Like any other small business, insurance agencies need a clear and manageable marketing plan. However, today we need to change this statement to read: Insurance agencies require an web-centric marketing plan for their agency. To ensure maximum effectiveness and return on investments for agency producers, I would also suggest that the insurance agency marketing plan focus on lead generation activities.
Which type of marketing plan does your insurance agency produce each year? Do you prefer a detailed and comprehensive plan with 10-20 pages or five to five pages? Does it form part of an annual or five-year strategic plan? Agencies have many perspectives when it comes to business planning, budgeting, and marketing. We’ll be focusing on a marketing plan and then moving onto a lead generation plan for web-centric agencies.
Many marketing activities fall under the umbrella of insurance agency marketing plans. These are some of the most common (listed alphabetically).
* Memberships in Associations (Chamber of Commerce etc.
* Blogging
* Brochures
* Client Testimonials
* Club Memberships: Golf, Tennis, and Other
* Direct Mail
* eBrochures
* eMarketing
* ePublishing
* Events for prospects and clients
* Networking Organizations
* Subscribe to the Newsletter
* Seminars on-site
* Google PPC Campaigns – Pay Per Click
* Client Testimonial Creation and PR
* Promotional Items
* Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
* Social Media Marketing (Facebook and LinkedIn)
* Telemarketing
* Trade Shows
* Traditional Advertising (Magazines and Yellow Pages, Radio, TV, Radio, etc.)
* Web Seminars
* Visit the website
* White Papers
This is a lengthy list and we are just beginning. Although smaller agencies cannot tackle all the above activities, they should concentrate on a handful each year. Many would agree that lead generation activities will keep their pipelines active and full. Let’s take a look at some of the best lead generation activities in the above list.
* Direct Mail
* eMarketing
* Google PPC Campaigns – Pay Per Click
* Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
* Social Media Marketing (Facebook and LinkedIn)
* Telemarketing
* Traditional Advertising (Magazines and Yellow Pages, Radio, TV, Radio, etc.)
* Web Seminars
* Visit the website
Although networking activities are able to generate leads, they should be done in the normal course and in the most convenient way for each producer. We are therefore concentrating on lead generation activities that are quantitatively focused (highly repeatable, quantifiable). Although this list is easier to manage, it still needs to be narrowed down to focus on the relevant lead generation activity. Traditional advertising, telemarketing, and direct mail were the most preferred paths for agencies a decade ago. Only one of these activities should be left on the list today, and as you’ll see, all remaining items are web marketing-centric.
* eMarketing/Web Seminars
* Google PPC Campaigns – Pay Per Click
* Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Blogging, ePublising
* Social Media Marketing (Facebook and LinkedIn)
* Telemarketing (for smaller profile prospects)
* Visit the website
Now, our insurance agency marketing list is manageable. You might have noticed that eMarketing is often paired with webinars. Many insurance agency marketing professionals find that eMarketing has a higher response rate when leveraging educational webinars as their primary call to action. Search engine optimization (SEO) for insurance agencies results in your agency’s website being displayed organically at the top of search engine rankings (Google Bing, Yahoo, or Yahoo search engine results). This is often combined with blogging and electronic publishing, as these elements are necessary for page one search engine results. Organic SEO is a gift that never ends. Prospects do not have to pay fees each time they click on your name. PPC (Pay Per Click) ads appear at the top and sides of Google results. They require that your agency pay anywhere from $1 to $5 per search, depending on the competitiveness of the term. This is regardless of whether the prospect clicks is qualified. These are my recommendations for a web-centric lead generation plan:
* eMarketing/Web Seminars
* Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Blogging, ePublising
* Social Media Marketing (Facebook and LinkedIn)
* Visit the website
These tasks are easy to manage for most agencies and can be outsourced if they lack the necessary expertise. An insurance agency needs a professional, up-to-date website. Your keywords should be optimized on the website (benefits and truck insurance). The SEO strategy for your insurance agency may require that it be localized or regionalized (workers comp Massachusetts). Social media marketing is a presence on LinkedIn and Facebook as well as Twitter. Most agencies find it easy and fast. Although ePublishing and blogging take more time, they are vital for agencies. Agencies can leverage their blog content to publish it in popular, online article directories. A successful eMarketing campaign and Web Seminar campaign can yield some of the best results possible for insurance agencies. A series of targeted emails with a monthly webinar could be ideal. Email list brokers that sell cheap email lists should be avoided. Agency lists that combine the first and last names into one field have been seen. Many of the emails sent are information@ or sales@ emails. This is a problem for professional eMarketing. EMarketing can be both an art and a science. Agencies must ensure that it is done professionally and in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act.
If you want your agency to grow, web-centric marketing is a must. You shouldn’t try to do too many marketing activities at once. It’s better to focus on a few activities and not trying to do them all.