10 Wake Up Calls on Social Media Marketing for Your Agency
If you read the title of this article and thought to yourself, “My agency doesn’t need social media,” then I have some unfortunate news for you: you’re falling behind. For those of us already embracing the power of social media, I applaud you, because the world of marketing is going digital, and social media is one of the most powerful tools we have available when it comes to nurturing long-term client relationships. If you aren’t on social media and you’re looking to get started, I would suggest that you check out our content on social media marketing on paradisopresents.com, and that should help you get the ball rolling. For those of us looking to ramp up our efforts with our social media online though, I want to discuss five myths and leave you with five tips that should be a bit of a wake-up call for you in the social world.
Myth #1: Social media is only meant to be used by B2C companies.
Although many times in the past social media has been hyper-focused on B2C-type (business-to-customer) companies, it is not true that social media is only meant for these companies. While we operate within the insurance space, it’s important to note that as Independent Agents we are both B2C and B2B (business-to-business) companies since we sell/write both personal and commercial policies. When it comes to your social media marketing, you can focus on building long-lasting connections with your existing customers, while potentially marketing your products/services to companies in need of commercial policies as well. You just have to find the right balance.
Myth #2: B2C Social media marketing strategies are strictly B2C, and don’t apply to B2B companies.
This is also not true, and I’ll explain why. Traditionally, people have a much more refined and professional approach when it comes to marketing to B2B companies. While this is a good point, it doesn’t mean that your B2C strategy should be considered null when it comes to marketing to B2B companies. Although you may establish strong B2C relationships through Facebook, Twitter or Google+, you could find more success marketing to B2B companies through emails, blog articles, videos, or infographics. While the platform you use to reach out to them may vary, the strategy could still be very similar. B2B companies are still sold by a well thought out story that displays value, trust, and personal experiences from peers behind your agency’s products and/or services.
Myth #3: Social media is all about generating more leads.
WRONG. Social media can be about generating leads, but if that’s all you think it’s here for, you’ve completely missed the point. I would actually argue that lead generation is only a secondary function of marketing via social media, and that the primary function is to nurture existing client relationships. Think about it this way, when we have a new client and/or customer come into our agency, we want to establish a strong, long-term relationship with that client/customer so that we can capitalize on renewals. You will, of course, find new leads on social media from time to time, but if your focus isn’t on nurturing client relationships via social media to provide an outstanding customer experience, then you could be missing out.
Myth #4: Social media doesn’t have an ROI.
Entirely false. Social media’s ROI is unlimited depending on your strategy. It could create new leads, but as I mentioned earlier you can establish long-lasting and rewarding relationships with your clients if you encourage them to stick around for the long haul. It is a great way to turn a professional relationship into a more approachable and personable one. If you ever question your ROI on social media, there are built-in analytics for each network, or you can look at purchasing an analytics tool as well if you feel as though you need a second look.
Myth #5: Your competitors will know all of your secrets.
Let’s be real folks, marketing is about staying ahead of the game. If your marketing efforts are working, your competition is likely to attempt to mimic you, and that’s okay. Your strategy and the why behind it will all remain in-house, but the how behind it will be the only thing your competitors can check out. Not to mention that if your competitors see your success and aren’t seeing it themselves, then they will move forward with fear instead of authenticity. Stay a step ahead, and don’t worry about what your competition has going on; if they are trying to copy you, then you’re doing something right.
Alright, now that we’ve covered a few myths behind social media, I hope that you are a bit more comfortable with using this platform as part of your agency’s marketing strategy. I’d now like to leave you with five tips that should help ramp up your strategy.
Tip #1: Show your products in action.
Show the product in action? But all we sell is a piece of paper that ensures our customers have the coverage they need, right? Not exactly; social media is a time for you to get creative. One way we show our products in action is that we have a video highlighting all of the features of our mobile app. We also hosted a huge event for Flag Day at our agency and created free t-shirts for the whole town with our agency logo to commemorate our veterans who served, and we had clients displaying their free shirts all over our social media. Not only does that encourage others to interact, but it shows that we want to be involved with our local community. You just need a touch of creativity!
Tip #2: Be real; be authentic.
Yes, people will not appreciate the fake you, or else they would just buy their insurance from “The Lizard” or “Flo, the Progressive Girl.” They want to see your staff, and they want to see your agency and other customers to get an idea of what it’s like to do business with your agency. It’s important that you have a healthy balance of organic and stock content within your social media, and trust me—there should be much more organic content. People can tell whether or not you were behind the camera when it comes to your visual content marketing, and pictures that you take yourself (or that you have professionally taken of your staff/agency) will go much further than stock content in the social world.
Tip #3: Create galleries.
If you organize your social media visuals into galleries, or albums, your posts will get more traction in the social world. On Pinterest, you can separate your content into organized boards, you post to specific communities with common interest on Google+, and on Facebook you can organize your photos into albums or upload them as a gallery with Facebook’s built-in upload services. If you have a lot of photos or visuals that all revolve around the same subject matter, it is a good idea for you to upload them as a gallery on Facebook to increase interaction and engagement, because users who are interested in the content will take the time to stop and explore the rest of your gallery after they’ve had a small preview. In our case, we can upload galleries highlighting features of our app, a gallery for our Flag Day campaigns, a gallery for our staff, and more.
Again, you just have to have a touch of creativity to find success here.
Tip #4: Follow sizing guidelines when it comes to visual content marketing. Yes, there are certain sizes, or dimensions, of visual content that work best on each social network. In order for your posts to find the most traction, interaction, and engagement from your audience, you should be optimizing your visual content for each individual medium in the social world. There are visual content creation tools that can do this for you: one is Canva, which is free to use on their basic platform, and another is Adobe Spark, which is also free to use. These platforms allow you to select which social networks you’d like to post to, what type of content you’d like to post, and then guide you through your content creation process to optimize the sizes and other settings of your visuals. If you have a marketing professional working in-house like I do, just have them follow social network sizing guidelines while creating content for your agency.
Tip #5: Consistency is everything. I’m here to tell you that without consistency, you will fail on social media. If you want to embrace its power, you have to be consistent—you can’t just dip one foot into the water. Consistency comes into play in a few different mediums in terms of social media, and the first thing you should consider is your agency’s brand. Your brand is important in your visual content, your message, your posts, and more. When it comes to visual content, anything that has been edited or Photoshopped should represent your brand, although you should have a balance of branded and 100% organic content. Also in terms of consistency, your posts in general should have a consistency with timing. If you start posting to Facebook once a day for a month and then stop for a few days, your audience will know, and they won’t appreciate it. Be sure to be consistent with your agency’s brand, your agency’s message, and your posts in general, because consistency will bring you a strong ROI in the social world.
Well everyone, I hope that after debunking these five myths, you’re a little more comfortable with social media, and that these five tips will help you sharpen up your loose ends in the social world. For those of you who haven’t gotten started on it quite yet, I again would encourage you to check out our content at paradisopresents. com, which should help you pick up some momentum. To all Independent Agents and Brokers, happy marketing as usual, and I’ll see you on social media!
