Modern Technology could very well determine the trajectory of your business

The insurance industry in general has often been accused of lagging when it comes to adopting and leveraging the latest technologies, but that doesn’t mean the industry is standing still, particularly insurance carriers. And sometimes, carriers’ use of technology has come at the expense of insurance agents.

In recent decades, insurers have used the Internet to open direct-to-consumer channels for personal auto, homeowners, and even some commercial coverages. More recently, insurers have released a number of mobile apps that allow consumers to complete tasks across the entire range of the insurance process.

Insurers have also established a presence across social media, where they have attempted to connect directly with consumers in a new way in order to, according to a 2012 National Association of Insurance Commissioners report, “build consumer relationships based on trust and the exchange of information.”

And if the insurance industry has been somewhat reluctant to embrace technology, technology appears to be embracing the insurance industry, as Google makes its presence known, recently announcing its intent to launch an auto insurance comparison-shopping site. A March 2015 article in The New York Times, “Google Introduces Long-Anticipated Insurance Shopping Site,” written by Conor Dougherty, states, “Google’s move into the lucrative but heavily regulated world of insurance sales had been anything but quiet. The company has been acquiring state licenses to sell insurance and forming partnerships with the insurance sites like CoverHound and CompareNow.com. …”

What does all this mean for insurance agents? The challenge of competing with direct writers — and the mobile tools and other technologies they continue to roll out — has been going on for years, and the threat to agents is well known and has been well covered. In the case of Google looking at the U.S. insurance industry, the Times article says, “One group that is particularly worried about Google’s move into insurance are the about 40,000 insurance brokers who have for decades been the backbone of the insurance trade. Comparison sites like Google’s allow customers to buy directly from insurers, giving them a discount by cutting out agents and their commissions.”

Fighting back But agents don’t have to stand by while others leverage technology to take business from them. Agents can them- selves use social media and  other digital technologies to spread their own message and connect with consumers in their regions, and some are doing just that.

Chris Paradiso, who started Paradiso Insurance in 1998 and later started Paradiso Presents LLC to teach small agencies about online marketing, recently held a workshop at Travelers’ Claim University to teach agents how to leverage technology to their benefit—through social and digital outreach, through mobile advertising, and through devel- oping and sharing content online.

In a statement, Paradiso frames the workshops he runs as a way of sharing what he has learned with other agents: “Along our journey, we’ve learned a lot about what works in the insurance business and what doesn’t,” he says. “This workshop allows me to share my insights and experience with independent agents and brokers who want to develop and execute a revenue-generating social media strategy of their own.”

And agents are eager to learn. Travelers says turnout was high for the event. Angela Grimaldi, regional sales director at Travelers, says in a statement, “We’re encouraged to see a great turnout for an event like this, where agents are learning from digital experts, sharing with each other, and feeling supported by insurance carriers like Travelers.”

Agent associations also hold webinars and provide resources to teach agents about the power of technology and digital marketing, and agencies that have acted on this information and the available resources have success stories to tell.

Beth McManus, vice president of communications for Connelly Campion Wright Insurance (CCW Insurance), in Belmar, N.J., acknowledges that the biggest challenges agents face are competing with direct writers (and their seemingly limitless marketing dollars), and changing consumer habits, where shopping and information gathering is increasingly done online. “Everyone’s online and buying their insurance online,” she says. “It’s not the days of old where people would see our sign, walk in off the street, and get educated on insurance and what programs they want to purchase.”

If the landscape is different from the days of old, the solutions are as well. McManus and CCW Insurance have embraced digital marketing and social media to get their message out to the public. McManus says much of her efforts as a communications director involve getting CCW Insurance’s name out to consumers across multiple platforms to get the agency the highest possible search ranking.

IT’S DIFFERENT, BUT STILL THE SAME

With so many consumers shopping online, a favorable search ranking today might be considered the attractive sign that would draw people in off the street in the days of old. And the conversations where agents would educate consumers about insurance pro- grams are still happening; the venue has simply changed from face- to-face and over-the-phone to social media and through informative digital content.

