Ever wondered how to market your insurance service without coming off as too salesy?

Or searched for alternative ways to advertise the brand without using traditional marketing methods?

GIF Source: Tenor

This guide is for you. 

It’s an exposé on content marketing for insurance companies like yours. 

More specifically, we’ll chat about: 

• What the heck is content marketing for insurance companies? 
• Why should you care about it?
• How can you get started with content marketing?

Ready to find a new way to reach your audience? Keep reading.

What is content marketing for insurance agencies?

Insurance content marketing involves creating, managing, and distributing valuable content to engage prospects and boost growth within the insurance industry.

It’s content marketing with a twist: instead of targeting a broad audience, you'll focus specifically on existing and potential customers interested in insurance.

To hook them, you get to create a variety of content formats from videos to blog posts, social media content, and infographics to position your brand as trustworthy. 

Now why should you care about leveraging content marketing for your insurance brand when face-to-face conversations or phone calls work? 

Find out below.

Why is insurance content marketing important? 

It’s easy to think there isn’t a lot of ‘content’ to market in the insurance space. Especially when you can just have short conversations via text, social media platforms, letters, or phones to close deals. Or at least that’s what you’re used to. 

While that’s a good start, it’s not sustainable because you can’t fully address your audience’s needs or explain your brand’s offering in a brief conversation.

But with content marketing, you help people navigate through different challenges or questions they might have by providing informative content. 

You can communicate with your audience any time any day, getting leads while you sleep. 

That’s why consulting and research firm, McKinsey recommended that insurance companies embrace a digital approach to their research to become market winners. 

“We firmly believe that opportunities abound for incumbent insurance companies in this [digital] world. But they will not be evenly shared. Those companies that move swiftly and decisively are likely to be those that flourish. Those that do not will find it increasingly challenging to generate attractive returns.” 

In addition, a survey by Contentive, a digital media company, showed that marketers claim that content marketing provides the highest return on investment (51% ROI) for their businesses.

So, it works. 

But what do you get from leveraging content marketing? You’ll find the answer in the next section.

What are the benefits of content marketing for insurance companies? 

Here’s what using content marketing gets you: 

Improved lead generation

As you create high-quality content for people, they become willing to share their contact details with you. And that gets you leads. Think of the times you’ve given out your own contact details to access valuable material. That’s what great content does. 🙌

Boost in brand awareness

If you consistently publish great resources, a few things begin to happen: 

1. It’ll encourage people to share it with others because it’s good.
2. Thought leaders and pros within the industry will attempt to associate with the brand. 
3. You’ll likely get opportunities to talk on podcasts, webinars, and other third-party platforms.

The result? 

There’s a good chance your brand’s visibility and reputation will get a boost.

Higher conversion rates

Good content solves problems, provides direction, and helps people make informed decisions. 

If you produce content that does all that ☝️, it won’t be long before leads start converting to loyal customers. 

Cost-effective marketing

Content marketing is a cheaper advertising method compared to traditional marketing. 

Jimmy Rodella, a content marketing consultant says, “Content marketing offers better long-term value and engagement than traditional advertising because it focuses on customer relationship-building, adapting strategies to meet evolving customer needs, and providing valuable information.”

Alex Hormoni, a serial entrepreneur found this to be true when discussing his content marketing strategy. He revealed that it costs $70,000 to produce 160 content pieces per month, saving him $2 million that would have been spent on paid advertising to get leads. 

Sure, you might see that cost now and think it’s expensive. 

But do you know the content you create is for life? You can produce a piece of content and it’ll still be relevant to people, long after it was created. 

That’s not the case for traditional ads. 

If you run, for instance, the same billboard or TV ads for five years, people will think you’re lame, aren’t creative, or don’t have money for ads. 

Any form of evergreen content, however — blog posts, infographics, etc. — will stand the test of time.

***

You see why you need content marketing, right?

Now, if you want to see those benefits, your content has to be in a format people love.👇

What are the best types of content insurance companies should use?

Let’s you’re a potential customer weighing insurance options. How do you decide which company to trust? 

Definitely the content that stands out and speaks to your needs, yeah?

To run a successful insurance content marketing campaign, choosing the right content type can set you apart. And here are popular proven options to help insurance brands grow their business: 

High-quality blog posts

Blog posts provide the audience with detailed answers to their pain points in written format. 

Here, you discuss trends, new service offerings, and how people can use your platform.  

Essentially, this content format helps educate people, positions you as an authority in the insurance industry and improves your ranking on the search engine results page. 

