Insurance Marketing 101: 7 Tactics that Drive Quality Leads
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Originally Posted On: https://www.trkingim.com/insurance-marketing-101-tactic-drive-quality-lead/
- According to our audience survey, 46% of insurance agents find it difficult to prospect or cold call new clients.Are you in the same boat?
As the industry enters the digital age, traditional insurance marketing tactics are no longer as effective as they once were. Today’s agent has to know how to leverage new technology to generate enough leads to keep them relevant and profitable.
The good news?
There are plenty of tools out there to help you do just this. The key is knowing which ones to employ and which to skip.
Today, we’re sharing seven of the most powerful ones to add to your arsenal today, so read on!
Use Remarketing Lists for Search Ads
It’s no secret that the insurance industry is replete with acronyms. Here’s another one to add to your ever-growing list: RLSA.
It means Remarketing Lists for Search Ads, and it’s about to become your new best friend.
Frustrated with the sky-high Cost Per Click (CPC) associated with most insurance industry keywords?
It doesn’t matter which subset you’re in, you’ll be hard-pressed to rank for one without emptying your pockets. Still, you know they’re a valuable part of your digital marketing strategy that you can’t ignore.
Enter, RLSA.
With this tactic, you can adjust your CPC numbers in accordance with a predesigned remarketing list. Any time a prospect enters a search term that matches one of your keywords, you can bump up that specific bid.
Let’s use a real-world example.
A web user finds your San Diego life insurance website and comes there looking for a quote. That’s a great first step! Unfortunately, they decide to bounce soon thereafter.
You could remarket to them on the Google Ads Display Network and encourage them to come back on their own, but RLSA can get you there quicker. Knowing that they’ve already searched “San Diego life insurance” or a similar variation once makes it all that more profitable to bid slightly more on that keyword now.
2
Don’t Forget Target and Bid
In a similar vein, agents can also make use of a helpful, albeit lesser-known, tool within Google Ads known as Target and Bid.
In most cases, when you apply RLSA, you’ll simply log in and make a manual bid adjustment on a given keyword. On the other hand, Target-and-Bid allows you to enter a Google Ads auction only when the spotlighted searcher belongs to a remarketing list you’ve assigned to a specific search campaign.
Pro Tip: You’ll select this option under the Google Ads “Targeting” menu, changing the button from “Bid Only” to “Target and Bid”. Once you create your remarketing lists or categories, Google will only show ads to those people associated with them, with the option to bid on them.
This is an ideal way to use lower-cost keywords on the Google Ads Display Network to draw more eyes to your site.
In the meantime, you can ramp up your prices and strategies for the higher-intent, higher-cost ones. While your impression numbers might be lower when you go this route, the ones you do receive will be more viable and valuable.
3
Use Income Targeting to Direct Ad Spend
Here’s a hard truth: Not everyone will be interested in your offerings.
While that might sound harsh, it’s actually a good thing. You aren’t trying to appeal to every sector of the population. You just need a certain subset of people to become loyal clients and spearhead ongoing business.
That said, one of the most effective tactics in insurance marketing is to identify your target market or demographic.
In short, who are you selling to and who is most likely to buy your solution?
A quick way to define this group?
Pro Tip: Start by identifying their average household income. While this won’t be an effective approach for some agents, there are plenty who can recognize that most of their business comes from clients that earn a certain amount of money each year.
Once you know this information, you can enter it into the Google Ads demographic targeting tool.
After you narrow your ad spend by location, you can narrow the window even more by targeting the top 10% of the country based on income, with other options that target the 11% to 20%, 21% to 30% and so on.
This way, you can weed out income groups that are way higher or way lower than your target range, making your ads more relevant and driving higher quality leads.
Are you partnered with the right upline?
Are they there to take your call? If not, we are.
Create a Compelling, Emotional Ad Copy
Unless you’re actually affiliated with a certain insurance brand, you won’t go very far when you try to incorporate their name into your Google Ads ad copy.
This applies even if you sell policies from that insurance company.
There are two paths you could take at this juncture.
Option 1: Pay Money To A Company
You could pay a ton of money and allude to the company in question, writing bland ad copy that looks like every other imitator on the block. You might raise your rank in Google, but you’ll still fall behind the real deal.
