In this digital age, there’s no question that social media should be a part of any robust insurance marketing strategy. But to truly increase brand trustworthiness and loyalty, insurance agencies should go above and beyond simply being present and occasionally posting on social media.
View this webinar on-demand as BrightFire’s Sales Advisor Spencer Breidenbach and Social Media Specialist Ashley Paul dive into how engaging with your followers on your social media channels can have a substantially positive impact on your brand and book of business.
What to expect from this webinar:
- The Importance of Social Media
- Why Focus on Engaging with Followers
- Everyday Engagement Actions
- Advanced Engagement Actions
Finally, they’ll dive into how BrightFire’s Social Media Marketing service can support your agency to quickly and efficiently generate targeted insurance leads.
Watch The Webinar
Additional Questions?
If you have any questions about this webinar or our Social Media Marketing service, please contact us or call us at (888) 778-4393.
Webinar Transcript
Princess: Hello everyone! My name is Princess Ruff, and I’m the Digital Marketing Coordinator here at BrightFire, as well as your host for today’s 20 Minute Marketing Webinar. Thank you all for joining us.
Last month, we covered The Three A’s of Reputation Management For Insurance: Awareness, Assessment, and Action. If you missed it, or any of our previous webinars in the 20 Minute Marketing Webinar series, you can access the whole series on-demand by visiting brightfire.com/webinars.
Our goal with these webinars is to provide you with digital marketing advice and discuss current digital marketing topics in a brief 20-minute format followed by a Q&A period to answer any questions you may have. If you have questions during the webinar, please use the Q&A feature in Zoom found at the bottom of the screen. We’ll do our best to answer all of the questions that come through; otherwise, we will personally reach out to you afterward.
Today’s webinar topic is Unlock the Power of Engagement in Insurance Social Media Marketing, and it will be presented by Spencer Breidenbach, one of our Sales Advisors here at BrightFire, with guest panelist Ashley Paul, a Digital Marketing Strategist who specializes in social media marketing.
In this digital age, there’s no question that social media should be a part of any robust insurance marketing strategy. But to truly increase brand trustworthiness and loyalty, insurance agencies should go above and beyond simply being present and occasionally posting on social media.
That’s why Spencer and Ashley will discuss how engaging with your followers on your social media channels can have a substantially positive impact on your brand and book of business.
Today’s webinar is being recorded, so everything we discuss will be saved and emailed to you in the next business day or two so you can watch it later on-demand.
Lastly, we do have a couple of polls for today’s webinar. When launched, you’ll see the poll pop up on your screen with the question and multiple-choice options. You can select more than one response, and every poll is anonymous. We’ll give you roughly 30 seconds to share your response, and then we’ll discuss the results with the group.
With that being said, I’ll go ahead and hand it over to Spencer to kick off today’s webinar.
What’s Ahead
Spencer: I’m excited to have Ashley join us in today’s webinar since in her role as a Digital Marketing Strategist she manages our clients’ social media , analyzes how their various accounts are performing, and advises clients on how to best use social media. Ashley has several years experience in social media content creation and social media marketing including almost four years at BrightFire working with insurance agencies to strengthen relationships with social media, increase agency brand awareness, and drive customer engagement.
Today, Ashley and I will have a conversational interview to help you better understand the importance of being present on social media and engaging with your followers.
Then, we’ll cover different ways to engage with your audience, from the foundational actions you should be taking care of on a daily basis, to items that require a little more planning to really boost your visibility and engagement on social media.
Finally, we’ll dive into how BrightFire’s Social Media Marketing service can support your agency to quickly and efficiently generate targeted insurance leads.
Why Social Media for Insurance Agencies?
Spencer: So, first and foremost, why social media? Is it really that necessary for insurance agents to focus on? I know with everything an agency has to consider and manage in their business, social media can seem like a “nice to have” and not so much of a “need to have.” Ashley, can you explain a little bit about why staying active on social media is so important?
