Insurance marketing is becoming the norm today, as agencies, brokers and wholesalers seek to gain a competitive edge and improve their economy of scale. It’s rare that an agency owner says they don’t care about their website, or that they are unaware of digital marketing opportunities such as insurance email marketing or insurance social media marketing. When it comes to Producers, there are five essential marketing activities that should be used to expand reach and build pipelines.
Content Marketing – Content marketing can be an efficient and powerful way to grow an audience and agency. For content marketing to work, agents and brokers need to invest, prioritize and execute. In order to achieve impactful results, content marketing must be taken seriously, and executed consistently.
Social Media Marketing – Fifty-five percent of insurance consumers say they would use one or more insurance services offered through social media. Internet reviews and social media play an integral part in credibility. Potential clients, especially millennials, trust advice they find on social media about the best insurance products, agencies and brokers. At a minimum, brokers and agencies should have a professional company page, and executive profiles on all major social media platforms.
Insurance Email Marketing – For many agents, brokers and wholesalers, creating a successful email marketing initiative can seem like a formidable task. But insurance email marketing should be a fundamental component of their overall marketing plans. Use the “Five W’s” to think about insurance email marketing:
- Who: Targeted Prospects – Email List Generation
- What: Relevant, Educational Content
- When: Campaign Time & Frequency
- Where: Call to Action – Where The Prospect Should Go
- Why: Lead Conversion – Close The Loop For ROI
Appointment Setting – Calling in profile prospects is a traditional approach to filling the pipeline, and in certain insurance niches, still has a place within an overall insurance lead generation initiative. That said, it’s recommended that Producers with aggressive sales goals should not be making these calls personally, the calls should be delegated to an internal or outsourced appointment setter. Producers should spend their time talking with prospects, not identifying them. Producers need to create an effective call script, determine the key differentiators, and train the appointment setters, or outsource this effort.
Closed Loop Analysis – Closed loop marketing is a simple concept, yet few brokers, agents or wholesalers ever do this. Closed loop marketing analysis can be done on a campaign basis, or a comprehensive monthly or quarterly approach. This goal is simple, which campaign activities are yielding the best results, for both activity and new business results. Closing the loop helps determine the ROI of an agency marketing budget.
Insurance brokers, agents and wholesalers can and should invest in these five essential insurance marketing initiatives to expand reach and increase sales activity. A healthy top of the sales funnel is likely to result in increased revenues, and more successful Producers. Producers should spend more time selling, and less time identifying prospects. Agencies, brokers and wholesalers which do not have sufficient staff or expertise to accomplish the five marketing activities reviewed above, can consider outscoring this initiative to a proficient insurance marketing agency.
