Working as a Client Success Manager at Zywave, I consult with many different agencies from around the United States. Although these agencies are made up of completely different types of people, work habits and products, I always ask them the same question, “What are you doing to become the insurance agency of record in your area?”

This is usually followed by a long silence.

I then follow up with, “Well, do you work with any non-profits in your community?” To which they invariably answer, “We donate time/food/money to many of the local charities, non-profits and local organizations in our area”.

I will then ask them how they let the local communities around them know about their philanthropic endeavors and get those communities to join in on and /or celebrate their agency’s efforts. This is usually followed by another long silence.

Community Outreach Online

There is a tremendous amount of good will that comes from giving back to one’s community and most local insurance agents are incredibly generous with their time and/or money when it comes to such efforts. Where they sell themselves short most of the time is that no one knows about their efforts, except for those organizations that are directly involved.

This is where modern technology comes into play.

By leveraging the power of your agency’s website blog and social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., the local insurance agent can now reach hundreds, if not thousands, more people with your message of giving back. This is also where your agency can get hundreds, if not thousands more people to participate in your efforts to give back.

What efforts do I mean? Agencies have tried many things…

Whether that is offering to donate a dollar to the local animal shelter for every Like you receive on the agency’s Facebook page or five dollars to the local food bank for an agency review on Google, leveraging Social Media to get the word out needs to be a part of your community outreach strategy. Writing blogs about the agency’s community outreach campaign can also bring the agency’s website much needed traffic from those who support the effort.

It’s not bragging to let people know that you care about the support organizations in the community when giving back is a major part of how you do business at your agency. If anything, you are simply trying to get more people involved and get more donations to these important associations. You are doing more for these groups by promoting your efforts than you are by keeping them to yourself.

Reaching The Community In-House

Rounding out accounts is a standard operating procedure at any agency. Every insurance agent knows that the more policies in force per account, the more likely you will be able to retain that customer. Why not help increase your retention rate while simultaneously helping the local community? A good agency strategy might be to work with a local organization directly.

I had an agency work with a local high school’s effort to re-sod their football field. This agency offered $25 for every quote that the football boosters club drove into the agency where a minimum of 2 personal lines were quoted.

They were able to raise over $2000 for the football boosters club and signed up over 50 new accounts.

The best part was that these were exactly the kinds of accounts that every local P&C agent craves: Local community families with multiple high-value personal lines policies.

Community Outreach Is Good Business

The next time you are looking for a way to grow your agency’s brand online or in your town, think about what you are already doing with your local area non-profits and charities. It could be that the only reason people in your community do not know how good you are is simply because they do not know how good you are to the community.