Small to midsize insurance agencies oper📖ate on an unlevel playingꦿ field.

You’re up against huge multinational brands that dominate nearly all traditional marketing avenues. Not only are the big guys p♏lastered 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 broker) almost always offer better service than your big competitors. You build relationships and tailor your offerings to each policy ho🍎lder’s needs and budget.

This is ꦰinsurance done right — but it’s 🉐hard to get your message out.

But there’s good news. Inbound marketing offers 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 thatꦇ mailers and cold ca♏lling 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 haꦇs the capability of building its customer base and carving out a niche that the huge brands can’t touch🔯.

At IMPACT, this is what we help businesses do: expand their audience, capture new leads, and grওow their revenue with trust as their guiding 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 insu🍎rance 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 ꦚby gathering information online. They do this by typing questions into 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 content that answers these buyers' questions. This could be in the form oไf blog articles, ebooks, FAQ pages, videos, podcasts, or another medium.

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

For example, if they search “Do I need nanny 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 determine whether or not they need it.

When a company offers transparent, helpful content, these potential customers are drawn to it. After all, inbound marketing differs from traditional 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极速赛车平台:recognize and trust.

Taking the first steps to get started

To get started with inbound marketing, all you have to do is answ♊er 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极速赛车平台:They Ask, You Answer inbound🎃 marketing 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 marketing.

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

You already have what you need to get started: A cl꧃ear knowledge of your insurance agency, your industry, and your custo💦mers.

To start, just focus on the questions 𒆙your customers are asking.

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

The key to doing inbound well, we believe, is to answer any q💃uestion your buyer wants to ask.

So, 168极速赛车平台:what do your customers want to know?

Stཧart by putting yourself in your customer’s shoes. Imagine it. You're sitting down in front of a computer, opening up a s🔜earch engine, trying to learn more about insurance.

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极速赛车平台:The Big 5 because they should be on the top of every inboun꧂d marketer’s list.

Start by addressing these topics in blog posts. Use an 168极速赛车平台:SEO (search engine optimization) ch𓆏ecklist to make sure your content can get found. Each week, keep expanding your content library with more a♋nd more answers to buyer questions — just 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 cu𝐆stomers just want a ballpark, so be prepared to have an answer to questওions 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-hide content puts people at e💖ase.

When you talk openly about price, it becomes clear that you're invested in educating you💦r audience.

2. Buyers want to be able to compare their options

C🐼ustomers want to put things side by side to know how they stack up, so you should be prepared to do this for them in content:

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

Proviဣding these head-to-heads can help demꦉonstrate your expertise and make your potential customers feel informed to make the best choice possible.

3. Buyers want to know about problems and drawbacks

Insurance is all about peace of mind when disast🤪er strikes. Whether it’s a car accident, a burglary, or a surgery, customers count on insurance to provide stability and relief when life turns upsi🌜de down.

People shopping for insurance know this. They know they’re buying something they hope they neveꦯr have to use — but they want to be sure they’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 potential customers are starting their journey with a search engine🍎 and a question like thiꦿs:

• 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 the top of search resulܫts.

After all, if a potential customer is asking any of these questions, wouldn’t you want them to get the answer fr🥀om 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༺ ൲site. But that doesn’t mean reviews aren’t valuable. Customer testimonials and other social proof can help assuage fears and make the buying process more familiar.

Think of ways to i൲ncorporate this into your websi♔te.

Thinking beyond The Big 5

While The Big 5 is a wise place to sta☂rt, 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 brainstormꦍ som꧋e 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 everythin﷽g you🐽 need to know about renter's insurance or a checklist 📖for getting your teen driver on the🤡 road.

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

Inbound marketing strategy: Email marketing

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

That person buying insura♔nce for their business 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极速赛车平台:email marketing. But when you do so, focus on being helpful, not salesy. Remember to think♛ like a customer. Picture your own inbox; what kind of emails do you wan🍃t in there?

If your emails offer helpful, educational content, you will continue to build trust and deepen your relationships wi🍌th your ♔audience.

Don’t succumb to fear-based content. 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 they 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 initiate should invite your customers into a conversation by providi❀ng relevant content. Help them feel well-informe☂d and that they’re being treated fairly.

You can use marketing automation so𓆉ftware to send the right emails to the right prospects at the 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 m🎉arketing — 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 si🐎te redesign that you do🌱n’t really need, te💧lling you that it’s critical🍷 to your inbound marketing program.

Not so.

Even if your 🃏current website is a bit o𒐪utdated, it probably has all of the necessary 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 y💫our website can do these three things💮, you’re probably good to get started.

Just remember, your website is for your customers, not for you. Focus on their problems and challenges.🌳 Speak their language.

Visitors will consider your site to b🦂e a better website 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 billboard space, you’ve probably grown frustrated with how inefficient these 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 demonstrating 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极速赛车平台:inbound sales funnel with better-qualified leads.

Pay attention to the questions your sales team hears from existing customers and new clients. These are the questions that prospective customers are typi𝓰ng 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极速赛车平台:reach out to our team at IMPACT.

We live for this stuff.