A good place to start when it comes to insurance-related blogs is what type of insurance different individuals need. For instance, a blog post titled ‘Buying a property? Here are five types of insurance you need’ not only guides readers through different types of insurance they need but will help them feel more confident about their purchase. 

Insurance industry news

Industry news informs your audience of upcoming events, government policies, and important issues within the insurance world. 

You’ll be helping them stay in the loop with important data so they have all they need to make informed decisions. 

For instance, an industry news with the title ‘All you need to know about the social security disability insurance program’, will keep your audience informed about critical updates so they can make informed decisions.

Videos

Video has always been a content format people love. It’s visually appealing, engaging, and it just works for many people. 

That’s why some of the most popular social media platforms are built on video sharing. 

Creating videos allows you to simplify insurance product offerings and complex processes in a way people like. You can produce animations, behind-the-scenes, explainers, and interactive videos.

Geico, a popular insurance company, produces an I Am Geico series where viewers meet different Geico staff and learn about their stories. This type of video helps people connect with the company on a human level. So when they communicate, it feels like they’ve known each other for some time. 

Podcasts

Podcasts are audio conversations on different topics. It’s an ideal format for auditory learners as they can plug in their earbuds to listen on the go. 

The discussions can be about any topic within the insurance industry. Plus, it’s an opportunity to solidify your position as an authority by inviting thought leaders to the conversations.

Insurance Talks is one example of an insurance-related podcast where different industry leaders come together to discuss the next big thing in the field.  

E-books and white papers

These are premium long-form content formats that let you discuss specific topics in the industry. 

You get to go in-depth explaining challenges the audience might be facing, why they’re dealing with them, and how to solve them. 

Think of them as your brand’s manual where you carefully outline your processes. 

And the good part is they can fetch you leads as people have to offer their contact information in exchange for the content. 

Here’s an example from Insurance Business America where they discuss different ways to thrive in a difficult market:

Image Source: Insurance Business America

Your white paper can be similar, as you explain specific topics in detail.   

Social media marketing content

Everyone is on social media nowadays including people who might want to buy your insurance policy. As such, creating social media posts is a great way to connect with them.

It’s usually a mix of pictures, infographics, and videos with catchy or trendy music in the background. 

You don’t even have to reinvent the wheel here. You can simply repurpose existing content for social media and link back to it or look at what the competitors are doing. Zurich Insurance, for instance, has loads of ideas you can draw inspiration from. 

There’s ‘Myths about insurance,’ ‘What you should do about a kind of insurance,’ ‘Reasons why getting XYZ insurance is good,’ and more.

Email marketing content

Sending email content to clients is an amazing way to connect with them. It involves sharing personalized content about your product in their email inbox. 

Are there discounts existing customers would love? Draft and send emails to them.

Someone was on the checkout page but changed their mind? Send emails. 

Basically, this content format is an effective way to be in your audience’s mind consistently.   

Infographics

You can use infographics if you want to present complex information in an easy-to-understand way. 

That’s primarily what it’s known for. It’s a fusion of diagrams, images, charts, and graphs to break down complex information such as new policies and their cost implications or the ROI percentage of a contract. 

Interactive content

And then there’s interactive content, our favorite because that’s Ceros’s secret sauce.  

It’s a content format that’s visually appealing and engaging, not in words but in action. 

It allows the audience to actively interact with the content by clicking, hovering, and sometimes playing. 

Interactive content is the quiz you respond to, interactive blogs, personalized calculators, and interactive infographics that give an immersive experience. 

Want to learn more about this content format? 

Click here for additional info. 

You can also check out our Inspire page to, well, get inspired! 

Now that you know the content types to use for a successful insurance content marketing campaign, you’re ready to create an insurance marketing strategy. 

Let’s show you how to do that. 

How can insurance companies design a content marketing strategy?

To create a successful strategy that brings the kind of marketing glory you want, follow these steps:

Identify your target audience

Your first step in content marketing is to understand your audience. Not just what they do or where they live but everything you can learn about them, so you can launch a campaign they’d like.   

Here’s how to do that:

• Interview your existing audience. Ask all you can such as: 

• Where are they from? 
• What are their interests? 
• Where do they spend time? 
• What’s their biggest concern about insurance? 
• What type of insurance are they interested in? Car insurance? Life insurance?
• Why did they seek insurance services? 
• How do they prefer interacting with you? 
• What do they love most about the brand? 
• What do they want to see in an insurance agent? 
• What’s their preferred content type?

• Look at your competitors’ audiences. Software like Semrush’s One2Target tool can help with that. Just sign in, type in the competitor’s URL, and press analyze. It’ll show details about their audience demographics like age, gender, location, interests, or preferred platforms.

