What Can Insurance Agents Learn From Digital Marketers?
It turns out – a lot. Believe it or not, many of today’s marketers are taking full advantage of the digital scene, where you can grow your insurance agency, in many cases, for little to no financial investment on your part.
When it comes to selling insurance, making a mark on the insurance industry does not always come easy. In addition to becoming a top tier agent, selling insurance requires successful marketing. In the modern age, digital marketing has taken an important position in the insurance industry.
While there are many pros and cons to being an independent insurance agent, one of the benefits of working for yourself is that you have full control over your marketing efforts. Learning how to grow your business with digital marketing could give you a leg up as you build your customer base and brand. Keep reading to learn more about the lessons insurance agents can learn from digital marketers.
Digital Marketing is the Future
Long gone are the days when insurance agents could rely on advertisements on the side of buses or park benches to get their name out there. This is due in part to the rapidly shifting demographics of the country. As of 2019, Generation Z has replaced millennials as the most populous generation. Most of the members of this generation have been familiar with digital media since their childhood, making it a necessary medium for insurance agents to master.
As time passes, more and more members of this generation will be in the market for insurance. A viable digital marketing strategy will continue to be important when reaching this audience now and in the future.
One of the best things about digital marketing is that it could be possible to target potential customers through demographics other than their age. Digital marketing allows you to target prospective customers based on their interests, gender, occupation, zip code, and other attributes, as well.
Harness Social Media to Grow Your Insurance Agency
There are numerous ways to approach digital marketing as an insurance agent. Many agents rely on paid advertising through a variety of platforms. However, social media platforms like Facebook offer the opportunity to engage with an audience without the need for an ad budget.
Of course, these social media platforms bring their own marketing challenges. Because platforms like Facebook offer ad space, marketing through organic means can be challenging. You could provide daily, helpful content on Facebook, but that content won’t do much for your brand visibility if no one sees it. The key to success on social media is through building a community.
Instead of simply posting content online, social media works best when agents interact with customers and members of the community. By answering questions and fostering discussion about common insurance challenges, an agent could build an audience that develops trust with their brand. Establishing an audience that is solidified with trust is the first step toward converting them to long-term customers.
Don’t Give Up if Success Doesn’t Come Immediately
Compared to traditional marketing, digital marketing offers the lowest costs and the opportunity to maximize your marketing budget each month. However, that does not mean that success will happen overnight. Building an audience online takes time, and the fruits of your labor might not be obvious right away.
Once you begin your digital marketing efforts, stick with it. Make a plan each month on how you will approach everything from social media to digital advertising. Adjusting your plan is important as you learn and grow, but stick with these efforts even if the results are not immediately satisfying. Success can take time, but failure can happen in an instant if you do not put in the effort.
Treat Marketing Like Your Job and Avoid Errors
As an insurance agent, you take pride in your work and strive to provide the best service to your customers. You take the steps necessary to ensure that you provide your customers with the right answers while maintaining an appropriate level of professionalism. This same approach should be used with digital marketing.
Marketing is a part of your job. That means that your efforts to market yourself should meet the same standards you keep with your other tasks. While many social media users are casual, you must take the steps necessary to avoid any miscommunication. That starts with proofreading everything you intend to post online through social media or digital advertising. Avoiding missteps, misstatements, or simple grammatical errors could help build trust in your online community.
Alternatively, a sloppy approach to digital marketing could leave the impression that you are unprofessional or not serious. Credibility is vital when marketing yourself as an insurance agent, and glaring communication errors are an easy way to lose that credibility.
Building a Brand is Important in the Insurance Industry
An important part of digital marketing is building a successful brand. You should be more than a profile on a website; your brand should be immediately recognizable across every platform you use.
Brand recognition can help you build your client base even when your prospective customers do not realize it. As people become more familiar with you, they are more likely to develop a trust for the information you provide. A prospective customer that is in the market for insurance is more likely to choose you as an agent if they can recall information about your brand.
To ensure that you are recognizable, you must be consistent across all platforms. A person that sees your ad on a website should also recognize your brand when they come across your social media post. This approach builds recognition, which eventually leads to building trust, which eventually leads to gaining a customer.
Digital Marketing is Only One Approach
Marketing is as important as the value of the policies themselves. While everyone wants the best policy for the best price, the reality is that successful marketing is what will likely point them to their preferred policy.
Digital marketing is vital, but it is only part of the equation. To succeed in this industry, it helps to have the support of a team of professionals. If you are interested in becoming an agent with Bluefire, contact us online, send us a message or call us at 866-424-9511 today!
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