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For Insurance Agents: Using Social Media to Generate Leads

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Fran Majidi June 16, 2022
social media for insurance agents

If you’re reading this, chances are that you understand that “the Internet of things” has taken over everything but you’re still unsure how to use social media to generate leads for you as an insurance agent. You have a LinkedIn account and you post interesting and relevant articles, but what else is there that you can do to garner the attention of insurance shoppers? Basically, you want to know, “How do I use social media to get leads?”

First, you’ll need to either become a content maker or hire one. Next, you’ll have to either have that person or someone else (perhaps yourself) manage social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn will do).

You’ll need to not only write articles but also to create colorful infographics and short videos. These are the top three ways to get people to visit your website, which you’ve hopefully had optimized by a professional.

If you really want to compete with the bigger agencies, you’ll need an SEO specialist on hand for both website and blog optimization, someone who will ensure that everything is mobile-friendly as well. If all of this sounds like work you simply cannot take on, why not just invest in insurance leads instead?

Leads sold by SmartFinancial are superior to other bought leads, and they have the built-in cost of all the steps mentioned above. But remember that even when you buy the best organic leads, you will still want to have at least a minimal presence on the Internet.

We break down all the ways you can use social media to generate leads below:

Your Website Is the Main Event

Yes, think of your site as the main event and all your efforts as avenues that lead to that event. Your goal, after all, is to get readers/viewers to click through to your website, see your services, call and get a quote. As mentioned above, content as bait for traffic can come in the form of articles, infographics or videos. We highly encourage using all three forms and switching things up as much as possible. Keep people as entertained as possible. Yes, insurance can be amusing!

Blog Articles. While you don’t have to be a journalist or a poet laureate to create good content, you should at the very least possess some writing chops or the desire to write. If your grammar is less than par, have someone look over your work before you publish it. There’s nothing more unprofessional than grammar mistakes, on your website and in your blog. You’ll want to present yourself to the world as a polished professional. Chances are that you are a wealth of knowledge so make sure you use it to your advantage, even if it means hiring an editor to look over your work.

Your Mission in Creating Content

These days, insurance shoppers are asking the Internet to explain how insurance coverages work, how to bring down their insurance rates and where to find cheap rates. Ideally, you’ll want Google to take them to your website, articles and other content which should contain your contact information in an easy-to-spot location.

What should you write about? You can write about anything that relates to what you’re selling. If it’s auto and home, there are infinite articles you can write pertaining to auto insurance and home insurance as well as general interest articles about auto and homeownership. If you sell health insurance, you can also write Q&As with doctors. The same holds true for business insurance: Talking with business owners can generate many great article ideas that can be helpful to all kinds of entrepreneurs (who need commercial insurance). Also, look to your own business to generate articles that will come up when people Google your business name.

Infographics. People love infographics because they tell a story without using too many words. Just do a search on Google for infographics and you’ll see an array of styles for infographics. Mainly, an infographic gives information using images. If you sell many lines of insurance, for instance, you can create an infographic showing a timeline of an average person’s life. You can map out each different kind of insurance one buys over the years.

Designing an infographic requires just that, design experience. If you have experience in Photoshop, Gimp or any applications that allow you to put text on images, you’re in luck. If not, you’ll either have to buy a subscription to Photoshop (or an equivalent) or download Gimp or use Canva, both of which are free design tools. With a little playing around you will figure out how to use these tools, and there are plenty of how-to videos on Youtube if you can’t figure it all out on your own. If you’re simply not creatively inclined in the least, you can pull images and write the text before giving it all over to someone with design experience to put it all together for you.

A Word About Images: You can’t just pull any image and use it for a blog article or infographic. Most mages have a copyright restriction on them. To find free images for your business use, go to Pixabay.com or an equivalent website. Or, you can buy stock images by signing up for a subscription at iStock, Shutterstock or the equivalent.

Making Videos. There are many video apps available now, and even an iPhone can produce some pretty good stuff--if you’ve got the inclination to spend a few hours learning how to use images, text, sound and editing to create a video to circulate on social media. You don’t even need to shoot anything to create one. You can use photos and the zoom option to make it feel like a movement. Or, just shoot an actual video using your phone or tablet and edit it using one of many free software options (your phone and tablet probably already have one installed). What videos do that an article can’t do as well is to reach out and really grab someone’s attention. That’s the power of the moving picture. However, if this feels way too out of your league, a really captivating photo as the feature image of your blog post can also be successful. The same goes for a really colorful infographic with a catchy headline.

Start Posting!

After you have created some great articles, infographics, videos (and maybe even gifs?), you can begin to post at different times of the day on all of the major social media pages. You’ll soon begin to see which articles are gaining attention by looking at your website traffic analytics. You’ll also begin to get a feel for the best times to post content. Experiment, test and take chances. And be yourself -- you can afford to stand out amongst your fellow professionals. And good luck!

SmartFinancial Decisions. If all of this sounds like a full-time job (and it is at larger agencies), but you’re not in a position to hire someone to do it and do it right, you may consider taking a percentage of the money you’ll save by not hiring a professional content manager and spending it on working with an insurance tech company instead. SmartFinancial does all that’s been mentioned here and more. The cost of all those services is built into the lead price. This is probably the most cost effective way to grow your business. And it takes the least amount of work.