Option 2: Stand Out From The Crowd
Or, you could create copy that stands out from the crowd and gets noticed. The key? It’s an emotional appeal.
Specifically, we’re talking about appeals that generate positive emotions, not negative ones. This means, instead of saying “Stop Wasting Time”, you change it to “We Can Save You Time”.
To make this work, consider the kinds of appeals that would motivate your target viewers to buy the kind of insurance you sell. Then, look for ways to weave it into your text ad. Even if site visits don’t always lead to a conversion, a click can lead to a valuable remarketing opportunity.
5
Analyze Demographic Data
In addition to income targeting, it’s also helpful to take a closer look at other demographic features that members of your target audience share.
The Google Ads “Audience” tab allows you to adjust your bids based on age and gender. When you do so, try changing the right hand menu from “clicks” to “conversions”. This way, you can see which groups are actually generating the real movement on your ad.
Say you notice that most of your insurance conversions belong to women between the ages of 50 – 56. You can then use this data to better inform your entire digital marketing strategy.
In addition to adjusting your web copy, you can also use demographic data to direct your creative collateral, which can range from print materials to television commercials.
Think about it: Would a magazine ad highlighting a 50-year-old man by the lake appeal to female consumers shopping for an affordable insurance policy?
While every channel and vertical can benefit from this sharpened focus, its especially effective in Google Ads. When you’re dealing with keywords that carry CPCs of upward of $50, you need to be strategic in your selection.
6
Keep Viewable Impressions Open
It’s true that no one loves being pestered by brands advertising products similar to what they’d just browsed for online. You Google “fine jewelry” once and you’re looking at ads for diamond rings forever.
That said, the tactic can be effective.
If a client finds your website from a search ad, you’re already one step ahead.
That means they searched online for “insurance quote” and landed there. They either need a new plan or are dissatisfied with their current one. Either way, they found you.
Even if they click away, you can choose to send remarketing ads at a given rate. For instance, you might cap them at five impressions per day, per campaign.
The only issue?
You’re no longer top of mind once those impressions are up. If that same searcher still needs a quote in two weeks, you’re long forgotten.
Pro Tip: As such, go ahead and adjust your settings to “No cap on viewable impressions”. This way, your ad still remains relevant. As time goes by, it just might attract the right remarketing prospect looking for exactly what you’re offering.
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Adjust Your Campaign with the Season
As with most industries, the insurance sector is busier at certain times of the year than others. For example, Q4 is often peak season for many brokers and agents, as employers tend to offer calendar year or near-calendar-year benefits.
As an additional example, AEP Season is a busy time for MAPD/PDP agents.
Keeping this in mind, astute agents can anticipate these seasonal shifts and adjust their outreach strategies accordingly. Initially, this might mean adjusting search volume and search volume variance.
However, don’t forget to also refine your modifications by demographic. Certain clients might have spikes and dips that are different from others, requiring appropriate tweaks on your end.
Pro Tip: With this approach, you can capitalize on qualified leads when they’re available en masse, without maxing out your ad spend on thinner times of the year.
Ace Your Insurance Marketing Strategy With Us
Tired of wasting your time and spinning your wheels on insurance marketing strategies that just don’t work?
We get it.
That’s why we’ve made it our business to grow yours. We’ll show you innovative new strategies to help you stand out, generate leads, improve conversions, and build your bottom line.
When you’re ready to connect, get in touch with us. Let’s take this next step forward together.
Are you partnered with the right upline?
Are they there to take your call? If not, we are.
Key Takeaways In This Article
- Lean into the digital marketing age, so you never have to cold call again.
- You can use the RSLA method to stay top of mind and get a prospect back when the time is right for them.
- Don’t try to sell to everyone, narrow down by targeting prospects using income and demographic data.
- Improve your results by using positive emotional appeal in your ad copy.
Over to You
We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below on:
- Are there any techniques that might work for others we didn’t cover?
- Have you used Google Ads to drive traffic to your own insurance website before?
- Do you have a digital marketing strategy for your insurance agency?
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. We will carefully read each one of them. Happy Selling!