The truth hurts

Insurance is the not most interesting topic to get people interested in. People pay for car insurance every month, and feel like they don’t get anything in return. That makes marketing yourself as a insurance professional more difficult than marketing other sales careers. In this article I will share with you different marketing ideas I have adopted over the years. Most of them are free and are VERY effective.

Public Perception

If you look at different types of sales careers, insurance is by far not the most popular. If you asked me realtors lead in popularity amongst people. Below is a comical comparison of how people perceive insurance professionals & realtors.

Realtors: People love realtors. They spend months on end trying to help you find your dream house and only charge you thousands of dollars to do it. They reassure you when you're uncertain, and you don’t even have to pay them...directly. People love realtors so much they now have countless realty shows on buying and selling homes.

Insurance Professionals: Insurance professionals take money from you for years and when you actually need them, they are hard to get a hold of. They represent the heartless insurance industry that is unfeeling and always looking to screw people.

Face it. Being an insurance professional isn’t easy. Even when we do meet someone who is interested in talking about insurance, it usually has to do with the bottom line. This makes marketing your business harder then before. With more & more people turning to Google and social media sites like Facebook, old marketing don’t stand a chance.

If your doing this, STOP!

If you are still advertising in the newspaper, stop it!. You’ve heard the saying if its not broke, don’t fix it. Well thats crap. Newspaper circulation is declining every year because people can get the news faster through Google, Twitter, Facebook and countless other online mediums. The best part of these mediums is most of them allow you to advertise on them for free!

Social Media

Websites like Facebook & Twitter have changed the way we communicate for ever. If you don’t believe me look at how quickly news spread of Jay Z and Beyonce’s pregnancy. It would have taken newspapers 24 hours to bring that information to masses. It took Twitter minutes. So why on earth would anyone subscribe to the newspaper when they can get faster information for free on the web?

Social Media has also changed the way people make purchases. Now when people compare auto insurance they can ask 400+ people for advice with the push of a button. These people are friends that can be counted on delivering advice on who offers the best car insurance rates.

Facebook Pages

If you're not using Facebook at this point, you're one of the few...not many. Currently Facebook has over 900 Million users from around the globe logging into their accounts almost everyday. This has made communicating with your clients, or potential clients easier than ever before. You can literally leave this article, visit Facebook and create an account in 30 minutes or less and it won’t cost you anything. The best part of all of this? Creating a business profile for yourself is going to build your business more than advertising in any newspaper will, and its 100% free.

The most important reason why you should be creating a Facebook account for yourself is because it will help your career...alot. Once you establish yourself as an insurance broker/agent to your 100+ friends, they will start asking you questions about car insurance. They might not be clients of yours but that’s ok. If you're easier to reach than someones broker, they will go to you for advice and once their insurance rates jump with their current broker, they will calling you for a quote.

Another way Facebook works for insurance professionals is if your easy to reach, people sending their friends & family too you, right through Facebook.

What to do now?

If you're concerned that you don’t have enough experience with computers to set up a Facebook account, don’t be. If you can set up a Hotmail or Gmail account, you can do this. Its that simple.

Step 1: Visit Facebook

Step 2: Create a “Personal” account

Step 3: Add your “Personal” information. Make sure you add a profile picture of yourself. Don’t worry too much about the insurance part just yet.

Step 4: Create a Fan Page through your account. This should be your professional account.

Step 5: Follow Facebook’s Fan Page tutorial

Step 6: Start giving insurance advice with your Personal account.

Step 7: Ask people to like your Professional Fan Page.

Step 8: Start conversations about insurance related subjects with your Fan Page. Try to keep things low key. This is about building your brand.

Paid Advertising on Facebook

Once you have become familiar with Facebook’s platform, you will want to start advertising through the paid services it offers. One of the greatest features of advertising on Facebook is how you can target your advertisements. Unlike advertising with newspapers, radio or television, Facebook allows you to specifically target your market by:

-Age

-Sex

-Relationship Status

-Interests

-Location (City, Province, Country)

-Education

-Groups they belong to

If you're new to marketing this might not sound like a big deal but let me tell you its HUGE! For insurance broker who doesn’t want to write policies for high risk areas like Brampton, Ontario, you can create an ad that excludes that area. If you're thinking that advertising on Facebook is going to be expensive, you're wrong. With Facebook Ad’s you have the choice of how you would like to be charged.

CPM- This means Cost Per Thousand. With these you pay a low flat fee every time your ad appears in 1000 different profiles.

CPC- This means Cost Per Click. With this you pay a substantially higher amount but you only pay once someone clicks on your ad.

I recommend creating several ad’s for the first month to determine which one meets your needs. Facebook allows you to limit the amount you spend to avoid spending more than you want to.