How Social Media Can Grow Your Disability Insurance Business
Social media marketing is a useful – and free – marketing tool that can help businesses flourish. In our new socially distant world, social media can provide a new way to stay in touch with current clients – and more importantly reach new potential clients. For insurance agents and brokers, social media is especially helpful because a large part of our business is word-of-mouth referrals. To be successful, it’s important to remember that social media was created for people, not for businesses. Using social media correctly can help your business grow but a few missed steps can be the nail in the coffin for your insurance agency.
Follow the One-in-Six Rule
For businesses, it’s easy to fall into the rut of selling ourselves and our products. This can be disastrous on social media. People participate in social media for fun, advertising too frequently or obviously can result in ignored or worse, permanently blocked content. The one-in-six rule suggests that only one out of every six posts should directly promote your product. The remaining five posts should be focused on sharing content that is relevant, timely and related to your business or industry. You want to engage your audience and show the value in your insurance products without saying ‘buy this.’
Start an Income Conversation Protection with a Question
Most people like to talk about themselves and share their opinions. A great way to get them talking is to ask clients what they think, feel, like, etc. about topics you can relate back to insurance products you’d like to promote. For example, you may ask your followers something like: “What guilty secret are you most-likely to spend your money on?” This question makes it personal and helps your clients think about what’s financially important to them.
The underlying thoughts include what happens if my income suddenly stops and I can’t afford to maintain my lifestyle. A great follow-on question could be “how would you afford those guilty pleasures without your paycheck?” The obvious solution is to buy disability income insurance.
Provide Value and Share Your Disability Insurance Expertise
While including fun posts that reflect your personality is a must, it’s important to create content that benefits your followers. That can mean posting tips on best practices, providing access to white papers, or offering special deals on products or services. Post little-known, fun facts in the form of questions with a special offer presented to the first person to answer correctly.
If you don’t feel comfortable talking about disability insurance, we can help! We have Regional Sales Reps who are experts in income protection, how to present the different products and how to close the deal. If you’re not currently working with one of our Regional Sales Reps, give our office a call (877.636.2112) or email (info@dibrokerwest.com) and we’ll help you connect.
A Picture is worth 1,000 words
People like pictures. Not surprisingly, Tweets and Facebook posts with images have a much higher engagement and share rate. In fact, three of the “newest” social platforms – Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat – are based entirely on images. Leveraging the eye candy when promoting your insurance products will give you a big bang for your buck. Make sure your social media posts (and your business’ profile images) reflect your brand, relate to your product and are geared towards your audience. If your goal is reaching millennials who need disability insurance, an image of an older couple riding a bike isn’t going to cut it.
When Should You Share Your Insurance-Related Content?
When you post on social media is almost as important as what you post. For maximum engagement, the content you’re sharing needs to reach as many people as possible. Finding that sweet spot when your audience is on social media will keep your content from being pushed down in the ‘while you were away’ list. How do you find the sweet spot for your business (they’re all different!)? Test out different days and times and look at the numbers. The higher the open/view rates, comments and shares will let you know your content is being viewed. Keep in mind, different social media platforms also have sweet spots.
Pick Your Poison
Each social media network appeals to a different demographic or audience. They vary quite a bit so. Wasting time skimming the surface of every social media platform will have less impact than focusing your efforts. Knowing your target customer and where they like to hang out is the key.
If you have any questions or want to learn more,
please give your Local Sales Rep a call!
