With people spending more time online than ever before due to COVID-19, digital marketing strategies, particularly inbound marketing, are becoming even more of a priority across industries. But when insurance brokers think about marketing their services, traditional marketing, such as advertising, networking events, mailings, and word of mouth are still often the first things that come to mind. Unlike traditional marketing focused on brand visibility, inbound marketing is based on creating valuable content, such as helpful social media posts and blogs, that engages online audiences and gets them comfortable and enthusiastic about your services. Traditional marketing strategies can still be effective, but inbound marketing can reach potential clients and get them interested in your company before you even pick up the phone, making the initial outreach a true “warm lead.”

Here are 3 reasons health insurance brokers should be excited about inbound marketing!

• Inbound Marketing Helps You Reach Wider Audiences

Since many brokers are not licensed nationally, it’s common to focus on maintaining clients in their local market. That market could be a single county, a single state, or an entire region of the country. But there is also a big value in marketing to a broader audience outside these geographies – which is a common reason for not pursuing digital marketing strategies. And that’s a misconception. Even if you’re focused on your local market, a digital marketing strategy can help you reach a lot of new clients “globally.” In fact, most B2B consumers want a mix of digital and personal communication – and the bulk of their digital communication is done through research before the first call or meeting. So, putting out online content that is easy for your consumers to find, answers their questions, and represents your community can make a big difference when businesses, whether they are down the street or in another time zone, look for potential partners. If businesses see you being helpful and representing your community online, they will be a lot more likely to look to you when they need insurance!

• Inbound Content Gives You a Head Start

Face-to-face meetings are the most direct route to making a lasting connection with a potential client. But, in our current digital age, actually getting in front of a customer can be challenging for brokers. Another challenge is when you score that first meeting, potential customers often don’t know who you are or aren’t well versed in your business. And when a potential customer doesn’t know you, they might be skeptical of what you have to say. This is why brokers often start building connections at after-hours networking events, where the environment is more relaxed, and they can build trust before the first meeting during business hours. Inbound marketing serves a similar function by giving the people you meet the opportunity to engage with your company prior to the first meeting. Whether it is a video on Facebook or a blog they found while searching the web, people access digital media when it is comfortable for them to do so. And when someone is comfortable, they are more likely to make a positive association with you and your brand. That makes closing the deal that much easier.

• Digital Marketing Allows You to Engage both Individuals and Group Stakeholders

Whether you work mostly with individuals or mostly with large groups, using inbound marketing and inbound sales strategies to target your market and engage them can be wildly effective. Every large group or business is made up of individual buyers. Every HR stakeholder, every executive, and every employee within a business is also an individual buyer. So when you adopt an inbound marketing strategy and create digital content for all these individual buyers to engage with, you are drastically increasing the potential of reaching various company stakeholders and helping them get to know what you do and who you are. Combining this with the overall increase in web traffic due to COVID-19 as previously mentioned, inbound marketing can exponentially grow your reach as a health insurance broker.

Inbound marketing strategies can bring big benefits to you and your brokerage. If you’re interested in learning more about inbound marketing and creating your own strategy, check out HubSpot’s resource page. And as you continue to grow your health insurance brokerage, don’t forget about your CE credits. Click the link below for up to 12 hours of CE credits online for free – it’s on us!