any industry, including insurance. You don’t have to be part of a large agency to take advantage of this technology either.
With automated marketing software, you can reduce staffing costs, be more effective and creative, increase revenue, and refine your entire marketing process. Our favorite is SharpSpring, a marketing platform that can help insurance agents and agencies track their campaigns, manage relationships with leads, and be integrated with other digital marketing tools for maximum efficiency and results.
Bundle Your Marketing Techniques
Digital marketing tends to be more successful if you bundle your chosen approaches rather than focusing solely on one avenue. To find the best combination for you, ask yourself which seem the most interesting and if there are any you have more experience with in comparison to the rest.
You might find that once you start, an avenue you expected to succeed provides less than stellar results while a less likely option takes off. Remain flexible and patient. Also, while you can’t expect your marketing efforts to take off immediately, knowing when to switch gears is important.
Finally, keep in mind that what works today might not work next year. Digital marketing for insurance agents is all about adjusting as technology and trends advance. But once you’ve earned your digital marketing wings, you can expect plenty of leads, conversions, and referrals.
