By its very nature, the insurance sector is one of the most competitive in the business world. We can only assume that it is because insurance plays a role in just about every area of our lives.
You have insurance for your life, your home, your mortgage, your health, your car, your travel, and we must not forget that we can also insure your pets. No doubt you can think of several more, especially if you own or manage an insurance agency.
Given that there are so many reasons to take out insurance, it also follows that insurance can be very profitable for those who sell it. That is why it is such a competitive marketplace and the ability to attract new clients very much reliant on the marketing which an agency does.
While there are lots of offline marketing campaigns that can bring new customers to it, we are going to focus on five of the main online marketing strategies such as great web design or SEO that an insurance agency can employ to drive traffic to their website, and in turn, create new business.
SEO
Now that you have newly designed website up and running, the next step is to make sure there are visitors to that website. There are many ways that can be achieved, but one which underpins them all will be SEO.
SEO, carried out by a professional SEO agency, is the means by which we get your website ranking highly on the search engines whenever someone types in a search term related to your insurance agency.
For example, let us say you wish to attract clients from all over Perth. and that you offer several types of insurance. Any SEO campaign would seek to rank your website pages for terms related to those types of insurance, and for those searching within Perth.
Examples of keywords might be ‘home insurance broker Perth’, ‘life insurance agency Perth’, ‘car insurance agent Perth’. Given that we have just three examples there, but in reality, there are literally hundreds of keywords which you could optimise for, you’ll soon understand why SEO takes a lot of planning and research.
It also requires a high level of expertise as there are multiple factors that need to be optimised in order for the pages within the website to rank well, and these include factors both on the site, and off-site.
A successful SEO campaign is one which also takes time as nothing is going to change overnight given how the search engines operate. As it progresses the campaign needs to be monitored, and where necessary modified to make sure the optimisation is maximised.
If all of that makes you feel somewhat overwhelmed do not fret, as our SEO agency can take your insurance agency from A to Z in terms of research, planning, implementing, monitoring, and modifying your SEO campaign.
Website Redesign
We are going to make the assumption that if run an insurance agency, that you already have a website. If you do not have a website, then you most certainly need to have one, and the principles and tactics you are about to read apply to you equally, albeit, they will be taking place on a brand new website, rather than one which is being redesigned.
Your website is your storefront and can often be the first thing that a prospective client sees with respect to your insurance agency, and thus you want that first impression to be the best it possibly can.
If your web design is dated, has text which is hard to read text, out of focus images, and a colour scheme that looks like your website is a tribute to the 1970s, then you can hardly expect people who land on it to stay very long.
After all, would you want to trust something as important as your life insurance to a company whose website is the equivalent of a dilapidated building?
A makeover for your website can have it giving those who visit a fantastic first impression with a clean design, sharp images, easy to read text, and clear instructions as to how to navigate it.
Professionally designed and functioning websites also make the sale process more likely to lead to someone becoming your client as they can find which page or section they want more easily. Also, any calls to action, such as filling in quote form, or arranging an appointment to see an agent, will be bold and obvious, so there is no confusion.
Video Marketing
If you think that insurance and video marketing seem like unlikely bedfellows, then think again. In fact, there is not a single industry or business niche that does lend itself to the use of video marketing.
One of the main reasons you should certainly think about using video is the simple fact that people today expect it. Thanks to superfast broadband at home, and on the mobile networks, videos are what consumers of all ages migrate towards for information, rather than reading long, boring blocks of text.
Besides, getting the message across about what you offer clients, including your fantastic customer service is actually easier and more effective if it is done by video. Remember, you are dealing with individuals, and they want to know they can trust and rely upon you as their insurer.
Now, compare trying to do that with the written word versus doing it with video. A great copywriter could manage it, and doubtless, if you are prepared to pay for one, they will convert lots of prospects into paying clients.
However, with video, you can go a stage further, and by the way, you can also get a great copywriter to write the video script. In a video, the prospect can hear the way in which the words are spoken and if they are spoken with passion, and with an authoritative, trustworthy voice, then even better.
Another benefit of video is that you can use it in lots of ways. You can have virtual tours of your office, short ‘hello’ videos from your team, informative videos explaining the benefits of your policies, and best of all, testimonials from your existing clients.
Social Media
Social media might not be the first thing that sprung to mind when we started talking about marketing your insurance agency, but to dismiss it would be a huge mistake.
The fact is that businesses which have the highest rankings on Google, regardless of the niche, invariably tend to have the most active social media campaigns.
The beauty of social media is that there are so many variables. Each platform has a different audience, uses different ways to communicate and the ways in which users post and interact also varies.
This provides so much scope for your marketing as you can select which platforms you believe fit best with the sorts of clients that you are targeting. Even better would be to have a presence on each of the main social media platforms and then create the specific type of content that each one needs.
As with video, social media can be used in many different ways. You can inform your followers of new products or services, give them advice and tips, share some light-hearted material (insurance is fun, right?), and do not forget that having a strong presence on social media also aids your overall SEO.
Paid Advertising
Here we are talking about online paid advertising, not offline advertising, such as magazine or newspaper ads, although that does not mean you cannot use offline methods too. In fact, offline advertising can complement online advertising and vice versa, to great effect.
Online advertising can be done in several ways, with the most well-known being Pay Per Click (PPC). Here you bid on certain keywords, and if someone searches for that exact keyword, your ad can appear, assuming your bid is high enough.
Given the vast number of keyword phrases you might wish to bid for, a PPC campaign requires a lot of detailed research and planning. If done correctly, it can generate lots of traffic, and give you a fantastic return on your investment.
If it is done wrongly, it can be an expensive and unproductive exercise, so if you wish to take advantage of PPC advertising, get expert advice from a marketing agency such as ours.
Another extremely popular way to use paid advertising is on social media, with the prime one being Facebook. Facebook advertising differs from normal PPC in that instead of targeting individual keywords, you target an audience when setting up your ad.
You can select all kinds of demographics such as age, gender, location, occupation types, and with regards to insurance, those who have previously shown an interest. When doing so you can also see what size that audience is, and then make adjustments to make it even more laser targeted.
Facebook advertising is also classed as pay per click as you pay based on how many clicks you get, although there are also options where it is simply the number of impressions that you pay for.