Influencer marketing is one way to build your brand credibility. By reaching out to influencers, you can extend your reach in the online and offline community and create a better reputation through word of mouth. Here’s how to add influencers to your insurance marketing strategy.
1. Understand Your Audience
To find an influencer to work with your business, you need to understand the demographics of your audience. Who are your insurance clients? If you work with a lot of young families, you will want to choose someone who connects with that particular audience or with something those families would respect.
If your focus is on auto insurance and your key products revolve around high-end auto products, then you need to find someone who’s connected to that audience. Don’t just talk with the people you know: seek out those who are already talking with your future clients.
2. Find the Right Kind of Communicator
Narrow your search by thinking about the communication style you want your influencers to use. According to Kissmetrics, you should “decide if you need an activist, an informer, an authority, etc. to best promote your campaign or product.”
How do you currently communicate with your clients? Do you work to develop a respectful, authoritative presence? Are you active in the community and outspoken about safety issues? Think about people who share that communication style, so that they’ll amplify that aspect of your insurance marketing.
3. Look in the Right Niches
Consider what niches you’d like your influencer to focus on when that person is promoting your business. For instance, if you’d like to work with someone to promote your business as a hub for safety information in the community, then you need to find someone who’s active in that area. Take a look at social media accounts that focus on that niche, Twitter, and Instagram hashtags, and set up Google Alerts so that you can see who’s active in that niche. Read blogs in that niche to get a sense of each individual’s communication style, interests, and audience.
Make sure that it’s a real fit: if you’re selling high-end auto insurance, someone who blogs about cheap auto parts is probably not going to speak to the same audience you want, even if they’re in the same overall industry.
4. Reach Out
Once you have a list of potential influencers, reach out to them. You could ask them to guest blog or offer to blog for them, interview them, offer them a free product, or start a conversation with them about your shared interests. You could simply retweet or share what they’re posting. Work to create an authentic personal connection with your brand. According to Convince and Convert, “engagement is an indicator of how interactive a blogger’s audience is with the content.” Check to see how engaged the influencer’s audience is by that social media post, blog, or comment – if there’s a strong interest, you could consider working to further develop your relationship with this influencer.
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