Digital Marketing on a Budget:
Content Marketing for Your Independent Insurance Agency

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Digital Marketing
in the Independent
Insurance Agency
A recent SIS survey revealed 54% of agencies are “neutral” on how they
view their marketing success. “Some days we see results, some days we
don’t. Overall, we’re unsure of our success,” many reported. This kind
of vagueness is unsettling—how can an agency improve its marketing
efforts without a clear picture of its current status?
With limited funding and performance uncertainty, it’s no wonder over
half of agencies surveyed identified their largest marketing problem as
“Understanding how much to invest in marketing, and whether it’s worth
the investment.”1
Those with successful marketing campaigns can testify:
digital marketing is worth the investment.
Online visibility is a must. A recent AdWeek survey showed 81% of
consumers do online research prior to purchasing.2
Content marketing is one of the most affordable, doable, and measurable
digital marketing techniques utilized today. According to a recent Content
Marketing Institute survey, 88% of both B2C and B2B businesses use
this impactful digital marketing method.3
The biggest budget benefit to content marketing is it requires the
resources most agencies already possess. In this whitepaper, we’ll cut
through the myriad of (often overwhelming) advice out there and focus in
on the content tactics and tools that work. With the right tools and team,
independent insurance agencies can create, implement, and track an
effective content marketing strategy.
1
http://www.independentagent.com/Resources/AgencyManagement/ACT/Pages/marketing/Internet/2013-Agency-Website-Survey-Results.aspx
2
http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/81-shoppers-conduct-online-research-making-purchase-infographic/208527
3
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/2016_B2B_Report_Final.pdf
To add to the problem,
66% of agencies budget
only 1-5% for marketing.
of the most
effective marketers
have clarity on
their content
marketing success3
79%

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Part I : Tools
Part II : Strategy
Part III : Execution
Part III : Measurement
Conclusion
Digital Marketing on a Budget:
Table of Contents

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Tools
A simple web search yields dozens of
ways to enact digital content marketing.
Some call for expensive tools or require
bolstering staff with strategists and
writers, and neither is practical for a small
business. High impact and low budget is
possible with the right resources.
Website
A strong website is foundational for any content marketing strategy.
It serves as the magnet to draw people in and the target at which
to point your external efforts. Focus your initial efforts on creating a
website that will have maximum impact.
Email or Marketing Automation Platform
An email marketing platform is a tool for creating, sending, and
tracking the impact of emails sent to your constituents. Quality
platforms provide customizable templates, making your messages
stand out.
A marketing automation system provides a wider look at digital
interactions. Similar to an email marketing platform it implements
and monitors digital marketing efforts. But the field is larger: email
campaigns, website engagement, and social posting are all tracked
in one tool. Besides monitoring touchpoints, marketing automation
provides lead scoring and the ability to automate marketing strategies.
Social Media Pages
According to our Agency Marketing Survey, social media proves
the best way to reach an audience, with LinkedIn, Twitter, and
YouTube ranked as top three3
. Social media can be used to expand
your content’s reach, help you gain ideas for content, and provide
additional avenues for customer interaction.
To have maximum impact,
your website must
n Clearly communicate your
agency’s purpose and
differentiator
n Be findable (SEO friendly)
n Be responsive / easy to view and
navigate on all mobile devices
n Employ strong calls to action
n Track visits and interactions
n Link to your social media sites
n Be updated frequently (a blog is a
good way to do this)
Note:
To maintain brand integrity
on social accounts and your
website, all new branding
content added to your
website should be integrated
with your social media
platforms.
Social
Media
Publishing
websiteemail,
marketing
automation
platform
Social
Media
Pages
Customer
Relationship
Management
(CRM) System
Google
Keyword
Planner

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Tools,continued
Social Media Publishing
Hootsuite and other social media publishing tools allow you to
schedule social posts in advance. Most offer impact tracking, number
of likes, retweets, views, comments, and shares.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System
A CRM tool tracks customer and prospect engagement and
their progress in your sales funnel. For most agencies an agency
management system operates as a CRM, but others may use an
additional tool. A CRM is critical for monitoring your strategy’s
impact, tracking how prospects found you and what is moving them
through your sales pipeline.
Google Keyword Planner
Use Google Keyword Planner to identify the high impact keywords
for your website, social posts, and content. This tool analyzes search
phrases and shows you what is searched most often—valuable
knowledge for your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts.
While website hosting and email/marketing automation require an
initial investment, the other tools have free service options to help
keep costs down. Even these small costs are quickly recouped once
your content marketing gains momentum and brings in new business.

