Starting an internet marketing campaign or even improving an existing one can be a challenging task. Where should insurance agencies start, and what should they focus on? Here are 10 great online ideas to help your agency improve your online marketing initiatives.
1. Blog and Vlog
Blogging is a fantastic way to showcase your expertise and attract visitors to your website. General topics usually get lost in the shuffle. Consider writing about very specific topics that are relevant to your customers and prospects. If you’re a truck insurance agency, for example, that means topics about CSA updates, DOT regulations, fuel economy, fleet management, fuel theft, cargo theft, etc. Use videos to make your blogs more compelling and sticky. And make sure your blogs (and website) are mobile friendly!
2. Improve your Google Ranking/Insurance Agency SEO
Google ranking is one of the holy grails of internet marketing. Being on the first page is where you belong. When evaluating your online marketing initiatives, keep in mind how they can positively impact your search engine rankings. Track your SEO progress and review your website analytics to determine where your traffic is originating from.
3. Create a Webinar Series
Not enough agencies take advantage of online webinars. Monthly or even quarterly webinars will do a lot to elevate you from an insurance sales group to a consultant and advisor. Webinars can be recorded and offered as high value digital collateral on demand after the webinar. And webinars provide a high-value reason to contact customers and prospects in ongoing email drip campaigns.
4. Use Explainer Videos
Explainer videos, also called value proposition or whiteboard videos, can be very useful for online marketing because they are typically short, catchy, entertaining and reusable across multiple mediums. They can be posted on your insurance agency website, your brand YouTube channel, Vlogs, and in an email marketing campaign. You can give your best sales pitch to every prospect. Create videos for each major silo in your company (business lines, personal lines, benefits, manufacturing, trucks, etc.), and distribute it widely using social media.
5. Maximize Social Media
Social media is often an untapped resource for most agencies. At a minimum, every agency should have a professional and branded presence on all major social media platforms including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+. Beyond that they should have a “respectable” number of followers. Social media advertising can be effective for agencies, but this is a more complex initiative and should be either staffed in-house or outsourced to an expert.
6. Create a Google+ Agency Page
Even though most people don’t use Google+, Google will reward you with a better page ranking if you create one, and post regularly. It only takes a few minutes and will be well worth the effort to improve your insurance agency’s search engine optimization initiative.
7. Leverage Customer Testimonials or Case Study Vignettes
Happy customers will always sell your business better than you can. Profile your loyal customers, and ask them a few questions about what they like about your company. Even better, create a video and post it to your website. You can also create anonymous case study vignettes, short case studies of customer success stories using a business type and general location, but not their name.
8. Use LinkedIn to its full potential (and get your employees to help)
If your agency is a commercial lines or benefits agency, LinkedIn is the place to be. You should invest time in LinkedIn to ensure a professional company page, ongoing posts, and to create a policy to help your employees support your agency’s marketing efforts on LinkedIn. Join groups and create your own to extend your reach.
9. Press Releases – News Releases
Press Releases, often referred to as News Releases in the fast-changing world of PR, offer agencies a great online opportunity to extend their brand recognition, and improve search engine optimization of their insurance agency. There are both free services and paid services that are available to agencies. Needless to say, all News should start as a post on your insurance agency’s website, then move to a News service, then pushed out through social media.
10. Use Online/Email Newsletters
E-newsletters provide agencies with an opportunity for high quality direct communication with clients and prospects. There are many cloud-based solutions that provide attractive, mobile-friendly newsletter templates. Or you can outsource this initiative to a proficient insurance marketing agency. A great email marketing newsletter campaign can have a huge impact on your online marketing efforts.
If your agency does not have the internal resources to carry out your online initiatives, consider outsourcing them to a proficient insurance agency marketing firm.
