Small to midsize insurance agencies operate o𝄹n an unlevel playing field.

You’re up against huge multinational brands that dominate nearly all traditional marketing avenues. Not only are the big guys pla🌞stered on billboards and joking through every TV commercial break, they’re also all over the digital space, from social media to YouTube and more.

What’s frustrating is that you (as a smaller insurance agency or individual b🌳roker) almost always offer better service than your big competitors. You build relationships and tailor your offerings to each policy holder’s needs and budget.

This is insurance done right — but it’s hard to ge💎t your message out.

But there’s good news. Inbound marketing offer🌜s a chance to level the playing field. Search engines can democratize the entire internet — and if the content you produce speaks to buyers, you can corner the market and reach your audience in a way that mailers and cold calling never will.

Insurance is something that touches everyone’s life — often in the most painful and vulnerable moments. When an insurance business operates with trust as its core principle, it has the capability of building its customer base and carving out a niche that the🌳 hugeജ brands can’t touch.

At IMPACT, this is what we help businesses do: expand their aud꧟ience, capture new leads, and grow their revenue with trust as their ℱguiding principle. With the right inbound marketing strategies, small insurance providers can punch well above their weight.

Want to see how you can🌠 do it in the insurance field? Below, I’ll spell ♐out the critical first steps your insurance company can take to succeed with inbound marketing.

 I’ll cover:

• An inbound marketing overview for insurance agencies
• Inbound marketing basics: Start with what your customers want to know
• An effective email marketing strategy
• Why the website your buyers want is not as far away as you think

Ready? Let’s dive in.

Inbound marketing for insurance agencies

At its core, inbound marketing is really simple. It starts off with a basic premise: The internet has changed the way people buy.

Nowadays, when customers are thinking about making a purchase, ♏they start by gathering information online. They do this by typing questions intജo a search engine and looking for information.

This is where you (🦋and inbound marketing) come in.

When you learn to♏ do inbound properly, you can direct these searchers right to your company’s website.

To do this, your company must produce conten😼t that answers these 🗹buyers' questions. This could be in the form of blog articles, ebooks, FAQ pages, videos, podcasts, or another medium.

The content you pr🀅oduce will show up in search results. When a visitor clicks through, they’re brought to your site.

For example, if they search “Do I need nann🙈y insurance?” in Google, your article could be the one that pops up to explain what nanny insurance is, what it costs, and how they can d🌠etermine whether or not they need it.

Wꦯhen a company offers transparent, helpful content, these potential customers are drawn to it. After all, inbound marketing differs from tradit💝ional marketing because it avoids salesy, self-promotional content.

When site visitors find unbiased, valuable content, they begin to build a relationship with the company that published it. If they read a few articles on the same website, that company becomes a brand they 168极速赛车官网:recognize and trust.

Taking the first steps to get started

To get started with inbound m🐻arketing, all you have to do is answer your buyers’ questions with written and video content.

Here, IMPACT client , a 100-year-old local agency in Massachusetts, explains how they’ve used our 168极速赛车官网:They Ask, You Answer inbound ma🅰rketing framework to drive traffic, leads, and sales.

With the right inbound strategy, insurance businesses like yours can drive traffic to their websites and build trust with prospects, who will then turn into leads and customers. And you can do this without having to rely on outbound market✃ing.

To do so, you’ll need to develop a content strategy to guide your inbound marketing efforts.

You already hav🔯e what you need to get started: A clear kno💙wledge of your insurance agency, your industry, and your customers.

To start,♋ just f𝓀ocus on the questions your customers are asking.

Inbound marketing strategy: What do your customers want to know?

The key to doi♏ng inbound well, we believe, is to answer any question your buyer wants to ask.

So, 168极速赛车官网:what do your customers want to know?

Start by putting yourself in your customer’s shoes. Imagine it. You're sitting down in front of a computer, opening up a search engine, trying to learn more about ins♍urance.

What do you search for?

The topics we call ‘The Big 5’

Customers everywhere, no matter what they’re in the market for, want to know the same basic things. We call these five topics 168极速赛车官网:The Big 5 because they should be on the top of every inbound market💮er’s list.

Start by addressing these topics in blog posts. Use an 168极速赛车官网:SEO (search engine optimization) check♊list to make su🍰re your content can get found. Each week, keep expanding your content library with more and more answers to buyer questions — justꦛ like the ones below.

1. Buyers want to know about cost

On top of everyone’s mind is cost. Sure, it’s tough to say exactly what an insurance premium will cost, but customers just want a ballpark, so be prepared to have an answer to que𝓡stions like the following:

• About how much can I expect to pay in renter’s insurance?
• What is an average monthly premium for pet insurance?

Answering questions about cost openly and honestly will build trust with your audience. Insurance agencies operate at a trust deficit to begin with, so candid, nothing-to-hid🍸e content puts people at ease.

When you talk openly about🍸 price, it becomes clear that you're inཧvested in educating your audience.

2. Buyers want to be able to compare their options

Customers want to put things side by side to know how the๊y stack up, so you should be prepared to do this for them inꩲ content:

• Term vs. whole life insurance: What's the difference?
• How does Cigna compare to Anthem Blue Cross?

Providing these head-to-heads can help demonstrate y൲our expertise and make your potential customღers feel informed to make the best choice possible.

