Having A Focus

If you had a hole in your Insurance agency office roof would you fix it? Let’s assume you have a lot of people visiting the office.


One thing we can all agree upon is the insurance industry is getting more and more competitive. This is why having a strong brand for your insurance agency is so important!

In my opinion, anything that has your logo on it goes into the definition of things that make up your brand.

One of my favorite musical artists is a band called “Rush”. They have dozens of albums that are all unique and successful. I remember one interview with them a few years back. In short they said they only put songs on the album that have been polished a hundred times over, they had to be worthy of the “Rush” brand.

I guess my point is, I talk to many insurance agencies about social media daily. Many tell me how they’ve created a facebook page or LinkedIn page months ago. Now they’ve forgotten about them and barely know how to access them. Problem is these pages are easily found on Google when a consumer checks out your “brand”. The consumer views these pages as key pieces to your brand. When the social media page looks unfinished or inactive…… your agency suffers, regardless of how you view their value.

So did you ever think creating a facebook page and not keeping it impressive would have the same effect as having a customer come to your office with a hole in the ceiling?

Ken French
973-607-1916
Ken@snoozzy.com
www.benefitstore.net

Social Media Philosophy for Insurance Agents

The point of Social Media for insurance agencies is to stay in front of their current client base. If you have a good posting strategy you can take advantage of Social Media’s “Viral Marketing” aspect and actually get your agency in front of your client’s friends and families.

Fact: Successful insurance agencies are built on referrals and solid retention.

Fact: Social Media is valuable because a high % of people pay attention to it.

That being said it’s a very simple process.

One: Setup a social media presence for your agency (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter accounts)

-Having all three is actually vital for your websites SEO (Google now looks for “Social Activity”).

Two: Start posting five days a week. Post about industry news, helpful tips and things on people’s minds. (Never solicit)

Three: Reach out to your clients via email or your agency newsletter. Tell them you’re investing in the future and that your social media presence is a free value added service for them. It’s something that separates you from your competition. Give them instructions on how to become connected.

Four: Never stop the above process…. You need to be constantly posting, you need to be constantly adding new connections. It never stops!

If you believe that insurance is a numbers game and that people only buy insurance when they have to. Then social media is a free, innovative way to get your agency in front of those numbers. To project yourself as a guru or expert that can guide the consumer to the right risk management solution.

I am offering a free webinar that offer more indepth analysis and how to on this subject. 

Feel free to signup below

Webinar Date: 7/16 (From Noon to 12:30 – Eastern Standard)

Click to Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/822880001

Ken French

www.benefitstore.net

President

Ken@snoozzy.com

973-607-1916 Ext 1

Insurance Agency Facebook Strategy – It’s Now Mandatory

Whether you want to admit it or not, facebook has exploded as a key marketing tool for anyone who wants to have strong brand recognition. With over 70% of all insurance agencies using social media it’s gotten much more competitive and harder to generate results. Hopefully by this point you realize that with facebook you can grow a large distribution of “Fans”. When marketing or “posting”, those fans become your guaranteed distribution or virtual reach. With a solid posting strategy you have the ability to actually increase your distribution by touching your fans friends through interaction occurring. At the end of the day this won’t lead to instant online sales while you sleep. However it will lead to “planting the seeds” of your agency in people’s minds. As we know with insurance, it’s not till something happens in our life that we need it. When that life event occurs in your follower you have a much more likely chance that seed will sprout into a referral phone call from a friend of a fan!

So what does your insurance agency really need to do to be successful with facebook? In my opinion you need the three “P’s”. (P)age purpose, (P)romotion, (P)osting Strategy. If you can implement all three on a consistent basis you will be above and beyond most insurance agencies. The problem is most agencies have fallen into a bad trap with social media. They have heard so many times that they need it, that they rushed to create a presence. There was never any thought process on its purpose and game plan. Now these agencies are left with a lot of wasted time and having a social media presence just to have one. What good is that?

Your Page Purpose –

The first key to success is defining what your facebook agency page actually offers people. What does it actually provide its fans consistently? If you want to seriously increase your “Fans” and distribution you can’t just tell people “Like my page, become a fan”. Let’s say you have lunch with your top client and you say, “Hey Bob, we now have a facebook insurance agency page, we would love if you went home and clicked “like” and became a fan.” Well what would you say to Bob if he said “Why?, what does it offer me?”. My point is, almost everyone has a facebook page now for their insurance agency. The ones that are going to rise to the top have an actual purpose for the page, it offers something for free. That purpose maybe promoting one of your clients businesses each week or offering a silly golf joke every Friday but it’s still more then you may have now! Once you define your page purpose it will make getting fans and posting much easier.

Promotion –

Once you have a page purpose, it makes it much easier to promote the page and get fans. Instead of telling everyone to “Like” your page, you can say, “123 Insurance is proud to announce our new free value added service. Visit facebook.com/123Insurance and become a fan today to receive weekly silly golf jokes and special advertising discounts from our clients, which is only available to our fans! Just visit the page and click the “LIKE” button at the top middle of the screen.”

Promoting should be done consistently through many traditional and nontraditional means. Featuring it in your client newsletter, website, email signature, send it to your facebook friends, LinkedIn connections and any other means that people are likely to pay attention to.

Posting Strategy

Now that your page purpose is in place, you have a road map of what you have to post. If you have promised your fans silly golf tips every Friday, then you must come through and post them. Now that your page purpose is in place, you have a road map of what you have to post. If you have promised your fans silly golf tips every Friday, then you must come through and post them. Of course you still want to offer a balance of three kinds of posts. (1) Projecting yourself as experts in the products you sell. (2) Agency promotion – Making sure people know the products you offer. (3) Interactive Posts – Posting things that people will “Like” and “Comment on” giving you the ability to increase your distribution.

Facebook is a very powerful tool for anyone looking to influence potential consumers. The problem is its getting more and more complicated to get results. To get to the next level you need to have a game plan that you can consistently execute and modify. If you don’t have that plan then you’re just hoping for results and in business none of ever want to truly rely on guessing.