Is technology the magic bullet that will magically transform your insurance business? It’s more than magic: Technology is a sound investment in customer service and employee satisfaction, and it’s also one of the best ways to boost your insurance marketing. Invest in these technologies to enhance your customer service.
Insurance Marketing Ideas that Connect
As a small business, you know that you need to actively connect with members of your local community and your broader community of customers online. However, small insurance agencies can feel challenged to keep up with the wide variety of social media platforms that are available.
“One survey found that 47 per cent of Americans said that Facebook was their number one influence when it came to purchases.”
Social media marketing does involve an investment of time. It also involves up-front work developing your social media profile. You’ll need to:
- Determine where your target groups of customers like to interact. Are they active on a particular social media site?
- Decide what social media platforms suit your business. For example, if you like to share information, Twitter could be a good choice for you.
- Examine your branding and decide how this will translate into a social media presence. What tone and what information do you want to share on social media?
- Develop a social media page with outside assistance, if you need help with visual branding.
- Create a social media plan with external help, if you need a push to get started. This help could include a monthly and annual plan that helps you envision how you’ll reach out to your audience in different ways.
When you invest in social media, you’re investing in a presence and persona online. This presence may or may not result in increased sales. According to the Business2Community blog, “One survey found that 47 percent of Americans said that Facebook was their number one influence when it came to purchases.” However, you need to determine whether social media investments are right for your business. Track the inflow of site visitors from social media sites, and ask your visitors where they heard about your business to determine if this is the right place for you to invest.
Agency Management Systems
Technology not only helps you become more outgoing, it can also help your internal processes. Agency management systems bring together processes that help to manage your commissions and customer management and communication systems. When you implement an agency management system, you’ll be able to better organize customer data and coordinate business activities, such as your budget, since you’ll have all of this information in one place. Management systems bring information together so that all of your employees can access what they need when they need it, and allow you to develop integrated reports so that you can easily monitor activity and changes in your agency, month by month and year after year.
Cloud-Based Products
Whether you’re organizing an event for your customers and need to create tickets online or you’re developing an online employee calendar, simply shifting your organizing to cloud-based products can save you time and simplify your employees’ work lives. Cloud-based technologies allow employees to check in from wherever they might be. This allows you to synchronize between different offices, connect with employees with flex time or who work from home, and organize events with associates in different time zones. Many of these cloud-based organizing and communication tools are inexpensive – or free – as well.
Cloud-based products allow you to disperse information to your client base. For example, if you’d normally talk with a client about the basics of home insurance, you can use Google Hangouts to connect directly with up to 10 clients on a webinar, and you can live stream and archive content on YouTube so that you can use it as an informational video for your customers.
Implementing new technologies can transform your insurance business. These technologies are also an investment. Consider how you’ll invest in your small business with information from those who’ve been there already.
Become a member of the American Agents Alliance, a national insurance association for independent insurance agents & brokers. Learn about our member benefits, including discounts on IT services and agency management systems. Visit our annual Alliance Convention & Expo to network & learn from other small insurance business owners.
