By now, you’re settling into the reality that it’s going to be a while before you can get back to “business as usual.”

However, business, usual or not, must continue—which means you’re probably going to need to add or enhance a few skills in your insurance tool belt. So let’s talk about a handful of ways you can attract new business to your agency without stepping foot outside. 

1) Social media ads. In case you missed it, 2019 was the year of highly targeted paid ads on a number of different social platforms.

Now, the art and science of creating an effective ad that drives business is far more expansive than a few sentences. If you haven’t tried your hand at them yet, the most important thing to know is your power to target highly specific prospects is unparalleled and including video produces far better results. More on that in a minute.

The top platforms you’re going to want to consider include Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google and Instagram. The type of business your agency focuses on is going to determine where a majority of your attention should be focused. 

For example, if you’re selling more personal lines or small commercial, Facebook is probably your best bet. On the other hand, if you’re all commercial all the time, LinkedIn is going to be your first stop.

2) One-to-one video. I told you we would get back to this, and really any type of video marketing is going to be your friend whenever you are distance challenged.

However, there isn’t a more immediate and powerful option as one-to-one video, which simply means you’re recording a single video for one specific person. Or, to put it another way, the exact opposite of what you see on YouTube. 

There are plenty of ways you can put this new prospecting and retention driving superpower to use.

• Cold email: There isn’t a person self-quarantined or otherwise that likes spam. But, if you slap a face on it and spread a little personality around, everything starts to taste a little better. Mix that with a subject line like “<Insert Prospect First Name>, I Made a Video for You” and watch the responses roll in.
• Video proposal: If paid social media ads were all the rage in 2019, video proposals would have taken the title in 2018. Their dominance and effectiveness in the insurance marketing landscape hasn’t let up since. A video proposal is simply the act of you recording your computer screen recapping the insurance proposal you just presented over the phone. Ideally, you would have your webcam on as well so the client or prospect can see your face. This is a much more effective way to close that account then sending a plain text email with a PDF attachment.
• Renewal: Since stopping by the office or grabbing lunch isn’t going to be an option anytime soon, nothing says you care more during times of confinement than recording a personalized video. This is a great way to make it easy for your clients to do business with you. You’re providing them the ability to review their policies on their time. They can always follow-up with a more traditional phone call, but most of the heavy lifting will be out of the way.

Some quick tips: Hold your camera horizontally, record in natural light and make sure the light is facing you, not behind you. Some tools to use include BombBomb, Vidyard and Loom.

3) Email automation. If you start to connect the dots, you might see that all these options are great on their own but become unstoppable if combined.

As we continue to roll the clock back on dominant marketing tactics, email automation predates the rest of this list so far. Much like video proposals, it continues to occupy a large portion of insurance marketing attention.

There’s a good chance your agency has dabbled or currently uses at least a basic level of email automation. Assuming you have a tool in place, it only takes a couple of hours to set something up that lasts a long time.

The first three email sequences you should plan out are:

• Getting a lead to schedule an appointment (more on that in a minute).
• Following up after the proposal is sent.
• Capitalizing on opportunities to cross-sell.

Some options to get you started are Pipedrive and Hubspot CRM.

4) Online scheduling and virtual meeting platforms. I know this is technically cheating as I’ve combined two different tactics in one. But really they work so well together that separating them would be like asking Bruce Springsteen and Steve Van Zandt to get their own microphones.

If you can get all these tactics working, having an organized option to seal the deal goes a long way. Using a scheduling service like Calendly gives prospects and clients the freedom to book calls with you 24/7. It also dramatically limits your need to play phone tag. When you make the shift to online scheduling, everyone is ready for the call and your productivity goes through the roof.

5) SEO content. While you might be kicking yourself at the moment for not jumping into the search engine optimization (SEO) game sooner, there’s a good chance you might finally have the urgency to participate.

Much like the first tactic on the list, there’s an entire internet full of information on how to successfully execute SEO content. We certainly can’t cover a fraction of it in a few sentences, but let’s at least break down a few basics.

SEO content can come in a few shapes and sizes. The most common are going to be articles and informative videos. The articles should be laser-focused on one or two types of insurance you want to sell the most. They should be written with language a noninsurance person would understand, which means no industry-heavy terminology.

You want to make the person reading feel smart because you’ve helped them finally understand insurance. There’s no room for over-complication or for you to try and sound smarter than you actually are. These articles can then even be used as a rough outline or script for a video. Where should these pieces of content live when you’re all done creating them? The article’s primary home should be on your agency website.

Here’s the bottom line: It’s going to take a little more than reading a thousand words for these tactics to start working. The most important step in getting any one of them to work is trial and error. Don’t give up, stay patient and hire an expert if you want things to move even faster.

By Joey Giangola, marketing director, ecommerce, Risk Placement Services.