In fact, Mary Christiano, director of communications for the Professional Insurance Agents of N.Y., N.J., Conn., and N.H., says the traits that have always made agents great — their knowledge, personalities, and ability to easily connect with people in their neighborhoods — are the same qualities that attract consumers today online and on social-media outlets.

With social media in particular, it’s more about those connections to the community than directly bringing in leads, Christiano says. “It builds trust and relationships, just like being a coach in Little League does.” She adds, “That special touch that independent agents have always had that allows them to know their community in a unique way — that’s something that these tools, if used right, give independent agents more power to do.” In other words, she says, agents should see social media as “the new way of doing what they always have done.”

CONTENT IS KING

In 1996, Bill Gates wrote an article titled “Content Is King” about the power and future of content on the Internet. Anyone who read it back then and took the message to heart probably had a leg up on their competitors. Now, the article’s title has become a cliché used to support another common modern phrase: every company is a media company.

Increasingly, companies across all industries are using blog posts, native ads, video and other content to tell their stories and project knowledge to customers in ways traditional advertising could never accomplish. In many ways, the content they are creating is not much different from what media companies produce, hence the phrase.

For agents, quality content is a way to demonstrate their expertise and level the messaging playing field at least a little bit with the large direct writers. Agents will never be able to outspend a company like GEICO on advertising, but the right content, amplified through the right channels (social media, search, email, even direct mail), can be an effective way to reach consumers and draw attention to an agency’s brand.

Ryan Hanley, head of marketing at TrustedChoice.com, knows all about the power of content marketing. In fact he wrote the book on it (OK, he wrote a book on it, titled “Content Warfare: How to find your audience, tell your story and win the battle for attention online”).

Hanley says the content that resonates with consumers, and ranks well on search engines, answers “the very specific questions insurance buyers have about the insurance products they need to purchase.”

In a blog post, Hanley expands on that concept, relating his experiences when he was with The Murray Group Insurance Services, based in Albany, N.Y. The idea is that when an insurance customer enters a specific question into Google, the agent’s content, designed to answer such a question, will pop up first. The “key- word” is actually a phrase rather than a single term. As Hanley states in his blog, “I will never rank for the term ‘Insurance.’ There is simply too much money thrown at that term. However, I can and do rank for the Long-Tail Keyword phrase, ‘When do I drop collision coverage?’”

Hanley has the proof to back up his claim; his blog post shows Google Analytics screen shots of how search traffic increased when he began posting relevant content focused in the right areas, and he calculates how much new business revenue The Murray Group generated as a result. And that’s the idea for agents: if they can produce the appropriate content, they can collect the right kind of traffic.

BUT WHO HAS TIME FOR THIS?

Agents, of course, are busy selling insurance. Making a few social-media posts is one thing; writing blogs and building a library of compelling content might be more than an agent bargained for. As Hanley notes, “The common content-marketing mantra of the day is every company is a media company, which is great, but your classic 11-person, one-location independent insurance agency — maybe all 11 hate writing basic emails, so how can we expect them to create a blog post?”

Thankfully, there’s help. Not only is there an emerging industry of specialized content-marketing firms that work with companies in all industries to produce quality, searchable content, but insurance-industry associations are also ready to assist.

Hanley talks about TrustedChoice.com, which is not the same as Trusted Choice the brand. Both are affiliated with the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, but while Trusted Choice is a branding campaign, TrustedChoice.com is an online resource for agencies that, according to the site, “is a helpful resource and launchpad for progressive independent agents that are ready to leverage the power of the internet to connect with new consumers and help their agencies grow,” according to the site’s description.

Part of what TrustedChoice.com does, says Hanley, is produce articles designed to educate consumers (and also work with agents on their websites, social media, content marketing in general and SEO). Agents cannot copy and paste the articles to their own sites, notes Hanley, but they can create emails to clients with links, and when the client clicks the link, the page rebrands as if it’s from the agency.

As Hanley states, “Our mission is to help local independent agents play at a bigger level.” PIANY/NJ/NH/CT also provides services for agents, including consulting on social media and digital marketing, as well as con- tent, relevant to consumers across all four states, that agents can have crafted into a number of formats, from plain text for blogs, to postcards and brochures, to emails. Christiano says content is in high demand among PIA agents.