Ashley: Yes, absolutely. Truly, the sheer amount of people on social media should be enough to encourage agents to make an account, since 82 percent of the U.S. population has at least one social networking profile. That’s roughly 223 million people nationwide that could see your profile and learn about your agency through social media if you are present and active.
In addition, of those who use social media, 70% log into their accounts at least once a day, and almost half admit to checking their social media accounts multiple times a day. That’s a huge opportunity that your agency should take advantage of to get in front of your target audience when they’re scrolling through their newsfeeds.
Social media can benefit your agency beyond just that individual platform as well. By linking to your website in your posts on social media, you can increase your web traffic and generate more leads. So, if your agency is not on social media, you’ll definitely want to incorporate it into your agency’s marketing strategy.
Spencer: That’s great, and I definitely agree that agents could be missing out on a lot of opportunities to increase awareness of their agency if they don’t already have their social media accounts set up. So one thing you mentioned is posting consistently. Can you touch on that a little more and explain why agents should be active on their social media profiles? I know a lot of agencies just create a Facebook page but aren’t very active in posting and engaging with their followers.
Ashley: Sure, so yes, an agent technically could just create a social media page and never post on it. It might still pop up on Google when someone searches for your agency. But in order for your social media account to really be effective on each platform and gain visibility, you have to create posts for your audience to see and engage with. Posting consistently, even if only a few times a week, makes a world of difference to the social media algorithms. In fact, accounts that post consistently will receive a lot more traction than accounts that are mostly inactive or have random and sporadic posting schedules.
Spencer: Awesome, thanks, Ashley. And I think algorithms are maybe a buzzword that we hear all the time but many don’t necessarily understand why it’s important. Can you briefly touch on what social media algorithms are and how they function?
Ashley: Of course. So, for those who aren’t familiar, social media algorithms dictate how your page and posts will perform by prioritizing posts on individuals’ newsfeeds by relevance and by the time a post was published. For example, when you open Facebook at noon, you won’t necessarily see the posts that were just published a few minutes ago. Instead, Facebook has sorted through the content of the people you follow and shows you the content they deem most relevant to your interests based on what content you typically watch the longest or engage with the most.
In general, social media algorithms favor consistency like I mentioned, as well as engagement. They take into account things like how many likes and comments a post has received, whether other accounts were tagged or mentioned in a post, how often your audience uses the platform, whether a post is just text or includes an image or a video, and what hashtags, if any, were used in the post. There is a little weight placed in the time that your post was published as well.
Why Engage with Followers on Social Media?
Spencer: Thanks for giving our audience some insights into social media algorithms, Ashley. So, when you mentioned engagement as it pertains to the algorithms, you were talking more so about the engagement that an agency receives from their followers. But today’s webinar is all about unlocking the benefits that can come specifically from agencies engaging with their audiences on social media. So, Ashley, can you talk about what that looks like, and why that is important?
Ashley: Yeah, absolutely! What comes to mind is why social media was created in the first place – to connect people and build relationships with them, in other words being social. Like any relationship, social media needs to be a two-way street. You can’t just post content trying to sell a policy and expect someone to fall in love with your agency and become a policyholder.
Instead, you have to connect with people, post relevant content, and provide value. Engage with their posts to support and encourage their efforts as well. By interacting with other people and their posts, as well as posting content they want to engage with, you can create meaningful conversations and relationships that will not only keep your agency top of mind, but can also improve your ability to reach more people in the long run.
Spencer: Awesome, that’s a great point. I think it can be easy as a business to forget that it is supposed to be that two-way conversation and relationship instead of just posting and putting your content out there to drive sales. But, if we’re being honest, an average individual on social media might not necessarily think to find and follow their insurance agent or agency on social media. So what exactly should agents do to grab someone’s attention enough to like and follow their agency’s page?
Ashley: Yeah, that’s true. I think the same could have been said for a lot of brands when social media first got popular. Yet, brands with a strong presence and great engagement strategy connect with consumers every day on social media. I think the key is to give consumers what they want by providing value in the content you post and to get them interested in what you have to say. That means creating engaging content that’s lighthearted, helpful, fun, interesting, and maybe even funny. Be willing to try different types of content and see what gets the best engagement.
