How Insurance Agents Build Relationships Through Content Marketing
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The document discusses how insurance agents can use content marketing to build relationships with clients and generate referrals. It explains that content marketing is a way to communicate helpful, non-sales content to audiences and is more effective and less expensive than traditional marketing. Specifically, content marketing can help retain existing policyholders and drive word-of-mouth referrals through helpful articles, newsletters, social media posts and other engaging content. The document also provides an overview of how the OutboundEngine content marketing platform can be used to create and distribute this content across multiple channels.
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How Insurance Agents Build Relationships Through Content Marketing
- 1. How Insurance Agents Build Relationships Through Content Marketing
- 2. What We’ll Cover Today 1: Why Content Marketing? – The value and purpose of it 2: What Is Content Marketing? – What it looks like and can do 3: How Does It Work? – Actual business results 4: How OutboundEngine Works for You – Overview of your content marketing 5: Q&A
- 3. Part 1: Why Content Marketing?
- 4. Content marketing is a way of communicating with your audience through interesting, entertaining, and informative materials that are intended to help, not sell. Part 1
- 5. Purpose Help you retain policyholders and generate word-of-mouth referrals from them.
- 6. Value Content marketing sets you apart from your competition, helps brand you as a trusted resource and grows your business.
- 7. The old methods don’t work.
- 8. Less Expensive Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing.
- 9. More Effective Content marketing generates 3 times more leads than traditional marketing.
- 10. Customer Acquisition vs. Customer Retention It’s 6 - 7 times more expensive to acquire new customers than it is to retain an existing one!
- 11. The Brutal Truth Your policyholders are tired of being inundated with irrelevant messages, which is why they tune out traditional marketing... ...but you can change that!
- 12. Give Them a Reason To Love You • 90% of consumers find custom content useful • 78% believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them.
- 13. Part 2: What Is Content Marketing?
- 14. Content marketing is the planning, creation, promotion and measurement of content for a specific audience to influence a business outcome.
- 15. What Content Marketing Is Not
- 16. What Content Marketing Is Not
- 17. What Content Marketing Is Not
- 18. Content marketing is an experience.
- 19. Not as New as You Might Think John Deere’s The Furrow Magazine
- 20. Your award-winning health and wellness newsletter. Monthly Focus Get the Skinny on Trimming Trans Fats from Your Diet Trying to figure out how to fight the “good” versus “bad” cholesterol battle? Arm yourself with knowledge on trans fats. Learn how to substitute heart healthy foods for cholesterol clunkers and take our poll to tell us what change you’ll make. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 10,000 to 20,000 heart attacks and 3,000 to 7,000 coronary heart disease deaths could be prevented each year if Americans reduce the amount of artificial trans fats they eat. — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014 Health & Wellness From Brain Injury to Miss Utah: How One Woman Recovered After a Dangerous Fall Amy Davis never thought she would experience a traumatic brain injury (TBI), until one misstep during cheerleading practice sent her to the emergency room. Watch Amy’s story and learn how to avoid TBIs. Not as New as You Might Think BlueCross BlueShield of Texas mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=6aa0d38e62&view=pt&q=blue%20cross&qs=true&search=query&th=1485d4207ad597c8&siml=1485d4207ad597c8&si… 1/4
- 21. Not as New as You Might Think Red Bull
- 22. Help, Not Sell If you sell something, you make a customer for a day, but if you help someone, you make a customer for life.
- 23. Connect with People Beyond Your Business “Speak to the dog, in the language of the dog, about what’s in the heart of the dog.” - Roy Williams
- 24. What It Looks Like
- 25. Twitter Facebook
- 26. The 5 Business Benefits of Content Marketing
- 27. 1: Keeps Your Policyholders Engaged
- 28. 2: Builds Long-Term Relationships
- 29. 3: Grows & Nurtures Your Relationships
- 30. 4: Supplements What You Already Do
- 31. 5: Brands You Personally and Professionally
- 32. Part 3: How It Works
- 33. How It Works
- 34. Great for New & Repeat Business
- 35. Retention of Your Policyholders
- 37. Referrals, Referrals, Referrals. 69% of insurance agency new business clients come from client referrals.
- 38. The Vision Part 1 What does content marketing look like for your existing policyholders?
- 39. The Vision Part 2 What does content marketing look like for building up your referral business?
- 40. Part 4: How OutboundEngine Works
- 41. Email
- 42. Email
- 43. Email
- 48. Referrals
- 49. Quick Look into the Dashboard
- 50. RECA P 1: Why Content Marketing? 2: What Is Content Marketing? 3: How Does It Work? 4: How OutboundEngine Works for You
- 51. QUESTION S?
