Social media marketing is an often-misunderstood phrase. People usually see social media as the equivalent of a roadside billboard. It can access a huge amount of people, but it only really works for consumer products that reach broad demographics.
Insurance marketing doesn’t really work like that. Big providers have a certain amount of reach and will use big advertising methods, but insurance agents operate in a different way. Marketing for insurance agents is about things like word of mouth and local and direct advertising. These are often the reasons insurance agents don’t get involved in social media marketing. They don’t think their target market use social media or they don’t feel insurance marketing methods will work on Facebook or Twitter.
The funny thing is, social media marketing is all about word of mouth and local and direct advertising. Let’s look at the social channels that every insurance agent should consider and the reasons they will work for you.
The most obvious social channel for insurance marketing is LinkedIn. More than a social network, LinkedIn is a professional network so it’s the ideal starting point for insurance marketing. Even though it’s an online network, the roots of LinkedIn are very traditional. It’s all about making and building contacts, and building a reputation through word of mouth. By joining groups and getting involved in discussions on LinkedIn, you can get your name out there among potential clients. The more active you are, the more connections you’ll make and the more visible you’ll be.
LinkedIn is also a great place to share content you’ve created, like blogs. If you share that content within the right groups, or if one of your clients shares it to others in their industry, you could access a huge potential community. It’s local word of mouth in a digital age.
Speaking of sharing content. Twitter is another great place to share out your content. The response when you mention Twitter as a marketing channel to a lot of small business is, ‘Is that not just people talking about Justin Bieber and what they ate for breakfast?’
The answer is, not by a long shot. Twitter is a huge community and, depending on who you follow you can interact with people on almost every subject imaginable. By interacting with other insurance professionals and prospects, you can broaden your visibility and build contacts.
Just like LinkedIn, Twitter is a great way to use your contacts. If your account is followed by someone with influence in another industry and they share some of your content, or mention you in a tweet, you’re accessing a whole new market.
Blog
We’ve mentioned content a lot here, because content is key to modern digital marketing. It’s all about creating content that piques the interest of prospects so they visit your website and become a potential client. As well as being your main content output, your blog is also a social channel in itself. The best blogs offer interesting insights that encourage further reading or create debate. Creating interesting blogs around your products or industry can be a great way to attract traffic and hopefully generate a few comments.
Your comments section on your blog will be another opportunity to engage with prospects. You should also visit other blogs within your industry and leave comments of your own. Blogging is very much a social activity and the more active you are, the more effective it will be as an insurance marketing tool.
To use social media effectively for insurance marketing, you should really be using a combination of the three. You create regular blogs, post them to LinkedIn groups and tweet them to your followers. Then you follow up on comments and get involved in discussions. Traditional insurance marketing is about building contacts and getting word of mouth going, and so is social media. The difference is that you can do social media marketing without leaving the office or picking up the phone.
