We all know the value of prospecting for commercial insurance accounts. The advent of social media and the ability for social marketing has made it both harder and easier to reach our target market. This blog is intended to be an introduction for a commercial lines insurance producer in how to create a digital marketing effort. In years past a solid community-based presence combined with some print advertising in the yellow pages and newspapers would keep us at the top of mind for our clients as well as prospects in town. We may not have written everything but our prospects were aware of us and when they reached out to us we had a good shot at winning the business.
However, times change. In today’s world our target market may have grown outside of the reach of our community marketing efforts. Traditional groups such as Chambers of Commerce or more social or service groups such as Rotary, Elks, and Lions are struggling for membership. The benefit of social marketing is that we can now reach a larger, more diverse, and more spread out network of potential prospects. The drawback is that it can be a little overwhelming in how to approach prospecting commercial accounts today.
Like most marketing efforts, the key is a blended strategy. Anyone that says that traditional marketing is dead or that one particular social media platform can create all the prospects that you need are typically selling a niche program aimed at improving one aspect of your marketing strategy. While these niche programs have a place, they can only be one component of your marketing efforts.
There are some components to digital marketing that standard prospecting efforts should all include. On Facebook, you can promote yourself and the agency on both your personal page and your business page. Some insurance producers will create a 2nd personal page on which they promote their business efforts. I understand the desire to separate some of our personal details with our business lives but maintaining two different profiles on the same channel can take more effort than it is worth. I recommend creating one profile and merge your personal and professional lives. This is going to produce the greatest and most qualified leads.
On LinkedIn, it is important to make sure that you are promoting your personal page. All of the information on your personal page should line up well with a fully created company profile. Even if you do a great job of generating interest on your personal LinkedIn page, if people try to link over to your company profile and find a bare profile or one that doesn’t line up with the message on your profile, they will bail on a discussion before they even engage with you.
We highly recommend that you pay for LinkedIn Premium. There are a number of functions that the premium account offers. My personal favorite is that you can see the full list of people that have viewed your account. That is great to use to determine which of your prospects may be heating up a bit or to identify someone whom you haven’t even contacted. You also have some enhanced search capabilities to identify new prospects for your pipeline.
Your Personal URL
This is obviously easier for those of us with a unique name but owning your name as a url can be very helpful in prospecting. Not only does this give a fun and more personal way to brand yourself, it also can help if someone is searching your name. Even if you just point the url to the home page or a unique page on the agency website, it still helps to brand you.
Watching your Google Search
Doing a Google search of your own name can have some interesting results. Again, for those of us with unique names this is a little easier to see what a search of our name would reveal (Google Search: Dave Siekman). This will help you identify which digital marketing efforts are creating quality search results. It can also identify if there is any negative activity associated with your name. Many prospects (especially in commercial lines) will search both the agency and the producer’s name before engaging.
Your Website as Your Best Assistant Salesperson
It is vital that your agency page includes a good strong bio piece on who you are as well as information on the agency. While I don’t want to put too much focus on an About Us page, a lot of sites have done away with them under the “who cares” thought process. Well, a significant number of your prospects care. Especially at the top of the funnel when they are just hearing about you. Two great ways to learn more about you without having to contact you are by checking out your LinkedIn profile and the information on your website. Be sure to not only have a well put together and branded website but be sure that it gives the information for which people are looking. Also make sure that the entire website has strong content which includes text, video, and photos which are within the agency brand and are SEO friendly.
Other Platforms
Finally, we all know that there are countless platforms online for businesses to engage with potential prospects. To prevent resources being stretched too thin, determine which platforms your dream clients are utilizing and figure out a content strategy on that platform. For example, if you are working with retail you may find your clients are on Pinterest and Twitter; restaurants and hotels may be able to relate to someone with a strong Yelp presence.
I’ll close with one of our top commandments. You must be prospecting all of the time. There can be no excuse for letting prospecting go. It is vital (arguably the most important component) to your success as a salesperson!
