Don’t Blindly Rush Into Digital Insurance Marketing

To Paraphrase Bambi’s Mother: Do It Right or Don’t Do It At All

Listen to the pundits. You know, those consultants, vendors, and social marketing poster agents who can foretell the future. It’s going to happen. Every insurance transaction in the days ahead will be initiated, conducted and consummated digitally. So if you don’t update your agency’s online footprint today, you’ll be instantly stomped out of existence by faster-footed rivals.

Sarcasm aside, they are right, up to a point. If they were 100 percent right, there would be no need for agents. A properly programmed robot (with an insurance license, of course) would be doing your job and insurance companies would save a fortune on commissions. But fortunately for those reading this, the industry’s dabbling in disintermediation is still just that, dabbling. There are still plenty of carriers that respect and remain committed to the independent agency distribution channel. So, all you have to do to continue representing them is keep up with the times and meet your production commitments. Sounds reasonable.

Warning: Don’t blindly rush into the digital realm just because you feel you have to in order to survive. The slow moving insurance world won’t pass you by if you take some time to do it right. If your social media presence is painfully amateur, your image will suffer more than if you didn’t go digital at all.
Here are a few basics on the biggies.

4 Digital Do’s and Don’ts

Video blogging. It’s smart to deliver your agency’s message directly to the world via video. So, post videos periodically on your blog, YouTube, Facebook, and agency website. But just because you own a cool little camera, don’t simply sit down and record. I’ve seen some poorly executed insurance vlogs and, unfortunately, they’ll be online forever. The lesson: don’t improvise. Take the time needed to do it right or don’t do it at all. Write an informative insurance-centric script and practice your delivery. Make certain that your lighting and background set the proper stage. Then when you are fully prepared, click the record button. Edit out and redo the weakest parts, add some titles and maybe a few graphics, and then when it looks good, post it.

Facebook. The first thing that a prospect sees when viewing an agency’s Facebook page is the wall. Make yours different. Don’t simply post random text messages. Instead, focus on the visual. Attach videos, colorful large print flyers on various insurance topics (formatted as pictures), creative postings designed to elicit comments from fans, such as “Hit Our Facebook Wall with the Cause of Your Worst Car Accident” and other interesting, visual content.

Twitter. This popular mini-blogging service is a simple, free way to get noticed. Use it to attract followers, follow, and communicate with those who follow you. But don’t open an account unless you will continuously use it. Some agencies try it for a while and get bored. Every entry is automatically dated, so you’ll look silly if your last tweet was something like 217 days ago. And don’t just retweet and link to the work of others. It shows zero imagination. Instead, write your own mini-messages for specific marketing purposes. For instance, employ a multi-tweet campaign to plant doubt in the minds of potential buyers. Begin each tweet off with the phrase “When was the last time your family [or business] insurance agent…” Then complete it with a positive action that you do but they probably don’t, such as “…contacted you with a money-saving idea?” Include a link to a landing page on your site to convert the person’s doubt into a sales lead.

Website.Sites are used for both general and target-specific marketing. The latter is accomplished by setting up an individual landing page for each agency marketing campaign, particularly those that are digitally driven from social marketing. Landing pages have distinct URLs, such as www.xyzagency.com/[campaign] and contain instantly accessible information (or links to it) plus a web contact form for prospects to complete. Never direct targeted prospects your home page, just because it’s easy. Instead, send them to one that’s specifically designed to convert the visitor into an identifiable prospect.

Shulman, CPCU, is the publisher of Agency Ideas, a subscription-only sales and market¬ing newsletter. He is also the author of the many tools posted on the Agency Ideas Instant Download Store. Phone: 800-724-1435. E-mail: alan@agencyideas.com. Web site: www.agencyideas.com.