7 Reasons Why ‘Old Marketing’ is Damaging Your Business (Part 1 of 7)
Everything is different. Consumers made it that way.
The way they consume information is different.
The way they research information is different.
The way they communicate is different.
The way they shop is different.
And you could argue, technology made them that way.
Technology gave them immediate access to everything. Anywhere.
You could be on top of Mt. Bachelor with your phone. Push a button. And know just about anything about anything.
That is power.
And savvy marketers realized that this shift changed everything.
It shifted the balance of power between the consumer and the marketer.
The consumer is in charge.
Are you getting the growth you want? Maybe you’re discovering that what you’re doing just isn’t getting the ROI you’re looking for?
The marketer who respects that wins every time. Because they know how to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.
Go ahead, Google ‘salesperson’.
You’ll see images like this:
Can you say ‘run!’ Because these are the images a lot of consumers have about sales.
But, let’s flip that question around?
What kind of merchant, vendor, insurance agent would a consumer run to?!
The one who most respects what they want when they want it in the manner they want it.
Today’s most successful marketer gets that. And wins up to 800% more business than those who don’t. (Stats coming…hang on a moment!)
The one thing that hasn’t changed – and this is dangerous…
A moment ago, I said ‘everything has changed.’
One thing hasn’t.
Insurance marketing. The way most agents & brokers practice it. It’s in a pitiful state.
Not just behind the consumer. Years and years behind the consumer.
And – with over $7 billion invested in insurtech since 2012, we’d better look over our shoulder.
(Or, perhaps, your biggest threat isn’t from those insurtech startups. It just may be that it’s from the agent or broker who gets this shift in marketing and decided, strategically, to do something about it.)
The new marketing is NOT a series of checkboxes you can just buy
So, if you’re thinking, ‘I have my website. Check. My agency has a Facebook page. Check. We’re doing stuff on LinkedIn. Check. Hey, look at my cool Instagram page. Check.’ Beware.
It’s not about the media.
It’s still is and always will be about the CONSUMER.
You may be able to reach the consumer on the ‘new media.’
But will they pay attention? Will they follow you? Will they trust you? Will they do business with you?
There’s a NEW Insurance Marketing. And those who practice it are growing at a record pace.
Maybe you’ve heard of ‘content marketing.’ Or ‘inbound marketing.’
The New Marketing for Insurance Agents & Brokers follows those very principles. My purpose, in this series, is to make this easy for you – and help you see quickly see double digit increases in any kind of marketing you want to do. Personal lines. Commercial. Health. Life. And so forth.
In this series, I’ll be sharing:
- Why every agent, broker (and carrier) must step up to the ‘new content marketing’ or lose out to competitive channels and competing agencies.
- What you must understand about the ‘new content marketing’ in order to win.
- The 6 secret psychological triggers of the ‘new content marketing’ that make prospects swarm to you and customers love you.
- The customer journey and the marketing funnel: how your content guides your market to you faster, easier – and happier.
- 19 shortcuts to make creating your own content quick, easy and powerful.
- Promoting your content: how to make your audience pay attention and follow you to customer nirvana.
- 12 keys to unstoppable success with the ‘new content marketing.’
So, even before we explore exactly what content marketing is, I want to get attention.
Is is just a fad? If so, run. That would be a waste of your time.
But it’s not. The internet is not a fad.
It’s not just here to stay. It’s here to transform virtually every industry it touches because it changes consumer behavior.
Naturally, I want to get your attention. And keep it.
Nothing does quite like MONEY. So, let’s take a quick look at what good content marketing can do for you.
Because I’m about to share with you what it does for others.
First of all, let’s recognize how much it’s grown.
That’s a relative graph there. You can see that it starts out around a ‘1’ in 2004…and it’s up at ‘100’ 13 years later. This is THE marketing of today. 100 times more popular than just a decade ago.
And, yes, content marketers just plain get better results. In a report by Aberdeen, they get almost 800% more traffic to their website.
