If you're like most insurance agents, you're probably bombarded with companies everyday promising to give you a sales edge over every other agent on the planet. Unless you've been living under a rock and using a pager as an office number, you probably get calls and emails from SEO companies, insurance marketers, list brokers, and web developers all hoping to make a buck off you..
The sad reality is that everyone is searching for the pot of gold on the internet. Sadly, that pot of gold is probably your agency's marketing budget. How do you trim the fat out of your marketing budget without compromising lead volume and quality? Recently, an agent asked me this question. So, I thought about it and came to a simple conclusion; get consistency.
Consistency in your marketing message goes a long way to establishing your credibility in the insurance business. Regardless of whether you're just starting out, or you're an old pro with a large book; consistent, well thought action has the ability to grow your in an almost effortless manner. This holds true especially if you're on the web.
If you're looking for internet marketing tips for an insurance agent, where do you start? Here are a few ideas that take little to no technical expertise to grow your agency's marketing footprint and web presence. If you consistantly use any of the tips I'm about to reveal, your insurance agency's web marketing yield untold riches!
Start a blog for your insurance agency, or use the one you already have.
On the topic of blogging, insurance agents seem to fall into the three following categories:
- Agents that have blogs but don't use them because of an excuse.
- Agents that don't have blogs and are afraid of technology.
- Agents like me – I try to practice the things I am preaching.
Unfortunately, if you fall into categories 1 or 2, you will continue missing the boat until you correct your problem. If you can type, you can write a blog post. Not knowing what to write about in your blog is no excuse. As an insurance agent, insurance carriers constantly bombard our mailboxes with content regarding emerging risks that our customers should be aware of.
If you don't like to write about the changes in the insurance business, write content about clients' questions. This is a very good approach if you want to target a specific type of client. This is where blogging strategy comes into play. If you write about it they will come. Beware of your blog's content. If you consistently add content to your blog, you will get business due to the content in the blog.
Start an agency VLOG or use video in your marketing.
Have you ever gone to a networking meeting or event and took photos or shot video of the event? At first everyone runs from the camera, but ultimately they prep themselves and seek out the guy with the flip camera. Besides article marketing, which we will discuss later, is one of the better ways to get traffic to your insurance agency's website or landing page. Without getting too technical, the Google folks like video; especially when it comes from a little site called YouTube.
As with writing and maintaining a blog, the best vlogs, videos, and podcasts are released on a consistent basis. The more content you add to the web, the higher website's rank will go. The higher your site ranks, the more traffic your agency will receive.
Social Media and Networking with purpose and intent.
In one of my insurance marketing post blog posts, I mentioned the ever-increasing speed of life. Living in a city as large as Dallas makes attending chamber meetings and other networking events a difficult task. If you're busy like most agents, the 2 or 3 hours spent in the networking event means lost calls and sales. If you work for an organization that allows you to use social media, then use it.
Using social media enables you to speed up the relationship process without using gasoline. In the past, networking meant meeting up with a group of people, getting a few business cards, driving back to your office, and thanking each new contact by email. All this is done in hopes of getting a 1 hour 1 on 1 meeting with this client so you can present your product. Frankly, that way of networking is old, tired, and broken.
Networking with purpose and intent means you take that same business card from the new contact. Instead of emailing the person, add them to your contacts in the social media site of their choice. From there, if you connect your website or RSS feed to their social media site, they read your content that you wrote on your agency blog. As a result, your shared content has a better chance of being shared and passed on. This helps you build your reputation as an industry export. Also networking and connecting through social media gives you common ground to discuss the next time you're at that networking meeting.
Consistency is the ultimate insurance marketer's tool
How many times have you come across the guy at the meeting that says something like, "I sell energy, but I'm an insurance agent too?" Have you ever thought about why he has to peddle so many different products from different industries? If he was an article marketer, I could understand. From my perspective, this agent has neither the right strategy nor the right habits. As a result, he has to resort to selling Ambit, Momentus, Herbalife, and all the other MLM products out there. Don't get me wrong, each of those products serve their purpose. All those products require the same daily consistent effort to be successful.
Regardless of whether your agency likes old fashioned cold calling, blogging, vlogging, social media, or article marketing, consistency is key. Just as the associated press releases content on a daily basis, your goal as an insurance marketer should be the same. Releasing consistent quality content is key if you're looking to grow your agency's web presence. The search engine loves new quality content. As an insurance agent, insurance companies spoon feed you content on a daily basis. Use it to your advantage.