Independent insurance agents are essentially on their own. But that doesn't mean they can't compete in the marketing arena. Yes, you get to offer a range of ready-made policies from various carriers to your customers. But how you reach those customers, market your products and services, and make sales is entirely up to you.

If you don't deploy an intentional marketing strategy, your reputation as an agent won't grow as quickly as you'd like and getting the word out about your products and services will be a lot more challenging. Developing real relationships with customers to inspire long-term loyalty will be difficult as well.

You don't need a large marketing team, a big budget, or an extensive suite of tools to tap into and maintain a successful marketing strategy. Instead, you need to focus on marketing on the best platforms.

Agents who identify the best platforms for marketing to their specific audiences will have the best shot at consistent conversions and an influx of customers. If you aren't meeting your customers where they're at and using the platforms that they're using, you aren't going to reach them, let alone connect with them effectively.

Define Your Target Audience

The whole point of marketing is to nurture relationships with current and potential customers and get them interested in your products and services. But you must first know who your audience is. For example, if you're marketing to an audience in the medical field, email, social media, and your website are some of the best platforms to market on. And the best strategies to reach them include starting a blog, publishing quality content on social media, and launching an email newsletter.

When you know who your target audience is, you can focus your efforts and resources on the platforms and strategies that resonate best with them.

Defining your target audience is a lot easier when you've already got some customers under your belt. You can comb through the information they've given you through the forms they've filled out and the conversations you've had with them.

You can also review the data you've collected via your digital marketing channels' analytics tools. You'll gain insight into what platforms they frequent and how they engage on them.

But if you're just starting out, you'll need to use your instincts. Who do you think wants your insurance products and services? Who do you think would be attracted to you as their agent? What's their demographic? How about their personality, lifestyle, and the ways they think and behave?

Compile all of this information into a buyer persona. This is a fictional representation of someone you think fits the profile of your ideal customer. Then, you can search the internet for information on what marketing platforms this kind of person is on.

How to Find Marketing Platforms for Your Buyer Persona

Start with a simple Google search to get an idea of what marketing platforms your target audience frequents. For example, if your target audience is working parents, you could search, “What marketing platforms are working parents on?" Or “Do working parents like LinkedIn?" Additionally, you can search phrases such as, “User demographics of TikTok." 

Keep in mind that finding the perfect marketing platforms for your target audience will take a good amount of initial research. It'll also take some experimentation, data analysis, and adjustments along the way to find the platforms you should move forward with.

Use Your Platform Well

Once you determine which platforms are best for your target audience, you can focus on implementing low-cost marketing techniques that are highly effective for independent insurance agents and their unique customer bases.

For example, lean into social media marketing on platforms like Linkedin and Facebook to reach a more professional audience looking for insurance products and services.

You can optimize your website pages so that they show up on the first page of search engine results pages when people are searching for your insurance policies or agents in your area. Focusing on creating quality content across all of your marketing platforms is critical as well.

You can blog about what's happening in the insurance industry. You can create infographics about how to choose the right insurance policies and share them on social media. Developing a detailed newsletter that introduces you as an agent and the uniqueness of your agency is a good idea as well.

Marketing as an independent insurance agent is a challenge. But it's necessary if you want to make a name for yourself in this industry.

Sam Bowman writes about careers, tech, insurance, and how they merge. He enjoys getting to utilize the internet for a community without actually having to leave his house. In his spare time, he likes running, reading, and combining the two in a run to his local bookstore.