The Inbound Growth Blog

The Inbound Growth Blog covers all topics relating to an integrated marketing strategy. We write about inbound marketing, social media, integrated marketing strategies and the sales process.

5 Surefire Social Media Tips For Insurance Agencies

New Call-to-action

Posted by John Beveridge on Apr 25, 2014 6:42:00 AM

Insurance_ageny_social_media_marketing_tipsSocial media has become an integral element of B2B marketing - Aberdeen Research found that 84% of B2B marketers used social media in some form. Many insurance agencies that use social media exclusively to broadcast sales messages may be doing more harm than good. You should absolutely use social media to promote your content, but that should be just part of your social media marketing efforts. Those companies that generate real business results with social media are listening, gathering intelligence and connecting in addition to promoting themselves. The mantra for social media marketing is be helfpful and you will be rewarded. Here are 5 surefire social media marketing  tips that will help you generate a return on your investment.

Tip 1 - Post blog articles and landing pages to your social media profiles

Yes, you should post your marketing content to your social media profiles! But you need to make sure that the content informs and educates your audience and is not a blatant sales pitch. Mix up your content with helpful content from other people - I recommend either the 10:4:1 rule or a 50:50 mix, depending on how much content you have in your library.

Don't post your content once and hope for the best. I recommend posting new content 3 to 4 times, with roughly a week's time between each post. This will expose your content to a higher percentage of your followers, who may or may not be on social media when your content is on their timelines.

Be careful about posting your own content in LinkedIn groups. Before you do so, read the rules for each group and observe how others post content. Regardless of rules, make sure you share other people's content and comment on other posts before sharing your own. Nobody likes the newb who immediately comes in pitching.

Tip 2 - Use LinkedIn company pages 

For most insurance agencies, LinkedIn is the most productive social media network. A well-designed, informative company page can serve as the foundation for your agency's LinkedIn marketing efforts. Promote your LinkedIn company page with follow icons on your websites and email marketing to increase your followers. You can also increase followers and drive traffic to your website with LinkedIn sponsored updates.

Sponsored updates allow you to target your content to decision makers with paid social media advertising. You can segment the audience you're targeting by geography, company size, industry, job title and seniority. I recommend choosing the pay-per-click billing option so that you're only charged when someone clicks on your sponsered update. You can also set a budget to cap your social media advertising expenses.

Take advantage of the analytics LinkedIn provides for your company page. Monitor the growth of your followers and see which of your posts have the highest click-through rates to optimize your marketing. If you do sponsored updates, consider using ad variations where you A/B test different images and titles. It's a great way to see what's working and what isn't.

Download Rapidan Strategies eBook, Inbound Lead Generation For Insurance Agencies

 

Tip 3 - Interact with your prospects on social media

Each producer should follow all of her prospects' social media accounts. It's a great way to learn their culture and see what they're talking about. Sharing and retweeting their content is a great way to get on their radar screens; after all, we all appreciate it when someone shares the content we've worked so hard to produce.

Experiment with different ways to reach your prospects: rather than a cold telephonic outreach or email, try sending a tweet to your prospects with a link to a helpful piece of content. If you have a premium LinkedIn account, InMails are a great way to connect with prospects. According to LinkedIn, InMails are 30% more effective than regular emails. Keep your InMails brief and to the point and quickly explain the value proposition of responding.

Tip 4 - Use Social Media For Lead Intelligence

As stated above, following what your prospects say on their social media profiles is a great way to learn what they're talking about and what's important to them as an organization. Producers should review the LinkedIn profiles of their prospects before any meeting or call. Look for things like:

  • where they've worked before

  • who they're connected to (looking for common connections and to see which of your competitors they're connected to)

  • how they describe themselves in their profiles

  • where they went to school, what they studied, etc.

  • when you're looking at a profile, check out the people similar to section, you might find some new prospects

  • also check out the people also viewed section, this will contain both potential new prospects and colleagues of your prospect

  • review what groups they belong to and what companies they follow

There's no excuse for going into a meeting with a prospect without some general intelligence on who they are and what's important to them!

Tip 5 - Use analytics to focus your social media efforts

Like most things in business, the return on your social media marketing efforts will increase as you focus on the most productive channels. What's the point in investing time and resources into Facebook marketing if it's not producing a return?

Inbound marketing software like HubSpot will show you which social media channels are producing traffic to your website and generating leads. It will also show which of your blog articles and landing pages are most productive. You can ultimately track sales and revenues back to those customers that first came to you from your social media marketing efforts.

Social_Media_Traffic_Sources

It's also a good idea to measure the growth of your social media reach by keeping track of followers and connections over time.

The beauty of social media marketing is that you can measure most everything and optimize your efforts based on marketplace feedback.

Summary

Successful insurance agencies are adapting their lead generation techniques to match the changes in the buying process brought about by technology. When done properly, social media marketing can serve as an effective lead generation channel that supplements and amplifies your marketing. Follow these 5 tips and you'll be on your way to generating leads and customers with your social media marketing.

Schedule a free inbound marketing consultation  

Get the Ultimate Lead Generation Handbook


Learn 30 tips and tricks to supercharge your lead generation.

Ultimate Lead Generation Handbook