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Before I started studying insurance marketing, I thought it was super easy. I thought it worked like this: 

Just run some Facebook and Google Adwords ads, let small businesses click, and then convert them with some compelling copy and a digital quoting process. 

Why isn’t everyone doing this? 

Of course, it’s not that easy but it is certainly doable. I’ve learned this in my time at Bold Penguin and talking with insurance agents. I was recently lucky enough to host a Cheatham Chats webinar with insurance marketing experts, where we covered the essentials of small business insurance marketing. The webinar included Melanie Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer at Leavitt Group, Mike Fusco, Chief Executive Officer at Fusco & Orsini, and Stefanie Altman, Director of Marketing at Bold Penguin. 

For purposes of the webinar, I posed as a new agent looking to sell insurance to businesses in the video game industry. Here are some of my key takeaways. 

Know Your Audience 

At the outset of our conversation I asked, “Can I just run Facebook ads?” 

Fusco’s answer was simple: “No,” he replied with a chuckle. 

Instead, insurance marketing to small businesses requires a combination of tactics. But even before choosing your tactics, both Fusco and Johnson emphasized the need to evaluate your target market. Fusco suggested I needed to find where gamers hang out online and go there with my marketing efforts. Johnson took it one step further and suggested I should interview my gamer friends to figure out what they need. 

Once you deeply understand your audience, then you can select the channels and tactics – not before. 

‍Experiment with Influencer Marketing 

While digital advertising can work, keywords related to insurance are some of the most expensive in the market. Altman said an insurance marketer needs to be prepared for experimentation and testing. For an agent focused on gamers, for example, Altman suggested that advertising on Twitch, a streaming service for gamers, may prove profitable. 

Altman also proposed experimenting with influencer marketing. For example, as an agent focused on gamers, could I hire famous gamers or podcasters to talk about the importance of insurance (and working with my agency)? Even if you are targeting a micro niche, you may be able to identify an influencer. For example, DIY contractors could be used to promote insurance to contractors. 

‍Traditional Tactics Still Work and Carriers Can Help!

While the rest of the world discusses embedded insurance ad nauseum, traditional marketing like blogging and podcasting still works. Fusco regularly publishes content and podcasts targeting small business issues. 

Johnson also detailed that insurance agencies should contact their insurance carrier partners for marketing help. Many carriers provide marketing assistance, in the form of content generation, for performing agencies. Leavitt Group utilizes blogging in order to attract small businesses to the company website. 

Of course, Bold Penguin products can also help. Fusco’s agency uses Bold Penguin Storefront Pro as a landing page for businesses looking for an insurance quote. He sees each digital transaction as an opportunity to bridge to a real life discussion with a business owner: 

“The Bold Penguin Storefront Pro is great to drive people. … We look at it as an opportunity. When I drive people to the Storefront, I still want my salespeople to connect with that person. . . .”

So with a combination of marketing tactics and digital quoting tools (via Bold Penguin), small business insurance can become profitable and efficient. As technical capabilities improve, there may even be opportunities to remove agents when a business feels comfortable purchasing, according to Johnson:  

“There are certain class codes in the very near future that will be able to bind online. There is some bind online now for certain things, with certain carriers, for specific lines of business. That is the future. Will it be for every class code? Probably not. There are some class codes where you will still have to talk to an agent.”

Whatever the future holds for insurance technology, I can promise that an assortment of digital marketing strategies will be key to landing new customers. 

‍If you have questions about your digital marketing strategies, feel free to reach out to me: chris.cheatham@boldpenguin.com. I would be happy to help you evaluate your insurance marketing efforts.