With the new year rapidly approaching, strategy season has officially begun for many insurance agents, independent and otherwise. Now is the time to pave the path into 2024 and get started on an effective marketing plan. Here are our top seven tips for creating your agency’s next marketing plan, plus how you can be seen, understood, and even recommended online in 2024.
Tip #1: Take Time to Reflect
Looking back at previous campaigns is one of the best ways to outline an educated marketing plan. Be thorough when digging into data to determine which promotions worked and which fell short of your goals. If you identify positive patterns, brainstorm ways to rework and recycle them to stretch content in the future, and if you identify negative patterns, make notes of the areas which you can improve on and the mistakes you should avoid.
After you’ve identified your patterns, you can conduct a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis is an organizational technique that allows you to think deeper about your marketing strategy and visually determine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Use this template to conduct your own SWOT analysis.
Tip #2: Set Realistic Goals
No successful digital marketing plan is aimless. Every campaign you run should have a defined objective, strategy, and key performance indicator (KPI) to help you measure results. You’ll want to ensure every goal your agency sets meets the SMART criteria:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Timely
For example, your insurance agency might be looking to increase consumer retention in the new year. To do so, start with looking at retention in the current year, and use that information to ballpark where your agency’s retention rate should be by Q4. If your objective is, say, a 15% increase in consumer retention in 2024, strategize innovative ways to hang onto those customers, like offering a discount or gift card for returning customers. Use KPIs—like the number of customers retained YoY (year over year) in January of 2023 versus January of 2024—to track the success rate of your campaign.
Combining the SWOT analysis and running your goals through the SMART criteria helps your agency define a clear marketing strategy for the coming year.
Tip #3: Create Content Consumers Are Looking For
Keeping your agency site up to date and loaded with fresh, relevant insurance content is crucial for more reasons than one. Not only can you help to answer the consumer’s questions before they ask them, but filling out content with relevant keywords improves your agency’s SEO (search engine optimization) and the likelihood of appearing on the first page of the search engine results page (SERP). For example, if your agency recently published a piece on finding the right bakery insurance and a consumer in your area happens to be searching for bakery insurance, search engines are more likely to serve the consumer your content.
While quantity is the long-term goal, you’ll want to ensure every piece published on your agency site is informative, quality, and preferably evergreen. Evergreen content has no peak season and can be recycled year-round, so long as the information is consistently updated.
When brainstorming new content for your agency site, be sure to ask yourself the following questions:
- “What is the purpose/goal of this content?”
- “Who am I trying to reach?”
- “What do I want prospects to do?”
Finally, make sure to include a call to action in each of your content pieces. A lot can happen in one blog or article, and whether your goal is to peddle product or get the prospect on the phone and asking questions, you’ll want to remind them of what they came to do.
Tip #4: Activate Your Online Presence
One of the most valuable tools in your arsenal is social media. Think of it like the organic route to creating brand awareness—you can load your social media profiles with logos, in-house photos, and links to help the prospect better get to know your agency online. In fact, according to a study by SearchEngineWatch.com, social media influences a staggering 71% of consumer buying decisions.
For most agencies, the challenge with social media is consistency. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are always moving, and to have a better likelihood of standing out, your agency must deliver informative, but witty, but consistent posts. Consider your posting frequency and which social media posts outperformed the rest to determine peak posting times throughout the week. If something works, rinse and repeat until it doesn’t anymore.
While social media is a valuable tool, it’s an ever-changing one. According to a study conducted by Transformation Marketing, you only have about eight seconds to catch the prospect’s eye. Keep this in mind as you create social posts—the more concise your social media content is, the more likely you are to convert a follower into a customer.
Tip #5: Optimize Your Online Reviews
Reviews are a powerful tool to give prospecting insurance consumers an unbiased view of your agency, your coverage offerings, and your quality of customer service The more positive online reviews you farm, the bigger an impact is made to your reputation, allowing your business to attract new clients. There’s no shame in encouraging satisfied clients to leave reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, or industry-specific review sites — like TrustedChoice.com. Responding to reviews, both positive and negative, demonstrates your commitment to customer satisfaction and can enhance your online credibility.
Learn more about how reviews affect your online standing here.
Tip #6: Stay Informed on Insurance Trends
The insurance industry is dynamic, with regulations, products, and consumer needs constantly evolving. Stay informed about industry trends, emerging insurance technologies, and changes in practices. You can stay up-to-date by regularly reading insurance news, subscribing to insurance newsletters, and attending independent insurance events, like conferences and conventions. Being adaptable allows you to adjust your marketing strategies accordingly, ensuring your approach remains effective in a rapidly changing digital insurance landscape.
Tip #7: Get Help Doing the Work With Advantage
With an Advantage profile on TrustedChoice.com, the nation’s leading online resource for connecting online consumers with independent insurance agents, you can unlock a new spectrum of online capabilities designed to bring online consumers straight to your virtual door. Your agency can upload logos, team members, business hours, your favorite five-star reviews, and even be referred and recommended on relevant insurance content site-wide.
You know that you should be spending time on your agency’s SEO, but you don’t have time. With an Advantage subscription, the work can be done for you. Not only do you get the cosmetic perks to keep the prospects coming, but upgrading to Advantage also comes with an SEO boost leveraging TrustedChoice.com’s domain authority, the ability to purchase Claim-it® Referrals straight from your phone or inbox, and even boosts your ranking on the agency results page as well as the national IA directory. An Advantage subscription is another way to help consumers get to know your agency online and make the most of your 2024 marketing plan.
And if you’re a Big “I” member, you may already have a TrustedChoice.com profile which can be upgraded to Advantage to attract appetite-matching online prospects.
Get started on your 2024 marketing plan, and see all our Advantage subscription options online or request a demo from one of our sales representatives. Don’t miss out on the Advantage your agency could be getting in 2024 with an Advantage subscription from TrustedChoice.com.