Editor's Notes
- Title: How Insurance Agents Build Relationships Through Content Marketing Notes: - We’ll wait for everyone to join the webinar and in the meantime if you want to go ahead and mute your phones and that you’re able to see my screen.
- Notes: Welcome everyone – few housekeeping notes We’re recording the webinar and will send you a copy after the presentation I’ve got our product marketing manager helping out today. He’ll be answering your questions live as you type them in the chat box. Read above slide
- Notes: - Content marketing is the backbone of OutboundEngine. While we might be sending emails, updating social profiles and running your online profiles, the essence of everything we do starts with high quality content marketing.
- Notes: So why is content marketing so important for your business? Simply put, content marketing is a way of communicating with your audience through interesting, entertaining, and informative materials that are intended to help, not sell. Good content helps you cut through the noise, commotion, and bad information that is cluttering up their worlds and gives them something that they want to read. They’re hit daily with “buy this” “discount on that” type of offers that people simply start to tune out any form of communication. I’m 100% guilty of it myself. CVS coupons, Costco emails about stuff on sale.
- Notes: - Content marketing helps you cut through the noise and cluttered messages in the world to help you have better relationships with your policyholders, thus better retention, and increased referrals.
- Notes: On top of relationships, retention, and referrals, it’s valuable too. Content marketing helps set you apart from your competitors who are doing the same, tired old message. (Save 15% or more – never going to open that email) Helps brand you as a trusted resource (because when you’re providing helpful information, people want to read what you have to say) All of this works together to help your business grow.
- Notes: Simply put, with all the distractions and interruption messages throughout someone’s day, you don’t have the immediate attention of your policyholders like you use to have. For example, when I get my mail every day, I immediately sort into two piles Stuff I’m going to throw away and stuff I might read quickly … Direct mail Can’t know who it’s going to Don’t know the success rate of it (compared to open rates of email, etc) It’s much more expensive than email marketing (100x’s according to Harvard business review)
- Notes: Content marketing is much less expensive when compared to traditional marketing. 62% less expensive in fact. Think about what you’re already spending your marketing dollars on. That one piece of direct mail to a zip code just to try and drum up business could cost you thousands of dollars. And for a return on investment that’s too low to even mention. Other things: bus benches, billboards, internet ads, etc. You don’t have the budgets to take on the Geico’s and Allstates of the world. You need to be smart about your investments and invest in what gives you the best return, which is of course, your existing client base – referrals.
- Notes: Not only is it less expensive, the end result is vastly more lucrative for business. Content marketing generates 3x’s more leads than traditional marketing. Less expensive and greater return = win win
- Notes: Costs a lot more to acquire new customers than it does to retain them 6-7 times more expensive to acquire new customers than it is to retain existing ones. Think about what you’re currently spending money on and are you able to actually measure how successful it is? How successful was that direct mail piece? Or sponsoring that softball team? How many referrals did you get from the birthday cards you sent out last year? You can spend your money on a lot of things but you need to know what return you’re getting.
- Notes: Your policyholders are tired of being inundated with irrelevant messages, which is why they tune out traditional marketing People have brands/businesses coming at them from all angles and suffer from information overload. It’s all very impersonal and easy to tune out. This is why building a personal relationship with them is critical to the long-term success of your business When you build a relationship with them, then you become relevant.
- Notes: Just because they easily tune out brands/businesses, doesn’t mean they can’t or won’t start building a relationship with you. People love to feel wanted and catered to, which is why content marketing is so powerful for relationship building. 90% of consumers find custom content useful. 78% believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them.
- Notes: So with all this in mind, I’ll bet you’re wondering just what is content marketing?
- Notes: Content Marketing is the planning, creation, promotion and measurement of content for a specific audience to influence a business outcome. It’s important to note that content marketing is not just another way to say “marketing/advertising.” While it has some of the same end goals that traditional advertising does, the approach is a lot different. Let me show you a few examples of what it’s not.
- Notes: Birthday cards Don’t stop what you’re already doing – it’s still great, but it’s not that genuine. Used to be considered thoughtful 5-10 years ago when you’d get a bday card from your dentist…but it doesn’t have the same effect anymore. Not as cool. It’s a quick read, thoughtful gesture, but it’s not really building a relationship or building trust. And it’s only once a year. If you’re not doing anything else between birthday card sends, you’re missing out. This is not content marketing because it’s not helping or useful information.
