How to incorporate insurance producer marketing tactics more in your social media pages
You’ve worked hard to grow your list of leads whom you hope will become clients in the near future. Here’s our short list of insurance producer marketing tactics using social media to help you nurture those leads right into signing on the dotted line.
We’ve talked quite a bit about the importance of your becoming a “subject matter expert” in all things related to your prospects’ insurance questions and pain points. Consistently posting to social media, adding to your blogpost, emailing a timely e-newsletter of helpful tips and industry news, in addition to your personal contact efforts, all help you garner the reputation of being an insurance expert – someone your prospects can trust.
So let’s take a look at a few more insurance producer marketing tactics focused on social media to help you shorten that sales cycle.
Our two cents on social media
First: Don’t let anyone shame you for only being on a few social networks. The big ones haven’t changed: they’re still Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. We used to add Google + to that list, mainly because Google secretly gave you points if you used their languishing site. Honestly, we’re not so sure that’s still true, but we still post there out of habit, using the same post as on Facebook.
Related: Six ways insurance agents can rock social selling on LinkedIn
Believe us – it’s worse to start up six or seven social media pages (think: Pinterest, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Instagram), only post a few times then stop – or post once every quarter. Don’t do it. Your time is limited, so concentrate on doing your best on just a few channels. Be sure that every post includes at least an image. Nothing stops the eye and says “READ ME!” like a good image. There are dozens of good, free sites out there where you can download a photo and not worry about copyrighted images. The best we’ve found are Stocksnap.io, Pixabay and Pexels.
The important insurance producer marketing tactics here are: Be consistent in your posting. Be helpful in what you post – don’t make it all about you and your insurance products; instead, provide helpful tips to your clients and prospects. And be sure to respond to anyone who leaves comments.
When and how often should you post on social media?
First, we have to warn you, there’s no magic formula. You just need to try posting at various times and see what seems to work best for you. Stick with those times for a month or so, then test again. Facebook Analytics can help as well. With that said, most studies are showing that optimum posting times are in the afternoons: Facebook, on Wednesdays and weekends; LinkedIn, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Twitter, Monday – Thursday. The important insurance producer marketing tactic here: Test, then in a few months, test again.
Running out of ideas to post to social media?
The rule of thumb varies a bit, depending on which marketing site you’re reading, but generally they agree that you should post at least 5 helpful tips before you post a self-promotion item. Your helpful tips can be simply a repost of something you read elsewhere, with a sentence of your own commentary. It’s important not just to repost a link, though, because you’re inviting your fans/friends/audience to leave you and go elsewhere. Be sure to give them some solid, thought-provoking commentary so that you’re seen as the subject matter expert – even though you’re linking them elsewhere. It just makes you look good.
Variety is the key to great posts, using images, videos, infographics, even a thoughtful quote. That’s our next insurance producer marketing tactic for social media this month. Add a photo that you uploaded from your smartphone, with a quick explanation. (“Welcomed six new business owners to our networking group last night!” or “Chatted with high school seniors about the importance of insurance in their Family Finance class.” You get the point.)
Authentic F&F suggests using Canva to create background images for your favorite quotes and store them for future use. That way, you can pull one out of the hat when you find yourself in a lurch with no content to post. Canva is free and very easy to use.
Finally, here’s our last insurance producer marketing tactic for social media: Use the “pin to the top” option provided by both Facebook and LinkedIn. Once you have a great post that you really hate to see moving further and further down your page into oblivion, you can “pin it to the top” so that it remains as your top post for as long as you want. As an example, check out our Facebook and LinkedIn pages – you’ll see the same post pinned to the top.