Nationally, PIA also has webinars designed to skill agents up on social media and digital/mobile strategies.

GETTING STARTED

Social media, blogs, video, SEO: it can all seem a bit daunting to those who have not been immersed in this world for most of their lives. But it’s really not all that complicated — especially not in relation to understanding the ins and outs of an industry like insurance.

As Christiano notes, “It’s not hard to do this stuff. You don’t need to be particularly sophisticated to use the tools. You have to be sophisticated to have the expertise about what you’re selling, and what you’re claiming to be an expert on. And agents are experts.”

If you’re all-in, then yes, content marketing and being active on social media can become a second job (or a full-time position to be filled), but it doesn’t have to be.

“I don’t necessarily believe that agencies need someone dedicated to social media,” says Hanley. “Certainly there can be an ‘owner’ of digital communications, but what’s more important is that the agency establish a culture of digital connection and relationship building. This can mean many things: blogging, social media, videos, etc., but also reaching out on LinkedIn, sharing pictures at events or client offices. Each individual can contribute in small ways to grow the overall agency presence online.”

McManus says, “It doesn’t have to be overwhelming to start, but you have to start somewhere.” She adds, “You have to have a website, obviously. That’s minimal.”

Christiano concurs. The website is what you’re trying to drive traffic to. It should be mobile friendly, notes McManus, as Google is penalizing websites that are not as of April 21.

From there, Christiano says she tries to gauge the comfort level of agents that contact PIA about digital marketing. Are they already active on the social-media platform, perhaps in their per- sonal lives? If so, they could start establishing their professional presence there. LinkedIn could be a good next step, she adds, as it is easy to create a profile. Both Christiano and McManus agree that joining Facebook is important as well.

It’s a safe bet that your clients and prospects are on Facebook, so it’s probably a good idea to engage them there. A Pew Research Center report on social-media demographics released in January notes that 71% of online adults used this platform in 2014. And it’s not just millennials and young adults. Over half of online adults 65 and older said they use it, as did 63% of online adults ages 50-64.

Just be sure to engage them in the right way. Says McManus: “From our perspective, a lot of our social media and digital mar- keting is geared toward educating clients — not ramming products down their throat, but getting in front of them and letting them know the value of an insurance agent vs. a big-box insurance company.”

McManus also advises that there are ways you can post one item that will appear on multiple social-media platforms, which could save time. In the end, agents simply need to familiarize themselves with the tools that are out there. “Agents just have to educate themselves,” McManus says. “Put yourself in the consumer’s shoes. …what is easiest, fastest and best?” She adds that in her own free time, she is very active on her mobile phone, and most consumers today are as well. “We have to be where the consumer is,” she says.

DOES THIS STUFF EVEN WORK?

Hanley notes that he’s seen increased interest in content and digital marketing strategies among agents over the past five years, and part of that is because success stories are emerging. Hanley can quickly rattle off a long list of agencies that have grown leads and revenue through digital marketing.

“For each agency that’s had success, for another 10, the light- bulb goes on,” he says. They’ll take a first step after that: perhaps upgrading to a mobile-responsive website or adding a blog post.

“I wouldn’t say that as a group the agency owners are diving into this,” he notes, but he says if people within agencies want to develop a strategy, owners are now allowing them to do that. And that’s a huge step in the right direction.”

He also credits the support IIABA has given to TrustedChoice.com. “For them to put so much emphasis into TrustedChoice.com over the last four years, I think it showed a lot of people — if they’re willing to push that many chips on the table for this digital-marketing thing, there must be something there,” Hanley says.

McManus relates how social media played a vital role for CCW Insurance during Superstorm Sandy. “We were at the Jersey shore and were completely affected by Sandy,” she says, “We couldn’t get into our town for two-and-a-half weeks, so we went completely virtual. And fortunately we had set up plans so we were able to do that.”

She says CCW Insurance communicated with clients through Twitter, Facebook, even texts while they were unable to access the office. “So social media was vital for us during that time, and it continues to be.”

She adds, “It’s a great place for referrals; we continue to get prospects through Facebook, and Twitter and LinkedIn as well.”