5 Ways Content Marketing Drives Referrals for Insurance Agents

If you’re an insurance agent, using content marketing to drive referrals is a smart approach to growing your business. Content marketing is one of the most important global trends in marketing right now, especially for insurance agents. With content marketing, insurance agents can increase retention and word-of-mouth referrals.

What is content marketing?

Simply put, content marketing is a way of communicating with your policyholders through interesting, entertaining and informative materials that are intended to help, not sell. Marketing has changed and people have learned to tune out obvious sales pitches. Capturing the attention of your policyholders now has to be strategic and targeted.

*UPDATE*

We recently ran the live, 30-minute webinar on content marketing benefits for insurance agents and below, you can watch the recording of it and access the slides on SlideShare. In the webinar, you’ll get a crash course on content marketing, covering:

• The value and purpose of content marketing
• What content marketing looks like
• How content marketing actually drives business results

The number one goal of content marketing for insurance agents is to increase your referrals through better policyholder relationships. There are 5 benefits of content marketing too, each of which helps grow your overall approach to policyholder retention.

1) Helps Get and Keep Your Policyholders’ Attention

It’s pretty easy to sign someone up and just let them be. Even if you reach out to them on occasion throughout the year, you really don’t have a rapport built with them. Content marketing makes sure that when you send someone an email or call them, they are eager to hear what you have to say.

2) Brands You Personally and Professionally

With content marketing, your goal is to create engaging and interesting content that your policyholders want to open, read and share. As an agent, you have more to offer than policy bundles and discounts. The content that comes from you should showcase your knowledge as an agent through relevant, industry-adjacent topics. Good content marketing will help your policyholders get to know you as a life resource and trusted friend, and not just the person who handles their rate quotes and claims.

3) Builds Long-Term Relationships

Content marketing, by definition, is meant to entertain and helps you engage with your policyholders. With the number of new people you sign up every month, it would be difficult for you to try and build a strong relationship with each of them individually. Getting that policyholder to trust you sooner rather than later is critical to establish a long-term relationship. Content marketing helps bridge that relationship-building gap.

4) Grows and Nurtures Existing Relationships

Just like new policyholders, your long-time clients need love too. That’s why crafting a consistent content marketing strategy helps to keep everyone you serve interested in what you have to say. When you nurture your circle of clients with great content, you become a trusted friend and opinion leader to them. Being top of mind like this is very powerful when it comes to referrals.

5) Supplements What You Already Do

Content marketing doesn’t replace what you already do as an agent. While you’d love to talk to each and every one of your policyholders on a weekly basis, it’s just not feasible. Content marketing is a way to stay in touch with all of your contacts consistently throughout the year, while growing a stronger relationship with them through great content. That way, when you do pick up the phone to call them, it feels like the conversation never stopped.

With content marketing, you gain the ability to be present with all of your policyholders. And when the content you send them covers the things they care about, you establish yourself as a trusted friend and resource. People who trust their agents want to stay with them and feel confident in referring their friends and family to them when the opportunity presents itself.