That also means that every post shouldn’t be a sales pitch if you want to keep your followers engaged. Even if you create an engaging post that is promoting purchasing a policy, most consumers don’t want to be sold to constantly. They want that conversational and meaningful relationship that allows them to see the human side of your agency and get to know you.
When you consider that the majority of your audience are probably policyholders, if everything you post is a sales pitch, it’s likely your followers will quickly grow tired of your content since they’re already doing business with you. By providing more educational content, success stories, and highlighting your involvement in the local community, you can build a strong relationship with your clients. These types of content are more likely to prompt a response from your followers and are easier to share with their friends and family.
That’s why at BrightFire, we often ask questions in the posts we write for our clients by saying something like, “Share your experience or your thoughts in the comments below.” What really sparks engagement are the custom posts that clients ask for, where we can do a giveaway or post about what’s going on behind the scenes at the agency.
By humanizing your brand in these ways, you’re able to really build on your agency’s online reputation and show off your personality. At BrightFire, we handle an insurance agency’s profile set up and branding first. Then, we can send an invitation email to your policyholders inviting them to follow you on social media. Finally, after providing an initial boost to the growth of your audience, we begin posting consistently to kick off your engagement and social media strategy. But our clients can take it to the next level and separate themselves from the competition even more by engaging with the comments they receive or engaging with other people’s posts to improve brand awareness and increase visibility even more.
How to Engage on Social Media Part 1: Everyday Items
Spencer: Wow, that’s great. Thanks, Ashley. So, I think now is the perfect time to break down the different ways agents can truly engage with their audience. You mentioned engaging with other people’s posts, but in addition to liking and commenting, what other actions can agents take? How can they truly engage with their audience and grow their following?
Ashley: Sure. So here’s a list of what I would call the everyday actions an agency should take to drive engagement on social media. First and foremost, you should promote the social media channels that you’re active on to your current policyholders. Ultimately, they are going to be the people most willing to follow and engage with you, so this is a great place to start building your following.
To promote your channels, you can add your social media icons, links, or QR codes to your website, email signatures, and print marketing materials like posters, brochures, and business cards. You can also promote your social media through word of mouth when you sell a new policy or receive positive feedback from a policyholder.
To continue getting more visibility on your accounts, you can encourage your team to like and comment on your agency’s social media posts. Like we mentioned, the social media algorithms are more likely to show your content to more people if you get good engagement, so having a core group of people that you can personally ask to engage with each of your posts will really help bolster your social media efforts. You can also grow your following by finding people that could be interested in reviewing their current policy or getting a new one. For example, you can search relevant hashtags like #newcar or #newhouse, and like and comment on their posts, later asking if they would be interested in reviewing their current auto or home insurance policy for free.
Spencer: Those are some great tips to building a following, thanks, Ashley. I’d love to talk about some examples of how agents can know what to post on their social media channels. I know it can be hard to come up with enough content on a consistent basis that’s original and worthy of engaging with. What advice would you give our attendees here on the actual content creation process?
Ashley: Sure, so first thing’s first, I would recommend creating a content calendar if you don’t already have one. This can be something as simple as a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet that lists every day of the week, month, and eventually year so you can easily map out what will be posted on each day and with what image or video. Content calendars not only help keep you organized, but they also help you see a bigger picture of what areas of focus you want your agency to have.
For example, at BrightFire, when we’re writing content for our clients, we make sure to post about different policy types to keep an agency’s feed fresh and avoid redundancy. Planning content at least a week or two ahead of time can really help you save time in the long run and helps you not have to worry about scrambling at the last minute to put content together.
Now, as far as the actual content you create, there are a couple of tips I have for you today. First, I’d encourage you to utilize your different carriers’ social media content on your channels. Follow and engage with your carriers on social media, and share some of their content to your pages if it’s relevant and helpful to your audience. This kind of content will not only help your agency gain credibility when it’s a larger carrier that has a well established online reputation and a larger social network, but it can also help you fill some of the gaps you may have in your content calendar when you need more content.
