6 Digital Tactics for Marketing Specialty Insurance
We blogged a while ago about promotional opportunities missed when we don't leverage all the communication channels available to us for getting the word out about our agency brand. All too often the same thing happens when we decide to take advantage of that new commercial insurance program one of our carriers just rolled out. All that enhanced and specialized coverage for a business class like tree trimmers, accountants, contractors, day care providers or municipalities doesn't help your insurance agency bottom line until you get and convert leads.
There are a number of tactics that could go into a business niche campaign. We briefly explore six of those here and include a downloadable checklist for your convenience as you put your own specialty business insurance campaigns together. Not all tactical elements will be part of every niche marketing campaign but all six of these should be considered every time your insurance agency plans a campaign.
Most digital campaigns should run for at least 90 days, it often takes 60 - 90 days for bottom line results to show up (aka leads). So if you are thinking that the best time of the year to capture new tree trimmer, contractor or auto repair business clients is April to June, your campaign should begin in January or February. But even though you may wrap up the active portion of your campaign by April or May many of the digital assets that should be part of your campaign will keep producing leads well into the future, sometimes for years. Website content and backlinks procured don't just disappear at campaign's end. Those assets will continue to keep your agency relevant in search results.
Components common to an insurance business niche marketing campaign are included in the checklist below which can be downloaded here: (PDF Download | Spreadsheet Download)
Insurance Niche Marketing Campaign Elements
Search:
Make sure you have a page on your website for your targeted niche. That page should smake clear that your insurance agency understands the issues faced by your targeted business class (and they don't have to all be insurance related). This page should be easy to access from your website and include a clear and obvious enumeration of the benefits of your specialty program and agency expertise as well as a clear and obvious call to action (aka, CTA: e.g., Call us now, Get a Quote, etc.).
If you are serious about marketing to this niche you will need to produce some related digital content. In this regard, you need to stop thinking like an insurance agent and think, not so much like a marketer, but like a publisher. Your agency blog is the first place to publish and posts that are related to your target business class will make you more visible in search results, but perhaps more importantly, this content can be leveraged in multiple ways (more on that in a moment).
Links to your website from other websites are "votes" for your website and are significant factors in Google's search algorithm. Your blog posts can net you some of these links if they are relevant and helpful to those in the industry you are targeting. To facilitate this backlinking you will want to identify some industry websites (trade groups, associations, etc.) and reach out to the site owner to let them know you have something to share.
Social:
As you add blog posts over the active portion of your campaign, be sure to share these on Facebook, LinkedIn, and if you have an account, Twitter. If you have compelling pictures, videos or graphics related to your post these can be shared on Instagram and Twitter. You can also do a short video covering the blog post content and post that to your insurance agency's You Tube account. These videos can be embedded on a page on your website and shared on the other social media platforms mentioned above. The real work is coming up with topics for the blog posts and writing them, syndication of that content, sometimes called content marketing, is the easier part, but too often we forget to coordinate this part of our campaigns.
LinkedIn, and to a lesser extent Facebook, has closed groups related to different industries. You may actually belong to a few insurance industry groups like IRMI or ACT. Identify these social groups and send a request to the group moderator to be added. When you post new blogs to your website, also post in these groups to let them know, but remember, these groups aren't for selling, you are there to help and establish your credibility. Be sure to monitor conversations within these groups and contribute to those discussions to establish your expertise and commitment to the business class niche.
LinkedIn and Facebook advertising shouldn't be overlooked as an option for your campaign.
Email:
If you have a target list (and you should) you can summarize the prior month's blog posts as another way to distribute your content and stay in front of your leads and prospects.
PPC:
Pay-per-click, or bidding on keywords for search visibility, can be costly. Insurance related keywords are more expensive than keywords targeted by any other industry. There is more competition for keywords related to car insurance, home insurance and life insurance and the reward - policy commission - is relatively small. However, keywords targeting specific business classes are less competitive, meaning you can spend less money and still win the PPC auction for your keywords. If your average expected account commissions are large, then you could consider using PPC in your niche marketing campaign. Be sure you are using a conversion optimized landing page that supports and expands on your ad and moves a visitor to your call to action without distraction.
Traditional Media:
In the old days we used to approach different channels discretely, as if consumers were either online or offline. The reality is that people bounce around between traditional media like direct (snail) mail, TV, billboards and newspapers and the web. And the web isn't one monolithic thing. Consumers might go directly to your website when prompted via a traditional ad, they might do a search for your agency to see what turns up, or they might check you out on Facebook. Consumers, including your targeted business class, are multi-channel shoppers. Your marketing needs to be multi-channel too. When a traditional ad succeeds in encouraging a consumer to go to your website they are most likely to go to your home page. Make sure there is an obvious call-to-action for these particular visitors to get them to the page you have created for the targeted business class. Finally, don't forget to make sure your landing pages and blog posts work on a mobile device.
Reputation - Reviews:
Once you have been "found" by a potential lead, whether that discovery comes via search, social, email, newspaper ad or PPC, your prospective lead will likely do a little light research to learn more about your insurance agency by searching on your name. If you have multiple, positive reviews on several platforms like Google, Yelp and Facebook, your potential lead is much more likely to become an actual lead and actual account. Do some searches on your agency name during your niche marketing planning phase and see what turns up. Likely, if you do not have a process in place to gather reviews, you will need to add one so that when your campaign launches in earnest you have social proof of your agency's reputation.
Insurance Business Niche Marketing Checklist:
(PDF Download | Spreadsheet Download)
