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Have you ever stopped to really think about what your insurance agency’s social media marketing strategy is really all about?
Sure, it’s about telling the story of your insurance agency’s brand and answering questions that your audience has about your insurance products or services, but deep down, agency brands that do social media marketing do it for something more than these reasons.
The insurance agency brands that do content marketing better than their competition are the agencies that realize that, at the end of the day, social media marketing is about building trust. Whether you are creating content for new prospects or customers you currently have, the real purpose behind your efforts should be to build a higher level of trust between the consumer/prospect/client of the content and your agency’s brand.
How to Ensure your Agency’s Content Marketing gets through the Online Noise
If you stop to consider the fact that there are almost 350 blogs being created and posted every minute of the day, you will probably come to the conclusion that we have entered the age of information overload, which makes for a very noisy internet world. Beyond blogs, there are videos, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter posts, and of course, all of the information that comes our way over email and text.
Let’s look beyond the new content being created and shared online every day; we are exposed to massive amount of advertisements being thrown in our faces every second of the day. The crazy fact is that we are exposed to an average of 5,000 advertisements per day, yes, 5,000 and that’s simply a fact.
With so much content and information being created and thrown at us every day, it is important to remember what will make our agency and its content stand out amongst the noise.
Some marketing firms will argue that it is the frequency of content or even the quality of the content. I personally believe that both of those things play a huge role but would tell you that they are less important than you may think.
For most insurance brands, especially those that don’t have endless financial wherewithal to spend on their marketing efforts (such as the Lizard and Flo), it comes down to creating content that builds trust between your agency brand and your audience.
If you are an insurance agency looking to increase the level of trust between your agency and those you are creating content for (prospects/clients), then I believe the following 4 steps are the key:
- Define your audience. Agencies must always be thinking about who they are writing for and why they are writing. Don’t write just to write or because some marketing expert says you must be blogging; write with a purpose and a passion to educate. It is much easier to build trust when the reader is given the right content along with the right visuals. Insurance agencies must think about why they are writing: What is your goal? If trust is the goal, then make sure not to push too hard or too soon, but instead, be gentle in your approach, and try not to over post.
- Determine content type, frequency and location. While the frequency, type of content, and placement won’t build trust by itself it can certainly help. Trust starts by putting the information that your audience wants in the place where they can benefit from it. Think about education first and foremost. So, if your audience primarily seeks content via email, then make sure you make it available to them through an email blast. Great content marketing that isn’t seen won’t build trust. Content that isn’t seen is costly to your agency and will hurt your ROI.
- Share, always promote, and most importantly, engage. Part of the process of building trust in the social world is making sure that the word is out there, and that your content is available on the right platforms. Having said that, there is a fine line between helpful awareness and education, and flat out spammy content. Make sure that sharing is done on platforms where your audience is alive and active. Furthermore, create content carefully, and with the right visuals, so that it will help the reader quickly see why they may want to consume even more of your agency’s content. Finally, if your audience comments on your posts, please don’t ignore them; reach out to them and communicate back with them.
- Make connecting with your agency simple. If you do all the work to create great content and great visuals, then you should be highly motivated to make it easy for someone to connect with your agency. Make sure it is easy for interested readers and/or prospects to become meaningfully connected to your insurance agency through email, phone, text, social networks, and also by having an RSS feed. Ease of use is everything.
Keep in mind, these four steps, like any process, take time and energy to get a good response. Once informed, it comes down to being active, passionate, connected, and available for the prospects and customers to learn and find out more about your agency and its brand. Then your agency’s brand must continue to self-actualize, and you must ask yourself, “Are we providing the right content to the right audience?” If not, you must pivot to figure out if it’s a “content thing” or an “audience thing.” This is not easy and may take time but my only advice is to never give up!