Next, I would recommend writing content that is likely to gain comments and likes, such as asking questions in your posts with a call to action for the individual to comment with their answer. Similarly to trying to convert prospects into policyholders, you have to help guide people by telling them what the next step is and what you would like them to do. People’s initial reaction to your post may not be to comment with their thoughts, but if you ask them what their opinions are on a particular topic, they’ll be more likely to respond, helping your engagement and visibility.
Spencer: That’s great, thank you so much, Ashley. Hopefully everyone in attendance today is starting to see how creating engaging and personalized interactions can positively impact your brand awareness and online reputation. Building an engaged audience through social media can ultimately help grow your book of business, stay relevant, and stay top of mind.
How to Engage on Social Media Part 2: Advanced Items
Spencer: So those were more so the everyday actions you should take to make your social media accounts successful and engaging. But Ashley, can you go ahead and talk about the more advanced actions agents can take to really take engagement to the next level?
Ashley: Yes, absolutely! These are steps that are probably a little more time-consuming, but ones that can exponentially increase your engagement and awareness on social media as a whole. The first thing you can do to create more engaging posts is promote how you are active in the community by sharing stories and live videos on social media when you attend or sponsor charitable events. Even though video may seem scary, I promise the more you do it, the more comfortable it will be for you to post regularly. Video engagement is generally much higher than photos, and it also helps to really show consumers that there are real people they can relate to and connect with behind your agency’s name.
It’s important to keep in mind that posting the same kind of content in the same format with every post can get repetitive on your feed and may lead to your posts being hidden in the social media algorithms. So, to maintain a sense of variety in your feed and what you’re posting, you can take advantage of a number of interactive elements that Instagram and Facebook provide, such as stickers and other features that you can add to your story. With these, you can create a Q&A on your story and ask your followers what they want to know about a certain type of policy. You can also create polls, share your latest post to your story, or create Instagram Reels that show your agency is keeping up with the latest trends.
The last tip I have here is hosting online giveaways through your social media channels to show appreciation for your followers. You would be surprised how many people would be willing to like and comment on your posts in order to be entered to win a giveaway to win things like TVs, iPads, or even gift cards.
Spencer: Wow, those are some great ideas. Thanks, Ashley.
How BrightFire Helps with Social Media Marketing
Spencer: Now, I’m sure some of our attendees are thinking they’d like to know more about how to execute these engagement ideas, as well as whether this is something BrightFire can take care of for them. Ashley, I know you briefly mentioned that we provide organic social media posts for our clients, but can you shed some more light on what exactly is included in our Social Media Marketing service?
Ashley: Yes, of course. So, for all of our new clients, we audit their current social media profiles and recommend updates to profile pictures, cover photos, and profile information. If there’s a social media network you don’t have an account with yet, we can also get that set up for your agency and make sure your new profile is filled out and branded properly to be found more easily by people in your local area.
With our Social Media Marketing service, you will receive:
- Up to 31 Posts Per Month
- A Rapidly Built Audience
- Professional Branded Social Media Profiles
- A Comprehensive Social Media Dashboard
- Metrics Reporting
- And The Opportunity to Add On Custom Campaigns
Custom campaigns are additional posts outside of the content we create for all of our Social Media Marketing clients. These are generally used to cover those advanced items that we went over, like hosting giveaways or showcasing your community involvement. They can also be used for things like customer spotlights, staff spotlights, or promoting your commercial clients. For example, one custom campaign we created for a client was a customer spotlight featuring one of their commercial clients. The post highlighted that if you’re not participating in No Shave November this year, you should visit the agency’s favorite local barber. These custom campaigns can be added onto your normal Social Media Marketing service for an additional fee.
The last thing I’ll mention is for agents that are not as tech savvy but want to better engage with their followers, we can walk you through how to manage your social media accounts, create stories, and post videos. We can also share best practices for each network so you are set up with a successful engagement strategy.
