Why Social Media Marketing is Valuable for Insurance Agents

You've heard repeatedly that social media is a necessity for marketing your insurance business. You understand that it works for other industries, but don't really know if it's a strategy that translates well to insurance agencies.

With insurance, you're attempting to market a product that's a need instead of a want, and that alone is a tough challenge. But, you're also in the position of appealing to the customer on an emotional level. Insurance protects the things that are most important to us, so choosing an insurance provider is really personal.

Social media is a great place to increase your visibility and meet your customers on platform that encourages engagement. The more they get to know you, the more likely they are to trust and invest with you. Plus, you're going to find the audience that's most important for growing your business.

Here's how to make social media marketing work for you.

The Demographics Say Insurance Buyers are Social

There are so many statistics about social media marketing floating around that it will make your head spin. We're constantly analyzing who's using social media and how, so there's always an influx of new data. Some of it won't matter to you, but one thing you should be paying attention to is demographics.

At last count, there were more 3 billion people using social media. That's nearly half of the world's population. Obviously, you don't need to reach 3 billion people, but let's break this down a little further by looking just at Facebook.

The percentage of internet users on Facebook by age group looks like this:

• 18-29: 88%
• 30-49: 84%
• 50-64: 72%
• 65+: 62%

Now, think about your average insurance customer. Those aged 18 to 49 make up the largest group of social media users, and they're the ones buying cars, purchasing homes, acquiring health insurance for their growing families, thinking about life insurance, or managing businesses.

This is a prime playing field for insurance agencies.

Provide Value to Your Audience

It isn't enough to just be on social media, you also need to be providing something of value to the people who are following you. Valuable content is shareworthy, and that's exactly how you expand your presence on social media.

Now, before you sit down and start typing a lengthy piece on insurance regulations, stop and think about how you use social. If you're like most people, you scroll through during your downtime, passing by stuff that looks like it would require too much of an energy investment. After all, you have 15 minutes, do you really want to spend 10 of them reading dull content?

No. You want something engaging and enjoyable.

High-value content also plays into the rest of your marketing strategy because it generates engagement in the form of comments, likes, and shares. Engagement gets noticed by search engines and this can be a huge plus for your SEO. The key here is learning the definition of high-value content for your audience.

As an insurance agent, you're natural problem solver. People look to you for answers and solutions. Why not share some of that expertise with your content? Think along the lines of how to prepare your home for a winter storm, or the importance of regular tire maintenance. You might also tap into emotions by creating a video featuring a family bringing a newborn child into their first home, or one that illustrates how to conduct a fire safety drill with your family.

Think value driven over sales driven, especially on sites like Facebook and Instagram which have a strong visual focus.

Challenges with Facebook Become Opportunities

Facebook has restructured how it prioritizes the content its users see. Many businesses took off running for this hills with their hair on fire when they read this because they viewed it as the death of organic (free) reach on the network.

Facebook decided that they wanted to create a better user experience by featuring content from friends and family over spammy posts from businesses. Really, it doesn't sound so bad, and for the insurance industry it isn't.

While post from friends and family get priority, there's still plenty of room for content that provides value, engages customers and answers questions. To stay ahead of the curve, insurance agencies should consider producing live video content, like a live home inspection, and think about creating groups for the niche needs of their client base.

It's All about Strategy, Frequency and Engagement

It's important to develop a social media marketing strategy. Insurance businesses need to be purposeful in their use of social media. It doesn't do you any good to post once or twice a month. To capture new customers, you need to be present when they're looking. New insurance isn't something that the average person shops for every day. So, when clients and prospects are thinking about insurance, it's important that the last time they heard from you wasn't two weeks ago.

With social media, you need to constantly be on call.

This involves understanding the different social networks, who's using them and how often you should be posting on each. For example, to get optimal engagement of Facebook, you might post 4 times a week but that wouldn't cut it on Twitter where up to 15 Tweets per day is recommended.

The challenge for many insurance-based businesses in generating engaging content, keeping up with a regular posting schedule and taking the time to engage with the audience, which is absolutely crucial.

Sometimes, you need a little help in generating content that keeps an audience engaged with insurance related topics, especially if you want that content to also work for you outside of social media. Plus, there's no shame in admitting that you're too busy with the customer in front of you to devote time everyday to engage online.

Social media marketing is a huge responsibility, and it's ok if you don't want to handle it all on your own. What you need is an insurance agency marketing professional to help handle the task of social media marketing and develop a winning strategy. Contact Confluency Solutions today to learn how we can help your insurance business build a successful social media strategy.