Every business needs great marketing to grow. When your profits depend on a steady flow of new leads, finding effective ways to attract potential customers matters all the more. Luckily, staying on top of insurance marketing trends can help you step up your lead generation game. Be sure to review our Definitive Guide to Selling Insurance.
Whether you run an insurance agency or work on your own, online marketing is the next frontier that you need to explore. Many insurance companies are failing to adapt to the needs of online shoppers, which presents a big opportunity for you to shine.
Agents who make themselves accessible on the web can become the go-to resource for anyone in need of insurance help.
In this article, we’ll provide nine effective digital marketing ideas that you can use to stand out in the insurance industry.
8 Best Insurance Marketing Ideas
A big part of being a successful insurance agent is building your network. To sell more policies, you need to continually find people to sell to.
The right insurance agency marketing strategies can help you reach more members of your target audience and re-engage the customers you already have. As you put the following digital marketing strategies into play, your business will be rewarded with measurable results.
1. Define Your Audience
Getting clear on who you’re selling to is the first step to marketing effectively. To start, consider your most loyal customers. Who already does business with you and keeps coming back time and time again? Write down information about them, and include things like:
- Where they live
- How old they are
- What their lifestyle looks like
- Their core beliefs
- Where they spend time (both online and in the real world)
- Their goals and pain points
Once you’ve compiled this information, you can turn it into a customer persona (a fictional representation of your ideal buyer). Knowing who you’re selling to will allow you to speak directly to those people in a way that will resonate with them, which will allow you to create campaigns that convert.
2. Referral Program
One of your most powerful insurance marketing tools is your customer base.
Shoppers who are referred by friends are four times more likely to convert, showing just how effective their recommendations are. On the flip side, clients who are loyal to your insurance agency are four times more likely to refer a friend. If you want to maximize the amount of new clients that your business receives, sometimes all you need to do is encourage them to take action with a referral program.
When setting up a referral program, you need to offer your customer base an enticing reward for every shopper they refer to your business who purchases an insurance policy. This reward may be a gift card, cash, a discount, or something similar. You can also offer smaller rewards—like $5 gift cards or free movie tickets—to existing clients who refer shoppers who simply sign up and show up for a consultation.
Don’t forget to market your referral program, whether it’s in your email newsletter or on social media, to amplify your marketing efforts.
3. Online Reviews
Referral marketing is incredibly effective, but alone, it doesn’t guarantee that word will quickly spread about your business. If you want to amplify the positive messages your clients are sharing about you, you need to have an insurance marketing strategy that puts reviews into play.
Each day, reviews can be read by thousands of consumers—93% of whom are influenced by what your buyers have to say. Reviews have a big impact, so making sure you have a consistent flow of real feedback on Google, Facebook, and industry-specific sites can help you build trust and draw in more insurance leads.
Tools like Podium Reviews can automate your review invites, so you never miss a potential review opportunity. As your new reviews start rolling in, our tool allows you to respond professionally to each one, all in one central location, in a timely manner.
4. Partnerships
Another way you can get effective referrals is by reaching out to local businesses that aren’t direct competitors, but still have an audience you want to reach. For example, you may ask to form a partnership with an accounting firm.
In this partnership, you can both exclusively recommend each other to customers in search of services like yours. You can promote the partnership on your website and social media, and they can do the same.
Partnerships, of course, aren’t limited to the digital space. You and your partners can and should promote each other while chatting with clients in-person, so your partnership grows even more beneficial. You can also partner up to host or run a booth at local community events to further drive growth together.
5. LinkedIn Networking
While in-person networking is still an effective way to build relationships, the days of handing out piles of business cards to gain a few leads is behind us. These days, you can easily market yourself as an insurance agent on LinkedIn, reaching people well beyond your direct locale.
Here are a few key tips for networking on the social platform:
- Fully complete your LinkedIn profile (and business page, if you have an agency)
- Write a personalized note to everyone you request to connect with
- Post consistently
- Give value and build relationships through your content by engaging with connections or by hopping on a call before making a big ask
- Follow up with warm leads who haven’t taken any next steps
LinkedIn is a particularly great insurance marketing platform for agents and agencies that specialize in policies for businesses. Nearly 80% of B2B marketers agree that the platform helps generate leads, so it never hurts to reach out.
You can even use LinkedIn to build your business partnerships and further drive referrals, too.
6. Social Media Ads
Social media marketing beyond LinkedIn is a must for pretty much every industry these days. Customers are using social platforms to not only connect, but also to shop and research.
In addition to posting organic content on each platform and engaging with followers, insurance agents can use social media ads to drive brand awareness and gain leads among users who aren’t following their page.
While ads are available on every platform, we especially recommend investing in Facebook retargeting ads. These Facebook ads help you draw back consumers who were already interested and browsed your insurance website, but may not have taken the next step to request your services.
7. Landing Pages
Insurance is a complex subject. When consumers need help understanding it, many take to the internet to find the information they need.
Landing pages are pages on your insurance agency website that target specific relevant keywords and are built to convert. The more you have, the better you can reach people in your target market who are actively looking for insurance.
Your landing pages can answer questions about different types of insurance—like auto insurance or life insurance—as well as focus on specific states’ policies and insurance providers you partner with. For example, Business Insurance USA has a great landing page that allows visitors to get a business insurance quote based on their industry, insurance type, and insurance limits.
We recommend ending each page with a lead magnet like an instant quote, an insurance calculator, or a PDF that breaks down policy options. This way, potential clients are drawn to submit their phone numbers and emails for your SMS and email marketing.
8. Google PPC Ads
You don’t always have to wait for your landing pages to organically reach customers on Google. You can also use pay-per-click (PPC) ads to push them to the top of relevant search engine results pages (SERPs).
These PPC ads allow you to target specific audiences with your marketing budget. A PPC marketing campaign can multiply your conversions over a short period of time.
When choosing the keywords you want to rank for, don’t just choose the most popular ones. While “health insurance” may have a huge search volume, it can also be extremely expensive to target. Targeting more specific keywords with lower search volumes, like “health insurance for seniors,” can be equally as effective and better for your ROI.
9. Local SEO
Odds are, the insurance policies you sell are specific to a certain state. This means your agency is location-dependent, even if you don’t operate out of a physical office. To best reach the people in the area you’re targeting, you need local search engine optimization (SEO).
Local SEO includes all the methods you use to rank higher on SERPs that have a local intent—for example, when a consumer searches “insurance agents near me” or “insurance agency NYC.” This practice allows you to directly reach the people you serve, helping you reach more relevant audiences and convert faster.
Some specific local SEO tactics that you can put into action include:
- Optimizing your Google Business Profile by completing your address, service area, and more
- Using location-specific keywords throughout your website and content marketing
- Make sure all your business listings on social media, directory sites like Yellow Pages, and more have your accurate contact information
Expand Your Reach with Podium
In the insurance industry, every new person you reach counts. Being intentional about your marketing efforts and expanding your online network can directly help you generate more leads and make more sales. With these eight insurance marketing ideas, you can get your brand in front of as many potential clients as possible in an effective way.
Once you’ve begun your brand new insurance marketing efforts, you can continue furthering your agency by providing the best customer experience possible, using digital tools once again. Learn how one local insurance agency transformed its digital communications and made more sales by using Podium.
FAQs
How to be successful in insurance marketing?
If you want to successfully market your insurance company, you need to understand your target audience, be willing to adapt to evolving customer expectations, and focus on relationships above all else. When you put the customer and their needs first, you’ll improve customer retention, capitalize on word of mouth, and start to see your business grow.