How to Get Started with Social Media Marketing
Spencer: That’s awesome, thanks so much, Ashley! So, you may now be wondering, how can you get started? BrightFire’s Social Media Marketing service only costs $80 per month, and like all of our digital marketing services, does not have any setup fees or contracts. We also include a 30-day money-back guarantee.
As we’ve already mentioned, with Social Media Marketing, you have the option to purchase additional custom campaigns. Those are $60 per month per custom post or can be purchased on-demand.
Our onboarding process is designed to take the burden off of you as much as possible and consists of one 30-minute phone call. Typically, we can launch our Social Media Marketing service within a week of signing up.
As a thank you for attending today, we’re offering a $50 promo to webinar attendees. You can receive a $50 account credit for signing up for our Social Media Marketing service. This promo ends next Wednesday, September 1.
To get started managing your social media with BrightFire, please visit our website at www.brightfire.com or you can also speak with a BrightFire expert at 888-778-4393.
Q&A on Social Media Marketing
Spencer: That concludes our presentation on Unlock the Power of Engagement in Insurance Social Media Marketing. Now I’ll pass it over to Princess to start the Q&A session if anyone has any questions!
Princess: Great. Thank you, Spencer! As a reminder to our attendees, we’ll do our best to answer any questions that come through. If we aren’t able to address your question during the webinar, someone from BrightFire will follow up with you via email to answer your question. Let’s get started.
When is the best time to post on social media?
Ashley: That’s a great question, and it can actually vary depending on a number of factors like your agency’s specific audience, as well as where you’re located. To figure out what time your specific agency should post, I would go into the Insights tab of your Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram account. There is a dedicated section that will tell you what day and time is your account’s peak performance. Of course, social media trends and habits are always changing, so update your posting times accordingly, and test it out for a month or so. Then, come back to your Insights section occasionally and see if you need to readjust your posting times again.
Can I set up recurring custom campaigns with BrightFire?
Spencer: Sure, so yeah, you can absolutely do that with us. At checkout, you can go ahead and select how many custom campaigns you would like each month, and they will automatically renew with your monthly Social Media Marketing subscription. Of course, as with any of our services, you can change your subscription at any time because we have no contracts, and you can even add on or remove those custom campaigns as you need.
Princess: Yes, absolutely. Thanks, Spencer! Well, I think that is all the time we have for questions today. Thank you to everyone who submitted a question, and again, we’ll follow up with you individually after the webinar if we didn’t get to your question today.
Before we close, I’d like to remind everyone of our upcoming 20 Minute Marketing Webinars.
Upcoming 20 Minute Marketing Webinars
Princess: Our next webinar in November is, “Better Measure Your Pay-Per-Click Advertising Success with Call Tracking.”
Have you ever asked a customer, “how’d you find out about our business?” With Pay-Per-Click Advertising call tracking from BrightFire, you’ll know the answer. Even better, you’ll know which ad, campaign, or keyword sparked your best leads to call, click, and convert. When you understand which marketing efforts make your phones ring, you’ll stop wasting money on efforts that don’t.
Join us in this webinar as we cover what call tracking is, how it relates to your Pay-Per-Click Advertising strategy, and why your agency should use this new BrightFire feature to best track your conversions and measure your Pay-Per-Click Advertising success.
This webinar will be held Thursday, November 18, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern or 11:00 a.m. Pacific.
We won’t be hosting a webinar in December, but our topic for January of 2022 is, “Humanize Your Website & Boost Sales With My Agent Personalization.”
As an independent agency owner, you understand building relationships with policyholders and prospects is crucial to growing your book of business. Now more than ever, it’s important to maintain those same personalized experiences on your agency’s website.
In this webinar, we’ll unpack what BrightFire’s My Agent Personalization tool is and how your agency’s sales team can leverage it on your Insurance Agency Website to improve your customer experience, increase efficiency, and boost your agency’s sales.
This webinar will be held Thursday, January 27, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern or 11:00 a.m. Pacific.
You can reserve your spot at these webinars by visiting the webinars page on our website at brightfire.com/webinars.
So that does it for today! From me, Spencer, Ashley, and the rest of the BrightFire team, we’d like to thank all of you for attending.
