As Director of Client Services, I work with and for
our independent insurance agency clients to provide the top agency management
system tools and training. Our team has worked with agencies across the
country, collaborating with teams of all sizes and experience levels to help
them achieve their desired outcomes of productivity, effectiveness and
profitability.
It’s challenging to make a business stand out in any market. When it comes to insurance agency marketing, this can be particularly challenging due to the industry’s nature. How can you differentiate your agency when all agencies provide such similar services? While quality customer care, price, and ease of service are helpful, they can only so far.
How can you make your agency stand out? Consider
finding your niche.
Why Finding Your Agency Niche Matters
A recent
McKinsey & Co survey found agencies should focus on “well-articulated
value propositions targeted at a small number of customer segments…that require
more specific advice, tailored products and a greater degree of service.” Another
survey showed close to 50% of “middle-market insurance agencies”
specialized in products or industries, and that number is expected to rise to
two-thirds by 2022.
Why have so many agencies turned to specialization?
To make themselves stand out in a saturated market. When you’re known as “the
agency that does ‘X'” you have something that makes you known.
Specialization helps agency branding and Google ranking, too.
Targeting a niche market also improves service. With
a niche market, you can focus more time on one area, learning the ins and outs
of that product or industry. Greater expertise allows you to be nimbler so you
can see what’s coming and adjust your coverage and services faster than others.
And, it’ll speed up your workflow as you get to know client needs, processing
coverage and claims quicker.
For specialization to be effective, you need to be
methodical in identifying and leveraging your niche. The steps are relatively
straightforward:
Identify your agency niche. Look at your book of business and determine specializations. Target a service or product in which you have a relatively high amount of business and one in which you see growth potential. Niche areas include:
Emergency vehicles fleets
Online commerce businesses
School districts
Family farms
Active military members
Learn how to serve your niche. Analyze
data from your CRM, marketing automation, or other data tools to identify
marketing tools and methods that resonate with your niche market. You may also
consider hiring an outside agency to conduct market research.
Adapt your website. This is where
your Google ranking comes into play. Add keywords associated with your niche to
your website URL, include it in the homepage name, and create pages and posts devoted
to your niche. The more related keywords you have on your site, the higher you’ll
climb in Google.
Market your niche. The final step is
getting the word out about your specialty—leverage marketing
automation to post on social media and create email campaigns around your
niche. Get in touch with clients and ask them for referrals in your niche area
and testimonies about your service. The more you can spread the word, the
better.
Whether it’s an integrated
CRM, marketing
automation, or website
upgrade, the Partner Platform team has the tools you need to identify and
leverage your niche for maximum market impact. With custom
dashboards and reporting and targeted training and customer support, the
Partner Platform team and system can help you understand your agency niche and
help you better serve your customers.
Find out more about how our team can help your
agency succeed. Get in
touch at [email protected] or 800.747.7005,
Option 6.
If you describe your insurance agency management
system as “fine,” you’ve got a problem. Something so central to your agency
operations should be operating at a higher level than “okay.” If you’re
patchworking numerous systems from accounting to doc sharing with your
management system or relying on a self-created workaround to make your system
function, you need to take a step back and ask, “Is ‘fine’ good enough for us?”
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