Create engaging content

If you did the interview and discovered what type of content your audience likes, this next step is cut out for you. 

Start creating content that solves the pain points mentioned during research and in formats your audience likes. 

To make it more engaging, here are some tips to try out:

• Create interactive content using Ceros. Interactive content can seriously boost your views and engagement compared to static content and Ceros is the key to making that happen. 

With Ceros, you can add interactivity to your content using our customizable templates. You sign up, pick a template that works for you, and make it your own.

If you want to create something totally unique, our Studio tool lets you build interactive content from scratch, giving you complete creative control. 

• Collaborate with subject-matter experts. People love valuable information and if you can give it to them, they’ll return the favor by sharing it (increasing brand awareness) and engaging with it (like commenting and liking). One way to do that is to bring in experts your audience respects to share their thoughts on different topics. 

Focus on search engine optimization (SEO)

This next step will help you do two things:

• Find what people are searching for and create content around it. 
• Improve your visibility and rankings on the search engine results page. 

If you don’t have your own SEO team to make the running, here are some ideas to get started:

• Conduct keyword research to know what people in the insurance industry are searching for using Ahrefs, an SEO tool.

It has a Keywords Explorer feature for finding keywords to target. You type in a popular keyword in the insurance industry like insurance or life insurance and it’ll show their search volume and traffic potential. 

But to find specific terms to target, click on the related terms and matching terms report tab, and you’ll see keywords in order of their monthly searches and related questions people ask.

• Use relevant terms in your headlines, titles, and alt tags for images. 
• Write compelling meta descriptions with keywords as it’s one of the first things people see on search engines. 
• Add captivating visuals to make the content more appealing and shareable. 

Produce content regularly

Consistently publishing content isn’t an option in content marketing, it’s a must for a successful campaign. 

It shows the audience you’re committed to meeting their needs. 

So if you want to produce content consistently, create a content calendar.

It’s like a normal calendar but this version includes:

• Content titles in the production pipeline.
• Content types for each title. 
• Distribution channel. 
• Who’s responsible for creation?
• Production status.
• Due date. 
• Publication date.

By creating an editorial calendar, you have a plan for what and when to post, making it much easier to maintain consistency. 

To design a calendar, you can use CoSchedule for a streamlined process and automation or even Ceros if you want it to look more engaging and interactive for the team.  

You transfer the essential data listed above to the sheet and you’ll have a calendar in no time.

Promote your content

After producing content, you’ll want people to see it, yeah?

That’s why you need to make plans to promote it. And here are some options to try:

• Collaborate with influencers and industry experts. Get them to talk about the content so their followers and more people see it.  
• Leverage social media. Post snippets of the content on social media your audience is most active on and engage with them if they leave a comment. Use relevant hashtags and trending sounds so the algorithm shows it to the right people.
• Explore paid ads. This includes sponsored content where popular content is posted on popular blogs or social media ads where it’s boosted on social media.

Track and measure the effectiveness of your content strategy

Finally, you need to monitor the campaign’s performance to know what’s working and what’s not. 

It’s also how to know you’ve had a successful campaign. 

So, how do you measure it? By tracking these metrics:

• Web traffic. Number of people who’ve visited your website since the campaign started.
• Social media audience engagement. How many likes, comments, and shares does your content get?
• Leads generated. The number of people who’ve provided their contact details in exchange for content.  
• Conversion rates. Percentage of people who performed a desired action. 
• Time spent on a page. 
• Bounce rate. Number of people who leave your insurance website after visiting a page. 
• Number of followers on social media. 
• Mentions on social media. 

Tracking these key performance indicators (KPIs) isn’t a big deal with the right tools. 

If you use Ceros to produce kick-ass interactive content, its analytics tool can monitor user engagement with the content.

Google Analytics can track web traffic, leads, user duration, and bounce rate if you connect it to your site. Once it’s linked, you can access the data via the Reports tab on the left page of the dashboard. 

Got all that?

Congratulations, you’re set to launch a content marketing campaign for your insurance company.

So, let’s wrap this up!

Over to you!

The insurance industry has been projected to grow by one trillion US dollars between 2023 and 2028. 

Smart companies like yours will position themselves to be at the forefront of this deal.

They’ll consistently create engaging content that can set them apart in the industry.

And that’s where Ceros comes in. It helps simplify the process of producing content people love. 

You get to create interactive content that draws people in at scale with templates. 

Want to see how it works?

Book a demo with Ceros today and take the stress of producing content off your plate.