Niche marketing for insurance agencies is one of the hottest topics in the industry — and for good reason. It can be a highly effective way to build a profitable, and stable book of business.
In fact, it’s such a hot topic and buzzword, that a lot of agencies will say the word “niche”, but they’re skipping over and misunderstanding the true definition of what it means, and the what niche marketing truly entails.
In this guide we’ll layout a framework you can follow for basically any niche, that allows you to formulate a game plan that you can use to dominate whatever niche you want to market to.
Step 1: Make sure you have a strong carrier(s) for the niche
The best branding, SEO, and ad campaigns in the world, can’t makeup for having really strong carriers for the niche you want to market. It all starts at the carrier level. Do not, I repeat, do not go out and spend money on a website, brand guide, or SEO until you have an in-depth conversation with your carrier marketing rep(s) about what you want to do.
Let them know you’re going to invest money and time into this, and you want to be sure the product will be stable, and be around for the long haul.
If possible, you should ideally have 3 different markets you can use for your niche line of business. If you only have one, putting all of your eggs in one basket can seriously hamstring you later down the line, if not completely shut down your niche marketing efforts.
Step 2: Talk to the carrier about which industries are “hitting”
Find out what industries/markets the carrier is having success with, don’t just guess. What is easy for them to bind and underwrite? Don’t just guess or market to an industry just because you like that industry or have some type of emotional connection to it.
Think about long term profitability and cross-sell opportunities.
Step 3: Define your customer and build the branding around that customer
Once you know what industries are hot and who to target, you need to build a brand around that demographic. A perfect example is this a client of ours who is specializing in wedding insurance, as well as wedding venue & vendor insurance.
Or our other client who is marketing to cannabis dispensaries.
Or, another agency who specializes in insurance (and other services) for pizza shops.
I’ve seen agencies targeting all types of niches from flood insurance, to work comp, to Medicare, and many others.
Do not skimp on the branding and/or content, as this is what will set you apart from others in your market, legitimize your company, and help build trust with your target demographic.
All too often agents will say “well we’re just testing the waters here and trying not to spend any money until we know it’s working.”
That’s the wrong way to look at it. As long as you completed steps 1 & 2 above, there’s nothing holding you back. Go all in on the branding!
Invest in a professional logo. Build an awesome insurance website. Have a professional video created for the brand.
Look the part for whatever niche you’re marketing too and crush the branding and content!
Step 4: Develop a marketing strategy for inbound & outbound
No matter if you’re selling personal lines insurance or niche lines of business, you have to have a multi-prong approach. You never want to rely on only on source of traffic/referrals for your niche.
All too often agencies fire up websites or landing pages, and then sit back checking their analytics and waiting for leads to roll in. It simply doesn’t work that way. You need to have a strategy for both inbound, and outbound marketing for your niche.
You need to be able to disrupt the market. Don’t just sit back and wait for them to find you. Some clients don’t know what they don’t know, and don’t know why they need you. You need to make that known.
Inbound Strategies
- Informative/engaging 2500 word blog or page with a video + images
- Video series/sequence
- Google Ads
Outbound
- Cold email campaigns (Mailshake is a good tool for this)
- Purchasing lists from InfoUSA
- Running Facebook Ads with custom list + demographic targeting
- Mailers (yes they still work when done right)
- Ring-less Voice Drops (yes it’s legal and very effective)
Outbound Marketing Tools
- SlyBroadcast
- Mailshake
- InfoUSA
Step 5: Make sure your “back office” is ready
Now that you have your niche marketing framework established, you need to make sure you have the back office to handle it and make it run smoothly.
Do you have people who can speak the language of the niche your targeting?
Can they close sales? Work the phones if need be?
Step 6: Develop a cross-sell plan
The point of selling wedding insurance is not to sell at $300 policy at a $40 commission. It’s to cross-sell life, home, auto, and also the commercial coverages for the venue and vendors, like the photographer, bakery, and other shoulder-niche lines of business.
The point of selling only work comp insurance, isn’t to just sell work comp insurance.
You get my point.
Make sure you flesh out a cross-sell system asap. Know what questions to ask that will lead into other conversations about additional lines of business. This will help you generate additional revenue which you can re-invest back into your niche marketing funnel.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are multiple steps involved in niche marketing for insurance, however if you follow them in order, and hit a home run on each one, you will absolutely have success in the market and be seen as an authority in your space.
The key is going all in on all of them.
Remember, don’t skimp on the branding, and don’t forget to cross-sell 🙂
