Small is in. Smaller businesses, niche markets, and handcrafted items are trending. What does this mean for your small, independent insurance business and its insurance marketing? Could you become the craft beer of the insurance world?
The Trend Toward Small
Did you want to be a barber or a jewelry-maker when you got older? These jobs are not obscure, but tangible. They focus on the needs people have in their everyday lives. This type of job has often been poorly-paid, but Millennials, in particular, are now reclaiming them. Everything from the corner barber to the shoes on your feet has turned into an opportunity for an artisan. According to the Financial Times, “In their remade form, they provide services that are considerably higher-end — and more expensive — than ever before.”
Why is this trend happening?
- In part, it is due to the desire younger generation has to produce real objects and create tangible connections.
- On the consumer’s part, it points to the desire for a personal touch.
The Financial Times goes on to outline how a new generation of consumers pursues “quality for its own sake,” forgoing the impersonal and standardized products that are so prevalent in the world today. For some consumers, if that means purchasing a couple of artisan drinks rather than a six pack, then so be it.
Becoming a Master of the Insurance Trade
What are the lessons for your insurance business? In the age of craft beer and artisan toys, how can you turn the interest in small business into an interest in your business?
Part of the artisan trend is a trend toward specialization in a specialty. You’re connected to your community, and you can respond to their needs. You can decide to swing toward a niche market if you’d like, connecting locally and online with those who need that specific service. You can become an artisan at creating opportunities for high-end auto insurance. Being small allows you to specialize and become a master at a few types of insurance if you wish. If you have a specialty and you are one of the few masters in that particular area, be sure to stress this in your insurance marketing.
Connect With Your Community
Another element of the artisan trend is the opportunity to get to know tradespeople and service providers as people with unique stories and skills. As an insurance business, you need to tell your story in the community, showing that you’re committed to and connected with your community. While there are few romantic movies centered around the community that builds around an insurance business and the services that you provide, you can build a strong community around your business, and it will benefit you immeasurably.
Being real is important to Millennials. Some companies spend a lot of money focused on projecting an image of authenticity, but according to AdAge, “It’s not very authentic to spend huge budgets talking about how authentic your brand is.”
As an independent, community-based insurance business, you’re a real place, with real, local people. Your small business can be authentic and small without trying to be so. It’s just who you are. Make casual conversation. Recommend the latest restaurants to your clients. Ask them how their dog is doing after surgery. When there’s a crisis in the community, be right in there helping out. Before there’s another crisis, work to prepare your community by providing workshops, training, or funding to local organizations.
While behemoth companies have to work to connect in small communities, your small insurance agency fits right in, because that’s where you live and do business. What might seem like one of your weaknesses when you go up against larger businesses is actually your strength in a world of artisan products and services.
Are you looking for ways to boost the success of your independent insurance business? Talk with American Agents Alliance today. We give you many opportunities to share with others insurance businesses at our Alliance Convention. Contact us today.
