It’s an understatement to say that the competition in the insurance industry is fierce. 

As of 2022, there were 424,500+ insurance brokers and agencies within the United States alone. The number of competitors is growing continuously — averaging 0.8% growth year-on-year for the past five years. And as a whole, the industry employs an estimated 2.86 million people. 

So, how do you stand out against so many competitors? How do you create insurance marketing that makes people stop and pay attention, let alone choose you over multi-state agencies with cupboards full of awards? 

Below are six things every insurance broker needs to stand out, win clients, and succeed in the insurance market today. 

1. A strong digital footprint

When people need insurance in 2022, they don’t pick up the phone book and flick through to the “i” section. Instead, they go online and start hunting with keywords like “insurance broker near me” and “x insurance” (swap “x” for “car”/ “boat”/ “business”/ “house”/ etc. insurance). 

If you want to win clients, you need to rank well for insurance-related keywords. The best way to do this is to establish a digital footprint that grabs people’s attention and directs them to your services. 

Here are some channels you’ll need to build this digital footprint:

• Listings on review websites. These reviews won’t necessarily rank #1 on Google, but they verify that you’re legitimate and trustworthy to anyone researching your name or insurance agency. 
• Social media. Social media profiles help you show off your professional achievements, demonstrate your expertise, and convey who you are and what you’re about to potential leads. For social media, consider LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 
• A website. This website should teach potential customers what you offer and why they should choose you. Websites are also great for attracting organic traffic from search engines — especially when you publish long-form blog content and pages with Search Engine Optimized (SEO) copy. 

If you’d like to market yourself as an industry expert, you can also build your footprint with these strategies:

• Starting a podcast discussing industry topics and trends
• Creating TikToks or YouTube videos 
• Designing infographics or diagrams (you can circulate these really well on platforms like Instagram)
• Guest posting on insurance-related blogs and news websites
• Contributing publicly to discussions on websites like Quora 

Anything that gets your name circulating online will contribute to your digital profile. 

2. A unique competitive advantage

“Competitive advantage” is not a buzzword. Instead, it’s a must for insurance agency marketing. If you don’t stand out from your competitors, clients won’t have a reason to choose you over them. 

To identify your competitive advantage, complete a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis like this:

Source: Gary Fox

Then, perform a similar SWOT analysis on your closest competitors. Look for strengths you have over other competing insurance brokers and firms. Strengths like: 

• You offer cheaper plans 
• Your staff members have won industry awards 
• Your plans cover more 
• You have better customer service 
• You have local staff 
• Your business is more environmentally-friendly 
• Your team has more experience
• Your services have better features 
• You have superior tools (like a self-serve kiosk, for example)

Once you’ve identified your competitive advantages (most businesses have multiple), add them to your marketing materials. 

For example, you can update your website to emphasize your staffs’ achievements. Or, you can change how you describe your business (so, “InsuranceOne provides car insurance” could become “InsuranceOne has been helping local drivers insure their cars for over 35 years.”)

3. Strong community and industry connections

Many people will distrust a promotional ad produced by an insurance marketing agency, but they’ll likely listen if someone they trust recommends an insurance broker to them. 

So, to succeed at lead generation as a broker, you’ll need a community to back you up. Building this community takes time and effort on your part, but it’s not overly complicated. 

Try to attend local networking events, donate to local sports teams and community groups, and get involved in local causes to build a community in your local area. 

You should focus your efforts on building relationships with people who influence your customers. For example, if you sell business-focused insurance products, network with accountants and small business financial planners. Or if you sell auto insurance, network with local car salespeople. 

Don’t keep your efforts offline. LinkedIn and Twitter are fantastic networking tools that you can use to meet people via virtual industry events, and your Facebook community group is an ideal space for relationship-building. 

The trick to building strong community connections is building a give-and-take relationship where you provide value to others. Promote your services, yes, but also lend your peers your insights and advice to help them reach their goals. They’ll likely return the favor.

4. Mobile friendliness and website optimization

We already touched on the importance of digital footprints. What we didn’t mention is that there are certain red flags that will turn a lead away from your marketing channels and things that will make them stay. 

Mobile-friendliness and website optimization are two such things. 

As of late 2021, 54.4% of internet traffic comes from mobile devices (smartphones and tablets). However, not all websites look sleek on mobile (something vital as 83% of visitors care about a website’s design).

Here are some ways to optimize your website for mobile devices:

• Select a mobile-friendly theme that automatically resizes your website’s elements to smaller screens
• Use Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) 
• Make your buttons large and easy to press with fingers
• Make your pop-ups mobile friendly 

When it comes to providing good website optimization, mastering navigation should be your number one focus. If visitors can’t find the information they’re looking for quickly, they’ll likely give up and go elsewhere. 

Once you’ve optimized your website’s structure, pay attention to these factors:

• Website speed
• How quickly your images load (you can speed this up by using lazy loading or compressing your images)
• The strength of your design 
• Your copywriting
• How you link between pages (i.e., internal linking)

5. Compelling marketing materials 

Your leads are bombarded with ads from the minute they pick up their phones in the morning to when they put them down at night. Back in 2017, digital marketing experts estimated people saw 4,000 – 10,000 ads daily — a number that’s likely way higher today. 

The only way to stand out is to cut through the noise with convincing marketing materials that make leads want to say “yes” to your offering. “Convincing” materials appeal to people’s emotions, create a connection, and instruct them to take the next step with a persuasive Call-To-Action (CTA). Like the ad below, for example:

Source: Ads of the World

There’s no one way to produce good marketing materials, but you can make yours better by:

• Using a compelling headline 
• Limiting your copy and relying on visuals 
• Leveraging statistics, research, or expert opinions to appeal to authority 
• Using multiple marketing channels (including email marketing, social media, paid advertisements, etc.) 
• Using design to your advantage 
• Offering an exclusive deal that creates a sense of urgency (like a limited-time discount) 

Consistency is also important, as leads who see your ads multiple times are more likely to remember you. 

Marketing tools like Pathway’s Marketing Bot can help with this. Marketing Bot can automate your email marketing communications so you can send emails to leads and customers at the ideal time in their buyer journey. 

6. Smooth onboarding process

Your insurance marketing duties don’t stop once your leads become customers. The experience customers have with your insurance agency informs whether they’ll renew their plans or seek a competing provider once their contract finishes. 

You can improve this process by optimizing your onboarding process. To do this, provide policyholders with 24 hour access to make payments, their documents and digital proof of insurance. Pathway’s self-service kiosk can help here — it automates many onboarding tasks and gives your customers a portal they can use to self-manage their insurance. 

Inevitably, customers run into trouble and need assistance. To help them solve issues quickly, provide ways to fix problems themselves (like a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page or a knowledge base) and give them live chat tools to reach their insurance broker. 

If you’d like more suggestions on creating a positive onboarding experience, read “11 Tips For Successfully Onboarding Your Insurance Clients.” 

Grow your insurance brokerage with Pathway!

Standing out as an insurance broker is challenging in today’s market. However, the digital realm is at your fingertips. Brokers today can leverage the digital age’s tools and knowledge to boost their insurance broker marketing and provide a winning customer experience. 

To succeed as a broker in 2022, try creating a digital footprint, leaning into your competitive advantage, leveraging community, and refining your customer experience. 

Improving the customer experience is all about making your clients’ lives easy. That’s where Pathway comes in. We provide four insurance automation tools:

• Office Bot, which automates your administration workflows
• Marketing Bot, which automates your insurance marketing 
• Form Builder, which makes your forms digital
• Self-Service Kiosk, which gives clients a tool to manage their insurance

If you’d like to get ahead with Pathway, sign up here.