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What separates us from the big name insurance companies? Yes, I’m talking about the captive agencies of the world. Well, first and foremost, the gecko, Flo the insurance girl, and the other big name carriers can’t provide the same customer experience that we provide. That includes the relationships we build with our customers, how and when we service them, and how we make them feel. When one of the gecko’s customers shops for insurance through Geico, they are left feeling like their insurance was handled by an automated system, with only fifteen minutes spent on their coverage. Frankly, that is not enough in my opinion at all, and we let our customers know that they are worth far more than fifteen minutes of our time. We may not provide the cheapest or least expensive insurance coverage, but what we can do is provide them with the coverage they need at the most affordable price. We leave our customers feeling like they understand their coverage, it was easy to work with us, and it was, overall, a positive and pleasant experience.
But, what if we could take it a step further? There is always room to grow, especially through the eyes of an insurance agency owner. The next step in capitalizing on the customer experience is to get your community on board with some of your marketing efforts. There are several ways to go about this, and I’d like to share some of our strategies with you, but first I’d like to discuss “the why” behind the reason we are doing this in the first place. Of course, here at Paradiso Presents, we are here to discuss insurance marketing, and community based marketing is a great way to extend your reach. Through community based marketing, you will be able to dominate your local niche, and truly connect with more members of your hometown, but that isn’t what it’s all about at the end of the day. The Independent Agent has the power to make local communities better places to live, all throughout the United States and Canada as well. By connecting with your local town through donation drives, community events, and charities, positivity will spread in your town like it’s contagious. Our insurance agency wants to make America a greater place to live, starting with our local community. Let’s get into some of the strategy behind this concept.
Reverse Trick-or-Treat
If you follow my agency on any social media networks, by now, the chances are that you’ve heard of our Reverse-Trick-or-Treat campaign. During Halloween, there are kids at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center who cannot have candy, because certain nuts or chocolate can interfere with their treatments. Our insurance agency takes the time to run a donation drive and collect toys to bring up to the medical center to donate to these kids. Trust me, the smiles on their faces make every moment of our donation drive beyond worth it. Here’s the thing though, we called out to our local community to help us with collecting with these donations, and they jumped on board. Did it extend our reach online? Of course it did, but it also empowered our local community to make a difference, and be proud of that.
We created several visuals to display our progress with Reverse Trick or Treat, showing all the toys that had been collected. We had even created a video last year to explain this campaign, and made several social media posts thanking our customers for their donations. At the end of the campaign this year, we will be creating another video to show how everything went, and use it in an email blast to all of our local customers and prospects. This multi-touch point strategy is key for visibility, and the visibility is a positive way to put our insurance agency in front of the eyes of our audience, because we made a difference in our hometown with the help of our community. Even our local school system pushed out our message to all of their staff about our Reverse Trick or Treat campaign, and we didn’t even have to reach out to them for it. Our reach simply could not be measured.
If you’re interested in checking out one of our other community based marketing campaigns, be sure to take a look at our Flag Day 2016 campaign, with a corresponding video on that landing page as well.
Agent Spotlight
There are a few other Independent Agents in our space that I would like to mention here that have also done a great job with community based marketing in their local communities as well.
The first is Claudia McClain, and she’s certainly done an amazing job with connecting with her community. During off days, Claudia’s insurance agency opens their doors for folks in their local community to come and shred paper for free. Not only that, but they also collects electronics, such as old computers, that need a special process in order to properly discard. They take the electronics and properly dispose of them on the company dime, and believe me, they’ve gotten plenty of recognition for it.
The next agent I’d like to mention is Carlos Vargas. Carlos is incredibly loyal to his clients. In fact, he won’t even eat at any of the local restaurants in his town unless they are partnered with his insurance agency. By showing his clients support and shopping locally with the businesses he insures, they understand that Carlos puts his clients before anyone, or anything for that matter.
I’d also like to mention Shane Eastman of I-80 insurance, a good friend of mine who lives out in California. Shane has done an amazing job of showing both his personal and commercial clients that he really cares. For his commercial clients, he invites them all in for a “client appreciation day,” where they can come eat and enjoy some time with Shane’s agency. They’ve also done a great job explaining their coverages to their personal insurance clients, which you can check out on their YouTube page.
I would encourage you to follow these folks online to see what ideas you might be able to incorporate into your local community as well. Remember folks, community based marketing can extend your reach, but you can make a difference to make your hometown a better place to live.
