Does your agency have or has had a marketing person on staff? I’m not referring to the marketing of policies (a quoter) but a social media maven or blogger with the mostest? Someone who’s sole responsibility is to promote the brand of the agency and help make the phone ring. If your agency has struggled with keeping and/or seeing an ROI from this role, then this blog is for you!
Common Frustrations About Marketing Staff
You aren’t alone if you have questions on if a marketing person on your team could or would pay off. Almost every agency has faced this challenge. When you look to add up the insurance, salary, marketing budget your head may spin but it’s actually an incredibly profitable role for an agency if and when you do it well. We have outlined the common challenges we hear from agencies about this role.
What do they do all day?
When everyone in the office is running around like the building is on fire and they are too busy to breathe, how is having someone post on social media going to help? For many agencies they just can’t see what a marketing person would fill 40 hours with per week. The reality is a strong marketing person is going to do it all, from attending networking events, responding online, building your customer experience, pouring over data to strengthen your strategy, etc. Ohh and by the way, marketing changes daily. Almost an entire day of the week is dedicated to knowledge and testing. You may be thinking what? A whole day… but let’s face it! What’s the reason you haven’t been running Facebook ads? It changes consistently and in order to do it well you need to be a forever student.
The lead quality isn’t what I want…
Not all leads are created equal but a great marketing person will find those sweet spots like building an epic referral program and helping to promote it. Marketing people are not just all about the online world. They can also help nurture unsold business and lost customers you want to win back. The right marketing person will do all the things you read about and know will work but you just cant get to.
They aren’t making my life easier.
Any new team member needs onboarding. You can’t leave them out in the dark. With a marketing person you may be the one training them since it’s your business. Accept this and built it into your plan. The more they know, the better they can do!
Tips for Finding the Right Marketing Person For Your Agency
We see all too often that agencies have the wrong mentality when looking for a marketing person for their agency. We all think a 22 year old that grew up on social media solves our problems. They are cheap and know social media. However, we beg to differ. If you are going to invest in a marketing person, they need to be dynamic and have a seat on your leadership team. This person spans over every department and for many people they will face push back from other agency team members. They have to have the skills to win friends and influence people! Also they need to have their own insurance. They must have at least purchased auto insurance to make sure they understand the process.
If your agency isn’t ready for a full marketing person then outsource it. We have several services like AppX Marketing that allows you to cover the baseline of marketing without the hassle of another body. We have accumulated our best tips on how to approach the role of marketing in your agency.
Look For a Professional
When you hire someone fresh out of college expect to mentor them and shape them. The reality of the situation is they have a degree not experience. If you want someone to build a strategy, represent the agency and be focused on metrics they need experience to actually add value. For many agencies you don’t want to target the 22 year olds as you need someone that has experience in reaching a mature target market. Yes, you will pay someone more but they will bring that plus more to the table.
Identify What You Really Need
Marketing is a big word. It’s like insurance. You can’t be a jack of all trades. You can’t expect your marketing person to be an excellent video editor, writer, graphic designer, etc. What you probably really need is someone that can do the basics of most but know when to tap out. You really want someone who is creative, has a good eye and can drive the strategy not necessarily every detail of the execution.
Find Someone With Spirit
What we really mean is find a great project manager. If they need blog topics and no one is responding to the email they need to have the spirit to follow up and follow through. You don’t need excuses, you need answers! Not every person is going to feel comfortable going to your top producer to remind them they need to sit down and shoot their video bios. Or that there has been less than outstanding data entry into CRM tools. You want someone with some authority to make sure all the marketing investments are paying off.
Marketing Data Driven
Modern marketing requires not only attention to numbers but also the patience to see the numbers out. Often today it’s not 1 thing that makes the phone ring. It’s the brand, the nurturing and the follow up from sales. So often it’s 7 touch points, not one, that you have to see how everything is interacting. With 7 touch points it’s not a light switch. You need someone who can see the tide swelling, track it, and then improve on it. But there can’t be activity for the sake of activity. There can and should be experimentation but experiments require numbers.
So is what I’m describing to you look like a 22 year old still on mom and dad’s auto policy? Probably not.
Why Marketing Team Members Fail And/Or Leave You In Under 3 Years
We can all blame the generation right. They don’t stick around. It’s not me it’s them. Not so fast. We all play a part in this. It may be a long time since you were bright eyed and bushy tailed for your career but most marketing people thrive in creative environments, which can be the exact opposite of an independent insurance agency. So here are the top reasons they get frustrated and walk out.
Training
Remember how I said marketing people should be spending 1 day per week learning? Well for many marketeers they can use podcasts, webinars and YouTube but twice per year you should invest in sending them to something. Not just a carrier thing but a real marketing convention. This is where they can meet other people that speak their language and learn through immersion of the best new and great strategies.
Isolation
Since most marketing people are creative when we stick them in a corner where no one gets them, they get lonely. Many agencies don’t embrace the marketing role. All the service team think it’s a waste and they should get another team member so they aren’t soooo busy. Agency owners are running around and keep bumping meetings off. It can feel like the marketing person is an interruption and not part of the team.
Accountability
We all know that smarketing is the way to go but are you going to back your marketing person’s need to have the sales team follow up? When their results are on the line and sales is not a willing partner to attend events, make phone calls etc., guess what? It can feel like you are swimming up stream. We get it. Already everyone is soooo BUSY. Then do you need another lead or client to keep or should we just give up. Marketing can’t be the last thing that we all get to.
Too Many Cooks
Yes, when we take in everyone’s feedback, a marketing person cannot get consensus. This is why we always tell agencies to invest in a brand guide. Brand guides help at least get the content, look and colors down pat so the only thing to figure out are some specifics. We have all been there, the flyer that is on revision 27 and yet no one can agree. That’s an easy way to burn out your marketing person.
No Future
For many career minded people they want to see what their future looks like. What can they expect? As an agency you may not know this is the first time you have had a marketing person. However, every bright and talented career person wants to know how they can excel. Work to bring bonuses, interns and growth to the table. If it feels like a dead end to a creative person you probably won’t see them for very long.
