If you are an insurance agent who is interested in starting a page on Facebook to help you grow your business, you’ve come to the right place! You will find some tips and tricks below to help you setup your page, promote your business, and create view-worthy content.
Getting Started
Before you can create your business page, you will need to set up a personal Facebook account. (Please note, if you are uncomfortable with having a personal account, you can make a generic page with just your name. You will not need to include any personal information or photos if you do not choose to do so.) Once you’ve set up your personal page, Facebook offers a great step-by-step tutorial for getting started with your (separate) page for your business. You can locate this by clicking here.
Call-to-action Button
You may also want to set up a button on your account. A button, such as the one on NCC’s page (shown below) will provide your audience with a call-to-action. For example, do you want people to contact you through your website? You can set up a link through the button which directs users to a “Contact Us” page on your site. You can also use the button to ask people to send you a message over Facebook, or an email, or direct viewers to make a purchase or register for an event.
To create your button, select the icon in the upper right part of your screen. Once you move the mouse over the button, you can click “edit button” to change your settings. There is also a “test” option to make sure it is working properly.
Facebook Ads
You can also create a Facebook Ad account. This account will allow you to “boost” your posts. You can boost a post starting at $5, which basically gives you an opportunity to select the area, age, and gender of your target audience, and makes the post show up in the newsfeed of people who meet that criteria. This is a very effective way to expand your audience, or get more people interested in a product or promotion.
Make sure you provide your audience with a very clear call-to-action in the boosted post, ie: would you like people to call or email you to discuss rates? Please note, when you spend money to boost your posts, your goal is grow your audience, so it is best to promote something which is linked to a specific advertising or sales goal for your company. You can also promote your entire page if you wish. To get started, simply click the “Promote” button on the bottom left side of the main screen as shown below.
Content
Content is of course, very important for keeping your audience engaged. I like to create a variety of posts involving 1.) Direct Advertising 2.) Indirect Advertising and 3.) Branding techniques. Direct advertising is of course, promoting your business or a specific product or service. For indirect advertising, the content can be completely generic, such as posting a relevant and timely news article, or a community event. For example, when Pat Summit passed away, I posted an article celebrating her life and legacy. Not only did we reach people who are interested in insurance, but it caught the attention of sports fans in other industries as well. When people shared the article our audience grew. For branding, I also have found it is very helpful to post business or motivational quotes. I place these quotes on a generic background and put our logo on them (although do make sure you are violating copyright laws!). People tend to share these types of posts often.
In general, videos tend to be an effective tool for advertising on Social Media. If you can, consider creating short, 45-second video clips describing a product or service your company offers. Videos tend to get more engagement than posts that contain text alone. Also, if your post includes a picture, you tend to get more of a reaction from your audience than text by itself.
Remember, as long as you are posting content your readers like, you will get your name out there when people share your post and by that you can reach a much broader audience of potential clients (see below).
For more ideas on content, there is a page dedicated to social media posts for insurance agents. Visit this site, which is updated frequently: http://www.insurancesplash.com/facebook/.
Viewing Results
To see how your page is doing, you can click the Insights button at the top of your page. This will allow you to not only view your business page, but you can compare your results with your competitors. You will also notice that you have a Notifications tab at the top of the screen which shows when someone Likes or shares your post.
You can also click People from the left side of the screen under the Notifications tab to view information about your target audience, such as their gender and location.
Check back for more blogs on how to grow your insurance business or visit our Carriers and Products page to get contracted and start growing your business today!