- Notes: Still important to have yourself listed here for those demographics that might look you up there, but it’s such a small margin and not worth the investment. But honestly most people go online to look up your information. (search email OR Google)
- Notes: Direct mail Can’t know who it’s going to Don’t know the success rate of it (compared to open rates of email, etc) It’s much more expensive than email marketing (100x’s according to Harvard business review) Most forms of direct mail aren’t content marketing, but more on that in a few slides
- Notes: Content marketing is an experience It’s something that’s engaging, entertaining, inspiring, and informative. It’s meant to be enjoyed whether for personal knowledge or enjoyably passing the time. You’re not forcing a message down their throats, you’re inviting them to engage with you in a way they might not have traditionally done so with other forms of advertising. Talk about how content can be engaging. Road trip apps Ways to make home safe around holidays
- Notes: Content marketing is not as new as you might think… One of the oldest forms of content marketing. Since 1895, John Deere has been delivering The Furrow to solve the daily problems of farmers. It’s now the largest circulated farming magazine in the world, delivered to 1.5 million farmers in 40 countries. Idea here is that they are helping, not selling, and thus, building up the trust and appreciation for the brand without requiring the response from the recipient.
- Notes: Content marketing is not as new as you might think… Here’s an example from blue cross of Texas, our health insurance provider. Once a month, we’ll get emails that provide health related tips and advice. While not tied specifically to an agent, it helps to build up the brand’s image as a company who wants to help their members. Again, no commitment from the insured party, only something that is meant to be genuine and share quality of life information.
- Notes: Content marketing is not as new as you might think… Red bull does an incredible job with content marketing through videos. Like good content marketing, the point of the videos isn’t to get you to buy their products, but rather to showcase things in life that are push things to the extreme, which is the embodiment of their brand. Take this video for instance. Red bull had a world famous skydiver make a record breaking jump…from the edge of space. It got over 36 million views. Needless to say, it certainly entertained, engaged and capture the attention of their target audience.
- Notes: All of these examples have one thing in common – Help not Sell And if it helps, think about it like this… If you sell something, you make a customer for a day, but if you help someone, you make a customer for life.
- Notes: With content marketing, you’re working to connect with your policyholders beyond their policies…you want to build that relationship with them. A good quote to help make this point comes from Roy Williams…“Speak to the dog, in the language of the dog, about what’s in the heart of the dog.” Which means in order to do that, you have to reach them on the level that they will be receptive to what you have to say to them.
- Notes: So here’s an example of what content marketing looks like in the form of email Actual campaign we sent Not trying to get anyone to buy anything Provides helpful tips and life advice Something like an email, the header image might grab their attention, and they can flag it and they can come back to and read it later. Unlike a piece of mail that ends up just taking up space, this is something that you can do on your own time and then share with a friend. More examples later in the presentation.
- Notes: Quick examples from Twitter and Facebook Same kind of content. Something that isn’t asking your policyholders to buy anything, talking about bundling discounts, or simple just being boring…it’s interesting content that makes people want to click and to learn more.
- Notes: So it sounds good in theory, but lets look at 5 tangible benefits that content marketing can provide to your business.
- Notes: Content marketing keeps your policyholders engaged Easy to sign someone up and let them be Even if you send emails to them, without a purposeful approach, you’re not doing much to keep their attention You need to have stopping power The idea here is that you want your content marketing to grab their attention for a brief moment, a few times a month. You want to be that person that always have something of interest for them to read. That way, you stay top of mind and hold a special place in their inboxes and social media feeds to keep their interest.
- Notes: Content marketing helps you build long-term relationships with your policyholders It builds that trust between you and a policyholder. You’re not just viewed as the agent for their insurance, but a trusted resource and friend. This trust through content is the foundation for your relationship with a policyholder.
- Notes: Content marketing helps you grow and nurture your relationships. With the number of policyholders you have, it’s tough to stay in touch with all of them, let alone build a one-to-one relationship with them. Stat from earlier: 78% of of consumers believe that organizations providing custom content want to build good relationships with them. Relationship growing = trust in you = top of mind recall. People will recommend you to their friends. You don’t have time to grow one-on-one relationships like this without content marketing.
- Notes: Content marketing supplements what you are already doing. Not a replacement for you picking up the phone, sending them a birthday card, or even face-to-face interactions… It supplements what you would do to build a strong relationship when you don’t physically have the ability to be in 1000 places at once. Just another piece of the puzzle
- Notes: Content marketing has the added benefit of helping you build up your reputation as a trusted friend and industry professional. Just how the john Deere example and Blue cross examples provided something of value to a specific audience for free, content marketing through email and social media will help brand you as the trusted industry professional.
- Notes: So we’ve covered why content marketing is important and what sort of business benefits it can provide, and now let’s look at how we accomplish that.
- Notes: So for someone who’s been receiving your emails for a few months now, how exactly does this help your retention numbers and gain you more referrals and word-of-mouth business?
