Did you know that one in three businesses with a content marketing strategy sees a 27% higher conversion rate than those without a strategy? Are you concerned that your marketing plan isn’t converting as well as you would like?
If you sell insurance for small businesses or individuals then you need to capitalize on inbound marketing. Don’t worry if you’re not sure what that is or how to start building your marketing strategy because we’ve got you covered. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about inbound marketing for insurance agents.
What Is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing is the act of attracting potential clients and customers to your business. This is in stark contrast with traditional marketing in which you create advertising that you then push out to your audience, also called outbound marketing.
The goal of inbound marketing is to increase your leads and then convert them into buying customers. There are three key stages of inbound marketing you need to keep in mind as you create new content. These stages are:
- Attract
- Engage
- Delight
The key to creating successful content is to know what the goal and stage are for each piece of content you create. This will help you to create content that moves the needle forward in your business.
Top Benefits of Inbound Marketing
For many small business marketers, when it comes to inbound marketing, it can be tough to prove the return on investment to your C-suite executives. However, when done right can offer a valuable and sustainable strategy to grow your business in the long term. Some key benefits of inbound marketing include:
- Improve authority within your industry
- Build your brand
- Increase lead generation
- Create a relationship with your prospects
- Build customer loyalty
As you can see, there are incredibly beneficial and tangible benefits to focusing on your inbound strategies for your business. Unfortunately, at the base level marketing doesn’t bring in a certain level of sales that you can track and monitor.
However, your sales team will enjoy higher conversion levels when you provide them with warm leads already interested in working with your company thanks to your successful marketing strategy. If you’re having a hard time building a winning marketing strategy, working with an expert can help.
4 Types of Inbound Marketing
As mentioned, inbound marketing is the act of attracting new prospects and customers to your business. There are several different ways to accomplish this goal.
The top four types of inbound marketing include:
- Content marketing
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- SEO
We’ll dive into each one below and to best utilize them for small business insurance agencies.
Content Marketing
Creating new content is the cornerstone of using inbound strategies to grow your business. There are dozens of different types of content you could create for your business including blogging, videos, podcasting, white papers, infographics, case studies, emails, and social media posts.
The key to creating content to grow your business is to find what types of content your potential prospects want to consume and then focus on that. You can’t create every type of content or stay active on every social media platform. However, if you choose one or two top platforms where your ideal audience already is then you can focus your efforts and see the level of success you want to grow your business.
Social Media Marketing
Another great way to build brand awareness for your business is through social media marketing. Never before have marketers had such an incredibly personal connection with their future audience. You can connect with your audience while they’re relaxing at home, sitting at their child’s soccer game, or even waiting at the doctor’s office.
Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to reach your audience regardless of where they are and what they’re doing. However, too many marketers don’t understand the power of social media. You can’t continually post only about sales and selling your product or service.
The key to social media marketing is to attract and entertain your audience. Let the conversion happen later in your sales funnel. Keep the focus of your social media content on entertaining your audience and you’ll soon see more success than ever before.
Email Marketing
The beauty of email marketing is that you’ve already received an invitation to communicate with your potential and current customers. You also don’t need to worry about algorithm changes or having to pay to boost your views. With email marketing, you can reach your audience in their inbox and convert them with quality content.
When it comes to small business insurance lead generation, think about a small problem you can quickly solve and then offer that for free in exchange for their email address. This can be as simple as offering a free quote on their insurance or offering a free 15-minute call to help them find the best insurance solutions for their personal needs.
Once you’ve converted your visitors into new leads by adding them to your email list, your marketing work isn’t done. You must continue to nurture those leads into buying customers and repeat buyers so you can continue to grow your business year after year.
SEO
One of the best ways to grow your business sustainably is to utilize organic search engine marketing. This is known as SEO and should be a vital part of your overall marketing strategy. While paid advertising on social media and search engines provides quick new leads, organic search traffic will build your audience for years to come.
Every day people search for answers to their questions on search engines. When you create content that answers your potential customer’s questions, you’ll naturally attract warm leads to your business.
One of the best ways to start creating content that answers your client’s questions is to talk with your current customer list. Find out what their top questions are concerning their insurance plans and then create content that answers these questions. You’ll soon see your website rise in the ranks on search engines as more people find your business thanks to your optimized content.
Grow Your Insurance Agency With Inbound Marketing
As you can see, inbound marketing can be incredibly beneficial to growing your insurance company. As an insurance agent, you make money by helping your clients find the best insurance solutions for their situations. However, it can feel like you’re constantly spending all your time marketing your business to new clients.
If you’re ready to work with a marketing expert who understands the specific needs of your insurance company, then reach out to us today. We can show you how we’ve helped other agents just like you to grow their businesses with inbound marketing every day.