The document discusses how digital marketing is still a mystery to the insurance industry. It states that while agents are feeling the effects of digital disruption, insurance carriers and agency owners have been slow to adopt digital marketing strategies. The author believes the insurance industry needs to take lessons from successful online marketers and focus on education, building tools for target markets, and sharing client stories in order to better connect with customers online. However, leadership and a change in mindset is required at insurance companies before digital marketing can be fully realized.

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http://www.ryanhanley.com/insurance-industry-digital-marketing/
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Why Digital Marketing is Still a
Mystery to the Insurance Industry
(and how to fix it)
by Ryan Hanley | Connect on Twitter here
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professionals.
Why do I get frustrated?
Well… for those of you that don’t know, in real life I’m the Director of Marketing
for The Murray Group Insurance Services, Inc. A local, family-owned independent
insurance and financial services firm located in Albany, NY.
What I talk about here, on this blog, is battle tested strategies I’ve put into use
marketing my insurance agency online. When I write about a content marketing
strategy or social media network, it’s not some opinion I pulled out of thin air to gain
traffic or sound smart. It’s because I’ve implemented the strategy or tactic inside a
real, local small business with either success or failure.
…and being that my small business is an insurance agency, I’m in the unique
position to have a qualified opinion on the level of effort and understanding put
forward by my industry in marketing insurance products online.
Insurance Industry Digital Marketing
So here we are, more than halfway through the year 2013, and the vast majority of
independent insurance agents, carriers and industry professionals still don’t have a
grip on the ridiculously profitable opportunity that exists in the digital world.
The problem lies in where the pain is located.
Right now the pain is located with the boots-on-the-ground agents, not the
insurance carriers and not the agency owners (often referred to as agency
principals). Agents are baring the brunt of the digital storm.
The seeds of a decade of GEICO commercials commoditizing insurance products has
taken root deep within the brains of American insurance consumers.
Families (think home and auto insurance) are shopping their insurance more
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…the battle has already begun.
And we’re losing.
But luckily there are agents willing to stand up and fight back, Brent Kelly, Jason
Cass, Chris Paradiso, Joey Giangola, Claudia McClain, David Berry, Carrie
Reynolds and Keith Laskey to name just a few. Put on that list all the insurance
professionals who frequent the Inbound Insurance Marketing community on Google
Plus.
These agents are doing what most insurance industry professionals have neglected
to do so far…
…they view selling insurance online the way an Internet Marketer would. Because
that’s we are!
As an industry we’re so worried that by embracing digital marketing, using the
tactics, strategies and tools of classic Internet Marketers, that somehow we’re giving
away our value.
WRONG!
The Connected Generation consumer expects business to be done using the tools of
2013. Yet insurance carriers (and many agents) are still forcing their clients to use
tools and methodologies from the 20th century.
We must stop looking at each other for the answer to marketing insurance online
and study industries who’ve already been successful.
What makes the information product or course an Internet Marketer sells so much
different from an insurance policy?
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Sometimes I dream of what it would be like to work for a Travelers Insurance, Chubb
or The Hartford. The things we could achieve with the budget and infrastructure of
one of these behemoths…
…we could change the course of an industry.
I don’t work for a large insurance carrier, but if I did, here are three initiatives I’d put
into place day one:
#1 Focus on Education
I would become a Wiki for every insurance product I sell. Not boring corporate
insurance barf speak information… but real life, human beings talking about
insurance products the way real people talk about things. I would pick apart every
single concept no matter how big or small and explain its impacts on customers. I
would do this in every content medium possible, video, text, podcasts and images.
IMPACT: By educating insurance consumers on their terms and in their language
we’d be helping them become more comfortable with the products they’re
buying. Making us a resource and not a transaction.
#2 Build Tools to Help Target Markets
I would then begin building resources around the target markets we served. If say,
restaurant insurance, were a focus of our business, I would create products, services
and resources beyond insurance. We want our clients to be successful, let’s help
them become successful. Why not build the most robust Restaurant Safety course
available online and offer it free… to everyone, client or not?
IMPACT: By providing resources in addition to insurance within target markets
we become more than an insurance supplier. We become a trusted partner.
#3 Tell Client Stories
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create our own news telling positive stories of insurance and addressing the
negative head on.
IMPACT: By highlighting our clients and agents stories we’ll begin to change the
belief that insurance carriers are the enemy and empower our clients to spread
our message as they spread their own.
The Rub
How do I know these strategies would work?
This is exactly what I do every day in my small, local insurance agency to outrank
insurance carriers that make 100 times in a day the revenue we create in a year. You
don’t need a huge budget to be successful.
So here’s the rub, as an industry we’re primed for success. Insurance industry digital
marketing success is NOT unattainable, nor do we have to wait long to achieve
results.
But we need leadership…
…and belief,
…and cooperation,
…and action.
But it all starts with leadership, at every level and in every organization. The
snowball is gaining momentum.
Thank you and Good luck,
I am Ryan Hanley
12/2/2013 7:16 PM

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Drop Some Knowledge
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Tell me why I’m wrong… Tell me why digital marketing doesn’t work… Tell me why
my plan can’t be successful …
image credit: http://society6.com/product/Stepping-into-mystery_Print
Why Digital Marketing is Still a Mystery to the Insurance Industry (and how to fix it)
by Ryan Hanley
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DROP SOME KNOWLEDGE:
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Top comments
Ryan Hanley via Google+ 5 months ago (edited) - Shared publicly
Day Dreams of Insurance Marketing Success
Sometimes I dream of what it would be like to work for a Travelers Insurance, Chubb or The
Hartford. The things we could achieve with the budget and infrastructure of one of these
Read more (13 lines)
+9
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· Reply
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Christopher Paradiso 5 months ago +3
4
Ryan because your giving back to our great industry and you realize we are not competing
against each other but rather we are competing against direct writers. Keep up the great work
Katie Peet 5 months ago +1
2
I do work for a carrier, and I am taking this blog post to heart. Thanks Ryan!
Brent Kelly 5 months ago - Shared publicly
Ryan, thanks for the shout out. I am currently at a producer councils meeting with a super regional
company. They want specific feedback from agents and I will be sharing my thoughts along with
article. You are doing some super work. This is a spot on post.
+3
4
· Reply
Theron Mathis via Google+ 5 months ago - Shared publicly
Excellent!
+2
3
· Reply
Carrie Reynolds 5 months ago - Shared publicly
+Ryan Hanley- what a beautiful dream it is....But as we've discussed many times before, until the
top leadership of the insurance companies start to make a fundamental shift in their understanding
of today's consumers, you won't have the revolution you so desperately seek. At least from the
company standpoint. Also corporate bureaucracy doesn't lend itself well to innovation- too many
Read more (13 lines)
+2
3
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