Creating Insurance Agency Content for Your Facebook Marketing
We hear the statement all the time that “you must create content.”
So as a speaker I get the question “what should I create and how should I create it?”
Let’s face it, that is the million dollar question.
Over the next several posts I am going to talk about and describe to you how to create content for Facebook.
The team members at GROW, has our own unique talents. Ryan Hanley is a great content creator (probably the best on the planet) and uses many different avenues to get his content out, I would say his favorite avenue is Google+, He also does podcasting through his Content Warfare blog.
I on the other hand use two different places to get my content out. One is through my website (blog) and the other is through my Facebook page.
I am now going to show you how to create engaging visual insurance agency content and use Facebook to distribute that content.
Before we get started let’s list the content that can be created on Facebook:
1. Images/infographics
2. Text
3. Videos
4. Website/blog
5. Podcast
6. Sharing others content
Below is a great infographics (infographics are one of the most powerful ways to create content that is engaging and appealing, we will discuss this below) from Postplanner that illustrates the way content is delivered.
As you can see it shows it like it is.
Today in this blog we are going to talk briefly about images.
Images as Insurance Agency Content
You have heard it said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and you know that is true.
Humans are visual by nature and this is why 240 million photos per day are uploaded to Facebook! And Facebook Edgerank tells us that of all the types of content listed above, pictures are the number one clicked/engaged pieces of content on Facebook.
Infographics
Infographics tell a story.
The best way to describe it in my mind is that infographics are a visual blog post. You take 5-10 points of information and turn them into a picture that gives the information to the client while letting them consume it in their own mind.
I have also heard it said:
Infographics (information graphics) is the display of information in such a way that it can be easily understood at a glance.
Above is an infographic and here is another one..
Pretty neat right?
Infographics are growing bigger everyday and are a great engaging way for you to get your word out through content, plus it just looks professional.
Images with quote
Everyone loves quotes, you probably do as well.
Share photos that have quotes on them. They make your fans take notice…and help them digest an idea.
Anything that gives them a good feeling means they are more than likely going to engage with it… they are also more likely to share it as well!
Every time they share it, so do they your agency..
Don’t even tell me this image would not make you to take action… yep action… build your book action baby!!
Images that are eye catching
As people look at their news feed they see so much content as they scroll they are not looking at every post, usually their eyes are fixed on who the post is from..think about how you do it. But if the post has an appealing image the brain can’t help but stop and look.
When this happens they are more likely to read the post and take notice of what the post is about… always make your post about something.
See the photo below…
This image is eye catching…who ever see’s something like this? Have you? So posting this is going to make you take note, especially if you are who?
A motorcycle rider.
Then look at the date I posted it…April 11th. That is prime time for people to want to ride their motorcycles… at this time of year they are dying to get their bikes out and ride.
They are also getting ready to renew their motorcycle insurance… and guess what? I happen to write motorcycle insurance.
Look at the comments and shares… needless to say this worked.
Let’s be real…content is great, but sales are what we are after!
Images that are funny and amusing
Another type of image that will get people to pay attention are images that are funny… but you already know this. People like funny stuff… but here is the catch.
I see a lot of people using too many funny images that do not have anything to do with insurance. If you want to use a funny cat picture and it has nothing to do with insurance, this should be used very, very rarely.
Users news feeds are busy and full and they are always looking to weed out the post/content that is annoying. (When they do this it causes your EdgeRank score to lower due to what Facebook calls “Negative Feedback”) Be selective in the funny images you use. If it has to do with insurance and is funny then use it.
See image post below..
As you can see this post received a lot of engagement. It is totally relevant to insurance and is funny and a little eye catching.
Finally…
Images of your office/business
Images of your office and the people who work there are super powerful.
Images of your staff for birthday’s, holiday’s, special occasions, renovations, etc are awesome and powerful to the Facebook user. It makes your business a real breathing organism… you lose the image of just being a stuffy insurance agency.
