One of the true privileges of my role at Agency Revolution is that I get to spend a fair amount of time talking about agency marketing with people who are actually going to be doing the work. That time with agents, agency principals, and their marketing staff is something I really value because even when I’m the one giving the presentation or sharing my acquired knowledge, I’m learning from them. I hear about the challenges they’re facing in implementing their marketing plan, the questions or concerns they have about new marketing technology, questions on what tactics will make the greatest impact, and more.
But I also spend a fair amount of time dispelling misconceptions about marketing. The field has changed so much over the last two decades that there are days where I feel like I’m not even in the same industry as when I got out of undergrad! That rapid change has led to a lot of myths and misconceptions around marketing and, particularly, agency marketing. So let’s bust a few here:
1. Strong referrals are all an agency needs (not marketing).
Referrals are fantastic—you know the referred person is ready to become your client. And they know exactly what to expect from you. But referrals typically won’t keep your pipeline full long-term. Marketing is needed to create that consistency and to ensure that you’re top of mind when that referred prospect wants to buy.
2. If agencies have a full book, they don’t need to do marketing.
Not so! Marketing isn’t about closing the sale tomorrow; it’s about making sure you’re the first agency someone thinks of when they are ready to purchase (and ok, it’s pretty cool when it leads to a quick sale, too). Marketing, even when you’re not in a position to take on new clients today, is critical because one day you will want to expand or backfill your book, and you want your future clients to have name and brand recognition of you.
3. AI is going to take it all over.
Not anytime soon. AI can make it easier to be an effective marketer, but it can’t do everything for you. You can make great use out of AI chatbots with a little practice in creating prompts, and image generators can get your creative juices flowing (we’ve used both at Agency Revolution), but you’ll always have to review for accuracy and edit for your agency’s tone and voice. Remember that those tools are trained by the internet, and not everything on the internet is true (regardless of what you read there).
4. Traditional tactics are dead—it’s all digital now.
Your channel mix is going to differ from another agency’s, but there’s a good chance you’ll want to have some old-school tactics in yours. Local ads, direct mail, sponsorships, and community participation are all marketing tactics with proven results—especially among Millennial buyers!
5. Marketing is expensive and time consuming.
It can be, sure. But for most agencies, there’s no reason for it to be. Covering the basics, like a beautiful, easy-to-use website, a consistent social presence, community involvement, and timely communication to clients and prospects can be automated, and it is something you’re probably doing anyway! By using data and sticking to budgets and routines, you can do a lot of effective marketing without a large time or dollar commitment.
6. I have to be super creative.
There are plenty of tools available to non-creatives to make marketing materials pop. Canva, Photoshop, and other commercial software make it easy to create beautiful, branded materials with zero design background—and some are free for basic packages.
7. I can’t directly attribute business to marketing.
Sure, there are some tactics that can be harder to attribute, such as out of home advertising, but most of the marketing you’ll do you can track. Digital marketing, such as paid search and social, has tools in their platforms, or your CRM might have that data in it. Dashboards, like the ones we use in Forge and Fuse, house attributable data. Even direct mail can be attributed, either by using a tracked web page to collect leads or asking people to give a code or mention their mailer for a discount. You can go high-tech or low, but attribution data is there for you.
8. Any marketing tech I get will have to be its own system.
This is the one that gets me every time! You wouldn’t implement any other agency technology that didn’t work with what you already have, right? So why should your MarTech be any different? Find tools that you can sync to your AMS—that will not only help your attribution and allow you to better track your web forms (like those in Forge), but it will allow you to use your AMS data to create more effective campaigns (or use ones that are already created for you, such as those in Fuse).
Want to hear more about insurance marketing myths and misconceptions? Check out our recent webinar on the topic. You can also keep an eye out for future social media webinars on our Upcoming Events page.
Are you interested in learning more or finding out how Agency Revolution’s products might be a good fit for your agency? Contact us today.
