7 Marketing Tips for Insurance Agents: How to Put Your Agency in a Position to Thrive

March 17, 2021 by Christine

Are you having a hard time staying competitive in the current landscape? Fortunately, we’ve put together a handful of marketing tips for insurance agents that will put your agency in a position to thrive. 

Like many other business professionals in various industries, those in the insurance sector  were hit hard as a result of the pandemic (although it does depend on the type of insurance being sold). Plus, what used to be a face-to-face industry moved into a virtual setting in the blink of an eye. And as you’ve no doubt discovered, this poses its own set of difficulties. 

As we continue to navigate through the challenges this new decade has graced us with so far, one thing’s for sure…

You must maintain a well-thought-out marketing strategy, as well as a fresh arsenal of tactics to execute it. 

That’s what we’ve got for you here.

Our Best Marketing Tips for Insurance Agents

If you take away anything from the past year, it’s this: Being flexible and quick to pivot is key. Although the insurance industry was already changing before the pandemic, this massive health crisis left a lot of agencies scrambling to shift. That’s why it’s so important to have a solid foundation while also ensuring your agency is prepared to adjust whenever necessary. Ultimately, if you want to grow your agency and make it stand out, you need to be adaptable and proactive. 

Let’s look at some marketing tips for insurance agents that will help you along the way…

1) Create Customer Avatars

Your marketing dollars need to work hard for you. Targeting your audience will prove more effective and efficient.

Have a very clear understanding about your buyer persona or customer avatar, including: 

• Problem
• Age
• Gender
• Geographic location
• Income
• Purchasing power
• Education
• Interests and hobbies

When you build a customer avatar and identify your target market, it doesn’t mean you’re excluding buyers who don’t fit your criteria. Instead, it allows you to focus your marketing dollars on the people who are most likely to take advantage of your offerings. As a result, you can look forward to getting better results from your marketing efforts. 

It’s one of the most cost-efficient marketing tips for insurance agents that we can give you and it will guide everything else you do.

2) Make Sure Your Website Brings in Leads

Your insurance marketing efforts begin and end with your website, and it’s never been so important. If you aren’t following the best website lead generation and marketing tips for insurance agents, then you’re either struggling to get leads or you’re wasting a lot of time and money doing it.

Yes, you need to be building quality content that your prospects will find useful and offer it to them for free on your website. And yes, you need to optimize your website to make it easier for prospects to find you. 

But beyond that, online lead generation warrants a whole article itself. Thus, we’ve put together an extensive list of ideas. Check out these insurance lead generation tactics here.

Incorporate these ideas when building/updating your website to make it the ultimate lead generation platform for your agency. After all, if your website isn’t generating leads for you, then you’re missing out on a massive opportunity to grow your client base. 

3) Master Email Marketing

This past year has taught us that marketing can change with little to no warning. External factors can quickly transform the marketing landscape—so much, in fact, that what was once an effective approach can quickly become obsolete. 

However, email marketing is one tactic that has remained steadfast. According to Statista, there are 3.9 billion daily email users. Based on a survey they conducted, Litmus concluded there is a 38:1 return on investment with email marketing.

Once you have a website that brings in leads, you’ll need to nurture those leads, and that’s where email marketing comes in. “Out of sight, out of mind” is the kiss of death when it comes to marketing. 

You can use email messaging to increase brand awareness while also employing targeted messaging. Try these ideas:

• Send out monthly tips or how-to guides. 
• Share insights about the latest industry trends. 
• Run a referral contest.
• Send out exclusive subscriber offers.
• Share articles that will improve their lives.

No matter what you’re sending out, always ensure that every email provides your subscribers with value. That’s what makes this tactic successful.

4) Promote a Unique Offering

How do you make customers an offer they can’t resist?

You don’t focus on the offer. Instead, you focus on building a relationship. The best marketing tips for insurance agents will always revolve around that.

Focus on building a relationship with your prospects and give them an offer that adds value to their lives. Here are some ideas:

• Give them access to a mobile app so they can easily self-service. 
• Include a free add-on when they switch over to your insurance company.
• Give each of your customers a piece of your profits each year.
• Give them extra incentives for adding life insurance and/or home insurance to their car insurance policy.

Think of unique promotions that will interest existing clients while bringing in new ones. Brainstorm what you can offer them to make their lives easier, save them money, or save them time.  

5) Use Video

Not everyone is brave enough to hit that record button and make a video. But if you can get over that (or hire someone who enjoys it), you’ll see that the ROI is well worth it.

According to Biteable, 60% of businesses employ video as a marketing tool. And for those that have used video marketing, 68% have reported better ROI than Google Ads. 

Plus, you’ll raise brand awareness, engage your target, and build trust among prospective customers. Use video marketing to position your insurance agency as an authority in the industry, while keeping it creative and engaging. 

You can make videos that are designed to educate, answer client questions, or showcase client testimonials. Most of all, put some personality into it to make it fun and memorable for people to watch.

6) Automate Your Marketing

Automation isn’t just a buzzword; it’s almost fundamental to marketing these days. 

When you automate your marketing, you’ll make your job easier and more effective. It’s one of the best marketing tips for insurance agents who want to foolproof their marketing plan for the next few years.

If you aren’t already using automation for lead generation, that’s the place to start. The possibilities are pretty much endless, but here are a couple ways to do it:

• HubSpot – Allows you to create custom and integrated online forms.
• Intercom – Analyzes prospect activity on your pages and displays messages that are targeted based on that activity. 

Once you try that and you want to take automation to the next level, you can try tools for… 

• Storing client data
• Communicating with existing clients
• Converting leads into customers
• Sending emails to clients
• Posting on social media
• And much more

7) Seek Positive Reviews

These days, it’s easy for people to decide if they want to do business with an insurance agency before they even speak to them. That’s the beauty of positive reviews. 

On the flip side, a negative review can do some serious damage. A former client wrote a negative review of a London law firm in Trustpilot, for example, and it led to a significant drop in telephone inquiries for the firm, as well as $35,000 worth of damages in court. 

If you don’t have dozens of positive reviews on your website (or at least on sites like Yelp, Angie’s List, and Google My Business), this should be your priority because your competitors probably do. 

Guarding your reputation is critical, so whenever you encounter a customer who is happy with your services, encourage them to post a review. Most of them will be more than happy to do so, especially if you make it easy for them.

Once you receive a positive review, share it on your social media accounts, add it to your website, and use it wherever you can. Positive feedback is probably the most powerful marketing tool you can leverage to build trust among potential clients. 

Final Thoughts

While these marketing tips for insurance agents are important, none of them will matter if you don’t first develop an overall marketing strategy. If you’re trying random marketing tactics without tying them into a cohesive plan, you will end up wasting time and money.  

Planning out marketing strategies for those in the insurance sector is one of our specialties. Learn more about how we can help your insurance agency grow!

Filed Under: Content Creation, Marketing by Industry Tagged With: automated relationship marketing, customer avatar, email marketing, Insurance marketing, Online reviews, website lead generation