People want to connect with you, show them the things around the office that no one sees and they will feel open to you and want to engage.
People do business with those they know, like, and trust… show the office and the things that happen during the day and you’ll be surprised at some of the conversation that will happen online and at the local store.
Tool
Picmonkey is an online site that is awesome for images…there you can alter, change, or enhance your own images with color, text, and borders.
I am telling you there is nothing like it… well you might be able to do more with some expensive Adobe program, but for free it is 99% of what you need. If you want the pro version (which I have) it cost $4.50 per month…yeah…that’s right..$4.50 per month!
Next Post
The next post I deliver will be a short one on image sizes.
Have you ever seen a post of an image on Facebook and you could not see the whole image without clicking on it to expand it? That is because Facebook needs your images to be a certain size.
In my next post I am going to help by giving you the optimized images sizes that Facebook requires.
I appreciate you taking your time to read this post to help better your content creation on Facebook. Now go get it!
If you’re looking to truly harness digital marketing to grow your insurance agency click here to join the DIMA Founders List, a special group of insurance professionals who want more out of their online presence.
This has been Jason D Cass of the GROW team.
Share it
Jason, This was a great blog post. Really gained a lot of valuable information. I think a great next blog topic could be the “Do’s and Don’t of Facebook Contests and Give-A-Ways”. I have heard that there are many restrictions to what you can and cannot do but I am not for sure what they are. I am sure a lot of insurance agents and owners would like to know these guidelines as well as some examples that have worked for some agencies. Thank You.
Andrew,
Thanks for the comment.
I agree that would be a good post and I will get that done. I am doing this current series on Facebook content that will last a few more weeks then I will do one on that. You are right, there are a lot of great things to do, yet also a lot of no no’s that agents and agencies need to know.
When it comes to running the promotion or campaign from A-Z this is what we are going to use DIMA for ( Digital Insurance Marketing Academy ) http://growprogram.com/digital-insurance-marketing-academy There we are going to teach you step by step the correct way to run a promotion, we are excited to show the industry how to do it the right way.
Excellent post and sharing of ideas Jason….I love that you folks will prepare infographics as well. I also agree that funny pictures have to be relevant, however, let me pose this question to you; let’s say you have a hilarious pic that would inspire someone to click, you are creative enough to draw obscure relevance, however, people would click on it just to see where it goes – even if they don’t read the caption. (Now you have some viewers that are not interested in your product or service but so many leave our sites in < 30 seconds anyway. )Now you run an ad and pay by 1,000 impressions – good idea to reach goals or bad?
Keep up the good work.
Aaron
Aaron,
In my personal opinion is the NOT what you want. I’ll always take less traffic if that traffic is more qualified. Simple example might be changing out the word, “quote” for “proposal.”
You are going to get more leads by using the word quote.
But there is an argument for the fact that you are going to more qualified or at least a better ratio of qualified to unqualified by using the word proposal.
I’m all for traffic, but if you can help it, you want it to be the right traffic.
Great question.
Hanley
Per your question above is this good to reach goals..probably not the best idea…but..
I agree with a lot of what Ryan says…yet…..There can be an argument that can be made to who is a quality lead/fan/connection/follower and who is not. The prospect is the main deciding factor of that. If you are putting out content of value those who are reading it and consuming it are the ones who are deciding if they jive with who you are as an organization or person. And I believe that people weed themselves out of the process better than we can.
The other part that we forget about is also the friend of the person you may attract. Specifically when it comes to FB. You may attract a prospect as a fan and eventually lose them due to the fit not being there, but in the mean time you are able to reach / connect with their friends and this is the beauty of the social and digital world.
As marketers of our insurance agencies we can do nothing but get our message / promotion out there and attract those of a general target group. Some will fit, some will not.
Great question with no 100% correct answer or opinion.
Jason
Asking questions are truly pleasant thing if you are not
understanding anything totally, but this article offers fastidious understanding yet.