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Strategy
Any successful marketing strategy
requires good planning—and planning
starts with goal setting. Goals will inform
both strategies and success measures.
Ask yourself,
n What, specifically, do we want our marketing efforts
to accomplish?
n How will we measure success?
SIS survey respondents
named the following as 2016
top marketing goals:
n Convert a higher percentage of
prospects
n Retain existing clients
n Increase agency awareness

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Identify Your Audience
After establishing goals, the next step
is to know and understand your
audience. You are the expert on your
agency, and through a few simple
steps can set your own goals without
spending a cent.
In some regards, your goals will define
your audience. For example, if your goal
is to cross-sell or renew more accounts,
your audience will be comprised of
your current clients. If your goal is to
generate new leads, your audience will
be comprised of prospects with little to
no knowledge of your agency.
In either case, get beyond the title “client,” or “prospect” to
understand who that person on the other end of your marketing
effort really is and the drivers that would influence a buying
decision.
Start with the basics: age, gender, income level, address,
marital status, etc., then dive a little deeper to get to the drivers.
Marketers call this the buyer persona—defined by HubSpot as
“a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on
market research and real data about your existing customers.”4
You may find that your buyer persona is not the same for each type
of insurance you sell. Auto insurance buyers needs differ from home
or renter’s insurance buyers. Selling commercial or niche insurance?
Identify the characteristics in each market.
Insurance Persona Examples
n “Good Driver, Discount Seeker”:
Married, early 40s individual with
a clean driving record who insures
their spouse and home with the
same agency. They have filed no
claims and are seeking a discount
for their good record.
n “Business Owner, Looking for
Low-Cost Quality Coverage”:
Long-time business owner looking
to save money without losing
coverage quality. Seeking liability,
worker’s comp, and property
damage coverage for mid-sized
business.
n “High Risk, Seeking Good
Coverage”: Single, early 30s
individual who travels a lot for
work. Their company covers
insurance costs, so they are
seeking high coverage for their car
and their home, which is located in
a high-risk area.
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-definition-under-100-sr

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Solidify Your Message
Once you know who your audience
is, concentrate on what you want to
say in your marketing. The answer is a
combination of the services you offer
and how you provide a unique value in
those services.
Ask yourself:
n What is it we offer to clients?
(services)
n Why do we do it? (mission)
n How do our clients benefit from
what we have to offer? (value)
Survey your whole agency to address these questions. The more
information you gather, the better. This exercise can also serve as a
way to get your whole staff invested in marketing.
If you can’t understand your messaging neither will your prospects,
and your marketing will suffer. Take time to document your
messaging—and make sure everyone responsible for marketing or
selling at your agency is able to communicate it consistently.

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Craft Your Editorial Calendar
Start by brainstorming the key topics that
will appeal to your audience. There are a
number of no-cost ways to do this: reach
out to producers to see what questions
they get asked most frequently, read
industry publications, or use tools like
Google Keyword Planner or BuzzSumo
to see what topics are trending.
It’s okay to use content from other organizations for
inspiration and details, just be sure to credit sources.
Once you have topics identified, move on to format. How do you
want to present the content? Options include blogs, infographics,
videos, and whitepapers, among others. There are multiple options
for content creation. Each has its use, but the purpose remains the
same: provide something valuable to the user and tie that value to
your agency.
Next, identify how you want to distribute content. Web, email,
newsletters, and social media are just a few potential channels.
Distribute your message as many ways as you can, starting with
the channels you’ve identified as most relevant to your audience
personas.
Next, identify who on your team will create each type of content.
Finally, think about distribution frequency and document intended
publication dates. This will vary by persona—with some you may
find weekly content effective while others desire daily updates.
To keep a steady cadence, all calendars should be created months
in advance and be updated regularly.
Content Calendar
Checklist
Be sure to include:
n Key topics
n Content format
n Delivery mechanism
n Author
n Frequency
n Publication dates
Note:

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Execution
Once the foundational strategy pieces
are in place, it’s time to execute.
In general, there are three main methods
for executing your strategy:
Email Marketing
Use your agency database to compile email lists, breaking them into
personas. For each list, craft a slightly different email, adjusting
it to speak to that specific group. For example, your long-time
customer persona email may thank them for their years of business,
while an email to new prospects might highlight the services your
agency offers. Once messages are ready, send a test version to
employees to catch errors.
Social Media Marketing
Different social platforms will speak to different audience groups. Use
the right channels to reach each persona, sending messages at the
highest impact times.
For example, if you’re targeting millennials looking for first time home
insurance, Twitter is your best bet for interaction.
However, if you’re targeting business owners for commercial insurance,
you may fare better on LinkedIn.
Regardless of the channels you choose, create and maintain a branded
profile for each. Too many make the mistake of creating a profile just
for posting, and add nothing to it. This is something a member of your
marketing team should manage. The profile should display your agency
logo, mission, and website, and be regularly updated.
SEO Marketing
Your website is your content hub and where all your audience members
will ultimately land. SEO marketing can help get prospects to your
site through search, and the content you create is part of that SEO
optimization.
Social Platform Tips
LinkedIn
n “How To” and statistics-based
articles perform well
n Be specific about how you share:
publicly, with specific connections,
or with professional groups
Twitter
n Employ hashtags so users can
find content (i.e. #insurance
#riskcoverage)
n Be succinct—need to pack a lot in
a small space
Facebook
n Use photos to boost views
n Share relevant articles to get
conversations started in comments

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO doesn’t have to be scary.
Writing for search engine optimization means creating
content that can be easily read and understood by search
engine web crawlers. Once you’ve identified your high
impact keywords, use them in content titles and the first
paragraph of pieces to increase your search engine ranking.
The more relevant your webpage, content, or social post
is to keywords used in a search, the higher it will rank on a
search page.
Steps to SEO
Friendly Writing
n Identify keywords relevant to your
site with tools such as Google
Adwords
n Use keywords in page titles, first
paragraphs on pages, and image
descriptions
n Keep content short (500-700
words)
n Employ lists and headings
n Keep content fresh

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Measurement
As soon as content is distributed, start
tracking its impact. Go back to your
goals. Establish a baseline and track
progress on each distribution channel.
Use your tools’ built-in tracking to compare
month over month to see what you’re
doing right and what you need to improve.
SEO
Use your website analytics tool to track page visits and views. Sync
this information with your agency management system or CRM to get
a complete picture of audience engagement.
Email
Tracking is easy thorough an email or marketing automation platform.
Get to know the ins and outs of it, and test out different styles,
subject lines, and mailing times to find the right blend.
Social media
Social marketing can be a pain to track when employing multiple
social channels, but a marketing automation or a social media
publishing tool can help. Like email, test out different posting times
and wording to see what gets the most hits.
Track to improve
Report progress weekly and monthly on your area of focus to get a
good picture of how your efforts are proceeding. When setting your
goals, break them into certain benchmarks. This incremental change
will add up to big growth.
Pay attention to and address why you are or aren’t hitting your goals.
It is this continual evaluation and adjustment that makes for a winning
marketing strategy.
Metrics to Measure
SEO Marketing:
n How much traffic is my website
getting?
n How many hits to the blog?
n How many leads are coming
monthly?
Email Marketing
n What are the numbers we hit in
terms of Open %? Click-Thru
Rates? Response Rates?
n How many forms are filled out after
I send an email?
Social Marketing
n How many followers do
I have now?
n How many re-posts/re-tweets
do I get?

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Conclusion
With content marketing, effective digital marketing is
attainable for an agency of any size or market. Once
you start moving on your strategy, the key is to keep the
momentum. A small initial investment in the right tools
means your agency can keeping building on your content
marketing without spending an extra dime.
To stay on top of your progress, continually work ahead in
your content calendar, giving at least a month’s breathing
room to allow for adjustments and improvement. Established
processes help here: have a defined procedure for content
creation, review, distribution, and tracking. Be sure to
continually gain data on audience interactions, and use this
to inform your future content plans. There is no silver bullet:
only your agency’s consistent efforts will yield results.
With these established marketing processes, your agency
can finally stop wondering, “what’s our plan?” and start
asking “where can we go next?”

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About SIS
Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Strategic Insurance Software (SIS) is
the team behind Partner XE. Built on a foundation of strong technology and
exceptional service, we’re moving forward with a constant eye on innovation
that will make independent agents’ lives easier.
About Partner XE
Supporting downloads from nearly 325 carriers, real time interaction,
integrated agency accounting, and much more, Partner XE is a full-featured
agency management system at an affordable cost for the independent
insurance agency. For more information, please visit www.sisware.com.
A special thank you to our partners at NuGrowth Digital for their
assistance in pulling together this white paper. For more information
on NuGrowth and content marketing in general, please visit their
website at www.nugrowth.com.