But, that’s just the beginning. You mean you can get more traffic and it’s cheaper?! Yes, according to DemandMetric, content marketing costs 62% less than old-school marketing, but generates 300% more leads.
This is just getting good! They also convert more. A LOT more. 600%.
Common sense says that if you can keep them in the funnel long enough to get them to the ‘conversion stage’ and convert six times more, there’s something about this kind of marketing that earns trust!
Worried about how to allocate resources to content marketing when you already have a tight budget? Here’s big news: content marketing is highly efficient.
Once a piece of content is created, it’s easy to re-use, re-cycle and re-purpose. So easy, in fact, that about 60% of content marketers re-use content between two to five times!
Want to double your money? Or triple it?
How about a return of $38 for every dollar spent? Use email marketing for content distribution, and Oz Content reports a 38:1 ROI. (Read again. That’s not a typo!)
But, research aside, what do content marketers have to say about it. Do they believe in it? Apparently so. In spades! According to the Social Media Examiner, 81% plan to do even more next year.
Here’s Why the ‘New Content Marketing’ Works So Well for Independent Agents & Brokers
According to Bain & Company’s research on the insurance consumer, people make their insurance buying decision because of one or more personal values:
- Price
- Convenience
- Peace of Mind
Price belongs to the ‘other guys.’ Even if we could compete on price, the direct channel bought that space in the consumer’s mind with an annual advertising budget of more than a billion-with-a-b dollars.
And ‘convenience?’ When the other channels let you buy insurance at 2:00 AM, we don’t stand a chance.
But, peace of mind? Their research shows that we can OWN that space. (Plus, the consumers who act on that value are better customers. They buy more insurance. They stay longer. They give more referrals. Of course, that is IF we satisfy their desire for peace of mind.)
But, while ‘price’ and ‘convenience’ are quick, often knee-jerk sales, convincing someone you’ll give them ‘peace of mind’ is a longer conversation.
And, nothing does that like content. Each piece delivered at the right time as they walk on their insurance journey.
How fast should an insurance agency or brokerage grow today?
How fast do you want to grow? Because the limit is up to you. Period.
Industry-wide reports see the average agency growing in single digits. That just might be too slow to keep ahead of the competition.
In my recent podcast interview with Chuck Blondino, Director of Agency Capabilities and Programs at Safeco Insurance, he reported that their:
- Top 240 medium-to-large agencies grew at an annual rate of 26%.
- Top 240 smaller agencies grew at an alarming rate of 86%!
And, yes, the behavior of these top performers was different. (Of course, we all know that agencies don’t ‘stumble’ into numbers like that.)
What was the biggest difference? My analysis of that interview – and I urge you to make that podcast a PRIORITY for your own growth plan – is this: they communicate more with their clients…and the nature of their communication is different.
If you want to ‘sell, sell, sell,’ the first piece of advice I’ll give you is don’t jump on social media, email or your own website and ‘sell, sell, sell.’
Flip your communications around
Great marketing is NOT about you. It’s always about your customer. Or your prospect. Not you.
The technologies of today – the ones that consumers so love and so trust – has changed their behavior.
But, it’s also given you a gift. You can reach those customers.
Where they are. With what they want.
Information that will help them.
Information that will empower them.
Information that will deliver the promise of our industry – and, especially, the promise of our channel: PEACE OF MIND.
But, it’s not the marketing of yesterday…that so much of the industry practices today.
The first place to start is your own ‘marketing mindset.’ It’s not about ‘how much can I get?’
In today’s world, it’s all about, ‘how much can I give?’
So, the science and the research is clear. The ‘new content marketing’ works. Like magic.
It’s more efficient. It has a huge ROI. Prospects and clients love it.
Next, we’re going to learn precisely what it is…and how to do it. Stay tuned for the next part of this series.
Do you agree? Are you doing any content marketing? Do you have questions? Let me know!
To listen to my podcast with Chuck Blondino on how to achieve 26-86% growth, click here.
To download a copy of my latest book and learn how other agents are killing it in the marketplace, click here.
To discover how modern technology can help you deliver great content to your leads and customers (with content provided!), click here.