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Pick a Channel, Target an Interest, Cultivate Customers

Brokers who  starting down the road to use social media for marketing may be making two critical errors:  (1) Trying to sell insurance (2) on too many channels.

New data from Bredin Business Information (quoted in eMarketer) suggests that small business owners (and this is what most insurance brokers are) tend to cast nets wide when approaching social media and are finding that only a few channels produce the most effective results.  The trick is finding those channels, as they won’t be the same for ever business.  The only way is by finding out what existing customers use, trying the media, and measuring carefully.  The accompanying chart shows the use of  of various social media channels based on a survey of US small business owners.

The second mistake is trying to sell insurance.  Let’s face it … insurance does not ‘engage’  most customers.  But that is not a reason why insurance marketing can’t be engaging  Recently, Progressive Insurance ran an ad featuring Flo (the spokesperson who takes her social business seriously), who wrote: “I love my mom because she still cuts the crusts off my PB&J. How about you?”  According to Terry Golesworthy, writing in Insurance Networking News, “Nearly 4,000 people responded. If we assume an average friend network, the discussion reached over a half a million people beyond Progressives’ network.”

The takeaways … (1) find out which channels appeal to your customer base, and (2) ask your customers if they want the crusts cut off their PB&J’s.  (You might ask if they want grape or strawberry, while you’re at it.)