- Notes: Mention how hard it is going up against big competition with little budget Neighborhood coffee shop vs starbucks. Both have their audiences, but the local coffee shop is looking to build that special relationship with a specific, targeted audience Multi purpose for different channels meaning that you can use the same helpful information from your emails in the form of tweets, facebook posts and linkedin updates. You don’t have to pick a channel and hope for the best, you can be everywhere to get the most exposure.
- Notes: Good content marketing puts the policyholder first and focus on their needs. Operating this way will keep them interested in you. Industry adjacent content – not selling your services, but not outside the scope of what you would normally send, again, focusing on their needs. Good content marketing provides that extra little bit of value to sticking with you rather than abandoning ship. Make you feel like you have an established relationship. Have that buy in with policyholders that will make tough conversations a bit easier to have. (rate changes, coverage)
- Notes: Consistent delivery is important with good content marketing. Might have email service you use and pop up on occasion, but need to have a level approach to talking to your policyholders. Information overload is a problem Too little and they wont remember or care, too much and they’ll tune you out Even handed vs quick bursts (link back to building up your identity)
- Notes: And of course, good content marketing helps grow your referral business. 38% of consumers start their insurance research by asking friends and family for recommendations Study from a few years ago found that 69% of insurance agency new business clients came from client referrals Content marketing is you investing in your referral business Through emails, we make it really easy to get that referral business and incentivize people to do so.
- Notes: So let me paint you a picture and show you how this scenario plays out for your existing policyholders. Emails twice a month, social media updates throughout the week We do it this way because you really only have time to call that policyholder once a year, if that. And that one phone call is not enough time to make them really remember you or build up that sense of trust with them. But now they’re getting your emails and while they open a few of them, the ones they do have time for really hit home with them Results: further along the path to trusted resource, policyholder much more likely to stick around because they’re happy with their service because they’re doing business with a friend and professional that they now trust.
- Notes: Now let me paint you a picture of how content marketing works to help you build up your referral business Same happy policyholder from first scenario but this time, they have your name top of mind Someone posts on facebook “looking for good agent” and they’re immediatley prompted to say “my guy/gal is the BEST! Super friendly and incredible. Or in person, they pull up their phone, forward your most recent email to a friend and they contact you Or they fill out the lead form and give you a new lead Content = more inclined to invite you into their personal world. You’re in the friend zone in a good way.
- Notes: Built on content marketing foundation Content used to help you stay top of mind and enhance relationships We automate everything for you. Hit on time, interest, expertise
- Notes: Here we have an example of an email from the summer. It’s branded for your business, professional looking, and it’s providing helpful content while asking your policyholders for nothing in return. While it’s easy to click on a call to action button and refer a friend for example, it’s not the focus on the email. It’s just available if they want.
- Notes: Just like the last email, here’s another campaign that focuses on a topic of interest for some of your clients that again, doesn’t ask them for anything, only provides professional advice. This campaign doesn’t have the specific calls to action that the last email did. We give you the option to have a more professional look and feel if you want.
- Notes: - And the last example here calls more attention to the social media platforms as well through a more creative layout. Again, the primary focus in this email is on the content first and the calls to action second, making it consistent with you sending them great things to read every few weeks.
- Notes: Here’s an example of a social media post for Facebook Think of this content as something you’d find when you’re checking Facebook over lunch or before going to bed at night. Just something quick, bite sized, and informative that engages you for a few 30 second intervals.
- Notes: Same thing here on Twitter but with tweets
- Notes; And again, just like the others, this will help brand you like the other channels, but more professionally, since the network is essentially your living contact list.
- Notes: Someone wants to find you, they’ll search for your name. What do you want them to find? You want someone to find you and be able to easily see what they’re looking for and be able to connect with you however they want. BPP’’s are a great way to showcase your past content with the newsletter and social wall.
- Notes: Think of referral email campaigns as your earned media For every 6 emails you send out that are helpful, you can ask for something in return. Put those relationships to work
- Notes: Here are some reminders of important areas you should know about. Performance and results Upcoming campaigns schedule Contacts Check your email afterwards if your interested. We’ll have a special offer for you. Also, if you’d like to learn more, send an email to Travis and he’ll get you setup with a rep to answer your questions. Travis will enter his email in the chat box now.
- Notes: 1: Old marketing tactics don’t work anymore. Policyholders want to be engaged and are interested in building relationships with someone who want to help them. 2: Content marketing is a way of communicating with your audience through interesting, entertaining, and informative materials that are intended to help, not sell. 3: The two visions – relationships with existing policyholders (new & old) to help retain their business AND maximize the return from your policyholders through referrals 4: Creates customer content for your policyholders that is timely, consistent, engaging and entertaining in order to build relationships and save you time.
- Like to open up the floor for anyone who might have questions.