Building a Marketing Stack: 4 Things That Insurance Agencies Need to Know

In many ways, digital marketing for insurance businesses is a lot like one of those 1,000-piece puzzles. The pieces are all there, you just need to figure out how to fit them all together to create a beautiful picture. It takes time, not to mention a lot of trial and error.

The good news is there is a number of technological tools designed to make the marketing process simpler, and more effective. These tools do everything from helping you run more efficiently and increasing your number of leads to providing better analytical insights that lead to improved customer satisfaction. The combination of technological tools used to boost marketing power is called a marketing stack and building the right one is crucial for all businesses, especially those in the super competitive, insurance industry.

The struggle that insurance agencies often face is determining which tools they really need, and which ones are going to produce the most impressive results. With nearly 7,000 marketing technology solutions available, finding the right mix can feel a bit like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. With marketing and the customer journey becoming more complex, businesses are leveraging more of these marketing solutions than at any other point in the past. In fact, a little over half are using at least 21 or more.

While it might be clear that you need a marketing stack, how to go about building one can be more elusive. Here's a bit more about marketing stacks and the important things to keep in mind when building yours.

It's All about Balance and the Right Mix

Not every tool is going to work for every insurance agency. Some of them are more complex and advanced than you need, while others are going to fall short. This doesn't mean that they aren't great solutions for any business, they're just not a good fit for yours. The first thing to remember when building your marketing stack is that the focus needs to be on your individual agency, and not necessarily the latest trends. Insurance agencies need a specialized approach to marketing, and their stack should represent this.

If marketing stack is a new term for you, it might come as a surprise that you're probably already working with one. There are so many layers that even if you're doing nothing more than posting on social media and checking your numbers once in a while, the tools you use can be considered part of your stack.

The best starting point is take everything you're currently using and analyze it. Are your tech tools and solutions working for you? How would you like them to perform better, and what tools do you think would compliment your existing stack?

Before you get all crazy adding items to your stack, you should analyze what you're already using to pinpoint areas for improvement. For example, if your team is spending too much time trying to generate leads, you can consider adding email automation software to your stack since email statistically beats out all other tactics in terms of ROI.

The takeaway here is to make sure everything in your stack has a purpose, and to use caution in blowing the budget on trendy, but costly, tools that might not fit your needs.

Analytics Should Be Top Priority

There's a lot of components to marketing your insurance business, but none of it would be possible without one thing.

Numbers.

From start to finish, numbers guide your marketing strategy every step of the way. You can't define your target market without them, and you can't measure the success or ineffectiveness of what you're currently doing without them. In marketing, we refer to numbers as analytics.

Having the right analytical tools in your stack is a necessity for every other element to work effectively. The technology behind advanced analytic tools provide insights that improve performance, generate a better ROI and overall make your marketing strategy, and the stack its built around, more successful.

The analytic tools you use choose should compliment your current marketing strategy. For example, if you're big into social media, tools like Buffer or Hootsuite might fit the bill. However, if you're looking for more comprehensive analytics, a tool like Cyfe is bit broader in the monitoring and data it provides.

Learn Stack Anatomy

There are no hard and fast rules to building a marketing stack, except that it should contain the marketing tech solutions most appropriate for your business. Stacks are a lot like snowflakes in that it's hard to find two that are exactly the same.

Still, some marketing stacks are more successful than others. Often the difference between one that performs and one that doesn't is the type of tools that are included. A well-built stack, no matter how small or large it becomes, contains these basic core elements:

• Customer relation management tool
• Content management system
• SEO software
• Email automation software
• Social media analytics
• Advertising and acquisition software
• Your Marketing Stack Is Only as Good as the People Using It

When building your stack, it's important to keep in mind the people who will be using the tools daily. It isn't uncommon for a business to load up on expensive, new software only to have nobody that's capable of fully optimizing it. The software ends up sitting there, unused as a costly reminder of your mistake.

Before you add an element to your stack, make sure that its realistically a good fit for your team. Even if you have someone that's tech savvy, what will happen if they leave their position? Will someone else be able to use the software as easily or would it become a choice between hiring someone with the capabilities or calling the software a wash?

Another aspect to consider is training. There are some great tools out there, but some of them have a steep learning curve. After all, you're in the business of insurance, not marketing. A particular software might require time to learn or even the investment of hiring someone for training purposes. It's crucial to make sure you have the resources and skill to support every element of your marketing stack.

A Targeted Approach to Marketing for Insurance Agencies

Digital marketing is complex, and a well-built marketing stack is just one component of a successful strategy. The insurance industry is like no other, and you need a marketing team on your side that recognizes this and can help connect you with the tech solutions that match your needs. Contact Confluency Solutions today to learn more.