How I Build Insurance Relationships Through Online Content

As any digital marketer will tell you, sharing online and social media content can be a great way for your insurance agency to connect with current clients and potential customers.

However, it can be a challenge to create great content that really sets your agency apart and speaks to the needs of your customers.

When deciding what content to post and which audience to target, many independent insurance agents tend to think of their “ideal customer” in terms of demographics: age, education level, income, occupation.

While that can be helpful, I’ve found more success by focusing on psychographics rather than demographics. In other words, it’s not about what our ideal customer looks like; it’s about how they think.

How customers think

I started Stewardship – a group of insurance, home loan and investment advisors – to make an impact in my community. I’ve found that in order to genuinely care for people, I have to understand what they need and why they need it. When we find customers with attitudes and ways of thinking that line up with our business philosophy, we are better able to serve them. And they are more likely to stick with us and refer their friends and family to our agency, as well.

When we set out to create a strategy for Stewardship’s online and social media content, we started by exploring how our ideal customer thinks. What’s most important to them? How do they view their finances? What kinds of questions are they asking?

We went through several exercises, conducted research and talked to our clients and staff members about the questions and issues they face with their finances.

Creating a plan

Once we identified our target psychographic, we set out to create content that would be attractive to them. We use SEO software and research tools, but we’re not necessarily looking at what’s trending overall. We’re specifically looking at the types of questions and topics our customers are most interested in.

The goal of Stewardship’s content strategy is to meet customers where they are and provide them with the answers to their questions right as they ask them, or even before they ask. This approach sets us apart and positions us as trusted advisors.

We plan a quarterly content schedule around the topics we’ve uncovered in our research. I’ve found that it’s not wise to plan more than 90 days out, since the world is constantly changing.

The plan in practice

Here’s what Stewardship’s content schedule looks like in practice. Every week we post:

• A new blog post on our website.
• An edited video with callouts and animations posted on Facebook and YouTube. This video is based on the most popular blog articles from the previous content schedule.
• A Facebook live on my personal page, which brings attention to the blog post. This is just a quick video that I record wherever I am, talking about the blog and inviting people to visit the website to learn more. It often serves as the basis for a more refined video on our business page.
• A podcast episode addressing popular topics and answering questions.
• A longer Instagram and Facebook post about who Stewardship is, giving customers a look behind the scenes at our staff and our philosophy.

I also do an Instagram story every day on my personal account, then push it to the business social media platforms too .

Of course, I don’t do all this alone. I have a contracted employee who conducts SEO research, helps create the content schedule and schedules posts. I have another contractor who edits all the content. And I have a staff member who manages our CRM and automation processes.

A wider reach

I’ve lived in Arizona my whole life and have a large community here, but this content strategy has helped expand my presence and voice in the community more quickly.

I’ve seen a lot of positive responses to the content. I’ve had new customers approach me and say things like, “My wife and I watch your Instagram stories every day, and this one resonated with us.” While client referrals are still the main source of leads for our agency, content is catching up as a lead source.

Most of all, our content has helped us solidify Stewardship as a team of trusted advisors. By addressing topics our customers care about, we show that we are here to help and answer questions.