Why Digital Marketing is More Important for Insurance Agents than Ever Before
It’s no secret that digital marketing is booming more than ever. Businesses everywhere are jumping on innovative strategies and new marketing techniques. If your insurance agency isn’t prioritizing digital marketing, you’re giving your competitors a chance to get ahead! More than half of consumers say they have found a new brand or product by searching online on their smartphones.
From SEO and content marketing to PPC and social media, video, and email, the various verticals of digital marketing are now mainstream and must-haves for any insurance agent. Because insurance agents are busy with certifications and preparing for AEP, Agent Pipeline has helped with the leg work and reviewed the different types of digital marketing and why they are essential for your business.
SEO
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a marketing discipline focused on growing visibility in organic (non-paid) search engine results. SEO encompasses both the technical and creative elements required to improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engine result pages (SERPs). There are many aspects to SEO, from the words on your webpage to the other way sites link to you on the internet. Sometimes SEO is only making sure your site is structured in a way that search engines can understand. SEO isn’t just about building search engine-friendly websites. It’s about making your site better for your consumers to navigate!
The bigger question: Why is SEO important for your insurance agency?
• Google is responsible for 94% of total organic website traffic. (Web Presence Solutions, 2017)
• 50% of search queries are four words or longer. (Wordstream, 2016)
• 70% – 80% of search engine users are only focusing on the organic results. (MarTech, 2018)
• Video content is 50x more likely to drive organic search results than plain text. (Omnicore, 2018)
• 30% of mobile searches are related to a location. (Google, 2016)
• Local searches lead 50% of mobile users to visit stores within one day. (Google, 2018)
• Google drives 96% of mobile search traffic. (Jody Nimetz Co., 2018)
• 28% of searches for something nearby result in a purchase. (Google, 2016)
PPC
PPC stands for pay-per-click, a model of internet marketing in which businesses or advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. Mostly, it’s a way of buying visits to your site, rather than attempting to “earn” those visits organically through SEO. Search engine advertising is one of the most popular forms of PPC. It allows advertisers to be big for ad placement in a search engine’s sponsored links when someone searches on a keyword that is related to their business offering.
The bigger question: Why is PPC important for your insurance agency?
• 64.6% of people click on Google ads when they are looking to buy an item online. (Wordstream, 2016)
• The average clickthrough rate in AdWords across all sectors if 1.91% for search and 0.335% for display. (Wordstream, 2016)
• The average cost-per-click (CPA) in Adwords across all industries is $2.32 on the search network and $0.58 on the display network. (Wordstream, 2016)
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience and ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are providing genuinely relevant and useful content to your prospects and customers to help them solve their issues.
The bigger question: Why is content marketing important for your insurance agency?
• Companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5x more traffic than companies that published 0 – 4 monthly posts. (HubSpot, 2015)
• 1 in 10 blog posts is compounding – meaning organic search increases their traffic over time. (HubSpot, 2016)
• B2C companies that blogged 11+ times per month got more than 4x as many leads than those that only blog 4 to 5 times per month. (HubSpot, 2015)
• Content marketing 3x more leads than paid search advertising. (Content Marketing Institute, 2017)
Social Media Marketing
Social media are platforms and tools that allow people to interact with each other by both sharing and consuming information. The most common social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.
The bigger question: Why is social media important for your insurance agency?
• 79% of people online use Facebook. (Pew Research Center, 2016)
• 75% of adults use Facebook daily. (Sprout Social, 2016)
• 74% of people say they use Facebook for proposal services. (HubSpot, 2017)
• Among Facebook users, 83% are women, and 75% are men. (Sprout Social 2016)
• LinkedIn has 562 million members. (LinkedIn, 2018)
• 40% of members visit the professional social network each day. (Omnicore Agency, 2018)
• Snapchat has 188 million daily active users. (Stirista, 2018)
• 59% of Americans believe that customer service through social media has made it easier to get their questions answered and issues resolved. (Lyfe Marketing, 2018)
• 2 million businesses are said to use Facebook for advertising in 2018. (Hootsuite, 2018)
Video marketing
Video marketing is a forward-facing marketing strategy that integrated engaging video into your marketing campaigns. Video marketing can be used for everything from building customer rapport to promoting your brand, services, or products. Additionally, video marketing can serve as a medium to present how-to’s, promote customer testimonials on your products/services, live-stream your events, and much more.
The bigger question: Why is video marketing important for your insurance agency?
• Product videos can increase purchases by 144%. (Neil Patel, 2017)
• Almost 50% of internet users look for video related to a product or service before visiting a store. (Google, 2016)
• 53% of smartphone users feel more favorable towards companies whom mobile sites or apps provide instructional video content. (Google, 2015)
• 64% of consumers say watching a marketing video on Facebook has influenced a purchase decision of theirs in the last month. (Animoto, 2017)
• Video drives a 157% increase in organic traffic from SERPs. (Wordstream, 2018)
Email marketing
Email marketing is a highly effective digital marketing strategy of sending emails to prospects and customer. Effective marketing emails convert prospects into customers and turn one-time buyers into loyal customers. Despite the rise of social media and unsolicited “spam” – email remains the most effective way to nurture leads and turn them into customers.
The bigger question: Why is email marketing important for your insurance agency?
• About 49% of businesses use some form of email automation. (Emailmonday, 2018)
• Mobile users check their email three times more than non-mobile users. (Campaign Monitor, 2018)
• Active email accounts are expected to hit 5.6 billion by 2019. (Statista, 2016)
For more information on how you can expand your digital marketing presence, or learn how developing your own plan – give us a call at 800-962-4693, or visit the Marketing Department’s Resource Center to download free self-study courses.