3. Buyers want to know about problems and drawbacks

Insurance is all about pea🌞ce of mind when disas✨ter strikes. Whether it’s a car accident, a burglary, or a surgery, customers count on insurance to provide stability and relief when life turns upside down.

People shopping for insurance know this. They know they’re buying something they hope they nev🌟er have to use — but they want to be sure theဣy’re covered and supported when they do.

Imagine topics like these:

• What are the drawbacks of high deductible plans?
• What can happen if I don't have enough travel insurance?

4. Buyers want to see ‘best of’ lists

You can bet that many potential𝓰 customers are starting their journey with a search engine and a question like this:

• Best insurance brokers near me
• Best flood insurance plans for my budget
• Best service ratings for car insurance

And so on.

As an insurance professional, you have the expertise to answer these questions and put your content at thꦦe top of search results.

After all, if a potential customer is asking any of these questions, wouldn’t you want them to ౠget the answer from you?

5. Buyers want to read reviews from previous customers

This one’s a bit tougher because there is some natural skepticism around reviews posted to a company’s site. But that doesn’t mean reviews aren’t valuable. Customer testimꦆonials and other social proof can h𒆙elp assuage fears and make the buying process more familiar.

Think of ways to incorporate this i🃏nto your webs𒀰ite.

Thinking beyond The Big 5

While The B꧒ig 5 is a wise place to start, the insurance industry comes with its own unique questions that buyers everywhere want to know.

These include a million “What is…” and “Do I…” type questions. As you plan your content strategy, pull some team members together and brainstorm some questions your buyers 🐓might type into search engines, such as:

• What is a 100-year flood zone?
• What is an HSA?
• Do I need extra liability coverage for my auto policy?
• What is amortization?
• Do I save money on car insurance if I work from home?
• What is PMI, and do I need it?

You get the idea.

Gated content

Once you’ve built up a library of educational content, you can focus on creating high-value content that can help with lead generation. Perhaps it’s a guidebook to everything you need to know about renter's insuranc🌟e or a checklis🐻t for getting your teen driver on the road.

Site visitors could g🌠ive you their contact information to download this type of free ebook. This way, you grow your audience and your mailing list.

Inbound marketing strategy: Email marketing

Everyone needs insurance, 🌸which means that everyone (at least every adult) is a potential customer. And the opportunities for cross-selling are tremendous.

That person buying insurance for their business𒐪 might also need it for their motorcycle. Or their home. Or their upcoming trip to the Maldives.

As you build your database, engage with your audience through 168极速赛车官网:email marketing. But when you do so, focus on being helpful, not salesy. Remember to think like a customer. Picture your own inbox; whatꦯ kind🧔 of emails do you want in there?

If your emails offer helpful, educational content, you will continue to build trust and deepen your relationsh🃏ips with your audience.

Don’t succumb to fear-based c🤡ontent. People are already wary enough of insurance. So, instead of “You don’t have enough property insurance and this will lead you to financial ruin!” offer a checklist or a guidebook to help people understand the coverage the𝓰y need. You could cover topics such as:

• Everything you ever wanted to know about renter’s insurance (but were afraid to ask)
• Teen driver checklist: Determining the coverage that fits your needs and budget
• Term life insurance will give you peace of mind — and it’s way less expensive than you think: Here's how to get started

Any email campaigns you i🥂nitiate should invite your customers into a conversation by providing relevant content. Help them feel well-informed and that they’re being treated fairly.

You can use marketing automation software to send the rig𒆙ht emails to the right prospects at th🐼e right time.

The perfect website for inbound marketing

Often, businesses hoping to get started with inbound marketing are wary that they’ll need a new website. In almost all cases, this is not true. You😼 do not need a new website to get started with inbound marketing — you don’t even need a great website.

Unfortunately, there are many website design agencies out there that will gladly take your money and sell you a full site redesign that you don’t reallyও nee🔯d, telling you that it’s critical to your inbou☂nd marketin🔜g program.

Not so.

Even if your current website is a bit outdated, it probably has all of the neces🐷sary functionality for inbound success:

1. Can you publish a blog article?
2. Can you interlink between blog articles or use a tag system to organize your content?
3. Can you use CTAs and landing pages to capture leads?

If your website can do these three things, you’re probably good to ge🌄t started.

Just remember, youꩵr website is for your customers, not for you. Focus on their problems and challenge🅺s. Speak their language.

Visitors will consider your site to🅷 be a better webs🔴ite than your competition’s if you have the helpful content they need.

Your marketing strategy, evolved

If you’ve been doing cold calls, sending out mailers, or paying for bill🐼board space, you’ve probably grown frustrated with how inefficient t🥂hese traditional outbound marketing techniques can be.

Inbound marketing offers a better way forward that can help you grow your audience, drive traffic, generate leads, and increase revenue for your company — while clearly demonstrat🌌ing the ROI of your marketing efforts.

It all starts with great content.

When you focus on helping your website visitors learn what they need to know, you can fill your 168极速赛车官网:inbound sales funnel with better-qualified leads.

Pay attention to the questions your sales team hears from existing customers and new clients. These are𓃲 the questions that prospective customers are typing into search engines right now. If you can be the business to answer all of their questions about their insurance needs, you can be their insurance provider when they’re ready to buy.

And if you want help with this, 168极速赛车官网:reach out to our team at IMPACT.

We live for this stuff.