Having a well-rounded inbound marketing strategy is integral to your insurance agency’s online success. Not only is inbound marketing great for branding your agency to prospective customers and selling them on why they should work with you, it’s also great for maintaining a brand presence to your existing book of business.
Retaining your current customers can be tough in today’s market, given all of the “instant quote” options available online and the endless amounts of money the big carriers and companies are pouring into advertising. Your customers started working with your agency for a reason; inbound marketing can help keep you in front of those customers and remind them why your agency is the choice for them.
It can be difficult to see how your inbound marketing strategy and efforts directly correlate to customer retention. While you may not always have exact data pointing from a particular marketing tactic to a customer renewal, there are tactical ways to generate renewals, whether it’s direct or indirect.
3 Tactical Ways to Use Inbound Marketing for Customer Retention
1. Email
Email marketing is a great way to stay in front of your customers, especially considering almost everyone has an email address. The agents at Charlotte Insurance used an email campaign last month to not only round-out a commercial lines customer – selling him three personal lines policies – but also likely retained said customer through their willingness to help and their continued communication.
Charlotte Insurance reached out to this commercial lines customer, informing him that his existing business policies could be bundled with various personal lines options. He provided the information on his current personal lines plans and, in return, asked for Charlotte’s quotes and recommendations. This not only gained the agency a few new lines to round-out that account, but also showed the customer how willing Charlotte was to help and how easy it would be to house all of his insurance with them.
2. Blogging
Blogging allows you to get several different messages out to both prospects and current clients. Your blog shouldn’t just be geared toward selling your services to new customers, but also to provide helpful information to your existing customers.
Take Wisconsin agency Northbrook Insurance Associates, Inc. for example. Their Marketing Director, Amber, makes sure to post tips, advice, and local information that the agency’s clients and prospects need or would find helpful. And as a bonus, when topics are relevant, posts are related back to insurance and promote the agency’s product landing pages. The agency has seen great success with blog topics such as “Umbrella Policy Means Peace of Mind” and “Most Common Home Insurance Claims.” Such topics provide answers to questions their clients and prospects may not have even known they had. In fact, their post on common home insurance claims garnered the attention of a carrier, who used the post within an infographic they published, giving the agency even more exposure. Providing your prospects and existing customers with helpful information on your blog shows that you’re dedicated to helping your insured beyond the buying phase. Such a reputation can give reason for your existing customers to stick around and continue to use you as their agency of choice.
3. Social Media
Social media provides a number of avenues to share content, agency news, local events, and much more. Whether you’re posting on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, or a blend of all the networks (recommended), you have the ability to connect with your customers and prospects. Through your social media accounts, your agency can share anything that may be relevant to your customers’ lives and needs, whether you’re promoting a local charity event or a new insurance line you offer.
Spivey Insurance Group in North Carolina has seen great success with Facebook by providing a mix of posts that promote the agency and their products, engage with customers and prospects, and promote things within their local community. Sandra, Owner and Marketing Director at Spivey, describes their strategy as one that shows “fans” what the agency is really like. They post many photos from within the office and employee adventures in the community, including “fan favorites,” owner Chris and office dog Molly. They also make sure to promote the blog posts from their website and share relevant information from local businesses and community organizations. The agency is also involved in different community events, including new business openings and charity events. By posting about who the agency really is and what they are actually involved in, Spivey Insurance Group has cultivated a large fan base on their Facebook page that is truly engaged with what they are posting. They receive many likes, comments, shares, and views on their posts. By truly engaging in their social media efforts – staying active and posting regularly – the agency has managed to keep themselves relevant to and in front of their customers and prospects. Staying relevant and useful to your customers is a huge win for retention; providing continuous value gives your customers reasons to come back.
BONUS Tactic
4. Video
Using video is a more advanced inbound marketing tactic that can be great for promoting your agency, if you have the resources and time to create quality pieces. The agents at Highpoint Insurance Group in Texas recently created a “happy birthday” video, which they plan on emailing to their clients and / or posting on their clients’ social media accounts upon their birthdays. While making this video was a “feel good” effort by the team at Highpoint, it will also go miles with their existing customers. Working with an agency who puts the time into making videos like this to brighten their customers’ day is priceless; you certainly won’t find this with the bigger companies. Videos like this show that the agency cares about its customers and will work outside of the box to retain them.
How has your inbound marketing strategy helped your agency retain customers? Feel free to share within the comments!