As an insurance agent, the best way you can love and support your community is by providing quality coverage and well-rounded accounts. The more people you insure, the more people you will protect. Community engagement can help you reach your goal of protecting more people in your city or town. This strategy will allow you to support your community while building recognition for your insurance agency. As you become more recognizable, you will have the opportunity to write more policies that will take care of the people in your community.

Let’s go over how you can use community engagement to give back and promote your insurance agency. Then, put these strategies in action, so you can support your neighbors.

Sponsor and Attend Community Events

Sponsoring and attending local events is an excellent way to engage with your community. This will help you build goodwill with the people in your community and make them more aware of your insurance agency.

You likely have a limited time and budget, so spend some time finding the right events to support. Look for events with high attendance rates but few sponsors. Also, make sure the cost of sponsorship fits into your budget. Then, sign up as a sponsor, so you can reach lots of people in the community at once.

Participate in Events

Does your community have any organized events, such as walks or runs? You can participate as an agency. Sign up and then attend, wearing branded clothing. Community members will notice that your team is standing alongside them during the event. That will cause them to see you as more than an agency. They’ll realize you are a valuable part of the community and invested in supporting the people you serve.

Coach a Sports Team

Is there a sports team in your community looking for a coach? You can step in and provide your services. As a coach, you will bond with players and play an essential role in their development. You’ll also build trust with their parents, which is vital as an insurance agent. The relationship can carry over into the insurance world. When their parents are shopping around for insurance policies, they will remember your role as a coach. They’ll already know and trust you, so they’ll be more likely to reach out for your services.

Volunteer at a School

You can also connect with students and parents by helping out at a local school. Some insurance agents choose to run for the school board. Others volunteer in the PTA or other organizations. Identify opportunities in your area and then get involved. Along with parents and students, you will also form relationships with teachers and administrators when you volunteer at a school. These relationships will help you meet your community’s insurance needs.

Have Volunteer Days

Volunteering for non-profits is another fantastic way to support your community. Wear branded clothing and help out at a local animal shelter or another organization. Your team members will grow closer through volunteering, and you will show others that you genuinely care about the community as a whole. By showing your caring side, you’ll prove to others that you’re the right insurance agent for them.

Hold Seminars

You can also support your community by hosting informational seminars. Consider partnering with others to educate the community on the products and services they need to stay safe. You can explain why insurance isn’t just a luxury but a necessity. By highlighting the importance of insurance, you can increase your book of business while helping the community.

Show Your Support By Shopping Locally

You can show your support for the community by shopping at local establishments. Research shows that $0.67 of every dollar you spend at a local business stays in your community. By shopping locally, you’ll show your community that you are invested in its economic success. People will also be more likely to reach out to your agency when they see that you are a paying member of the community.

Remember Important dates

You can also engage in your community on an individual level. Set reminders for birthdays and anniversaries, and reach out to customers on those special days. A simple phone call can go a long way in showing people that you care. When you care about your community on a personal level, people are likely to trust you with their insurance policies. Then, you can cross-sell insurance products that they need to stay safe and secure.

Grow Your Book of Business Through Community Engagement

Your end goal might be to grow your book of business, but that starts with community engagement. Become a visible and helpful member of the community. Build trust and recognition and then serve your community by providing high-quality insurance products.

Is your independent insurance agency known as a jack of all trades – selling a variety of insurance policies without having any real specialty?

Instead of continuing to spread yourself thin, grow your book of business and improve your service by focusing on a niche. Operating within a niche reduces competition and allows you to let your expertise shine. You can fill a gap in the market and increase your revenue with this strategy.

Let’s go over some tips to help you identify a niche that you can use to grow your independent insurance agency.

Consider Your Areas of Expertise

Begin by thinking of your areas of expertise. Think beyond your insurance experience and consider industry knowledge. For example, did you spend time working in the wedding industry? Maybe you adopted a child and know the ins and outs of the adoption process, or you serve an important role in running your church.

You don’t need to have experience selling insurance policies to the niche. Instead, industry experience can go a long way in helping you identify the needs of people who work in specific industries.

Clients want to work with someone who understands their pain points and needs. They don’t want a generalist when buying policies for particular niches.

If you have industry experience, you can then educate yourself on the insurance offerings. Your insurance background will help you navigate the process, so you can become an insurance expert in the niche.

Unlock Your Passion

Having industry experience is one thing, but are you passionate? As a niche insurance agency, you will spend all your time working with people in a specific industry. If that industry doesn’t excite you, you’ll get bored quickly.

Go through all the areas you’re experienced in and cross any off that don’t get you excited. If you aren’t passionate about any industries you’re experienced in, you’ll need to come up with new ideas. Think about industries that you are interested in researching. Make sure that you do a deep dive into the industry, though, since you’ll need to learn as much as possible before specializing in that market.

Make Sure There Is a Need

As a niche insurance agency, you will have a much smaller market. You need to make sure there is a need in your market when you start selling policies to your niche. Conduct market research to determine the number of customers in your area. You also need to consider the average premium that clients in that industry pay. Then, look at the competition. Is the market already served, or can you provide a valuable service?

This will give you a good idea of how much you can make if you work in this niche. If it’s profitable, you know that you’ve selected a good niche.

Don’t Forget About Shoulder Niche Opportunities

Once you pick a niche, think about shoulder niche opportunities. This refers to niche markets that are closely related to your existing niche.

For example, if you decide to sell policies to wedding venues, you can also branch out and reach vendors and suppliers. You will still work inside the wedding niche, but you will be able to sell more policies.

Research the viability of shoulder niches to get an even better idea of how much money you can make.

Research Your Carrier Options

Before you can start selling policies, you need to research your carrier options. Are you currently working with insurance carriers that serve that niche? Can you sell those insurance products to your customers? You might discover that you need new carrier appointments to work in your niche.

Some niche insurance agencies make the mistake of starting out with a single carrier appointment. However, that poses two problems. First, your clients will have a lack of choice. That makes it hard to satisfy their needs. Second, the carrier could stop selling products to your niche market. That means you wouldn’t be able to offer products at all. If possible, get at least three carrier appointments, so you can serve your niche.

Develop a Marketing Strategy

You need a strong marketing strategy to reach customers in your current niche. Consider attending trade shows where companies in your niche will be present. You can also attend local functions and events.

An online marketing strategy is also critical. You can build an insurance agency website catering to your niche. You can also use your insurance agency management system to send text and email marketing messages.

All of your marketing efforts need to focus on the niche. Highlight your expertise to drive up leads to your agency.

Identify Opportunities and Grow Your Agency

These tips will help you identify a niche that allows you to showcase your passion and experience. You’ll be able to serve your clients better, and you’ll also enjoy the excitement that comes with doing something you love.

It’s no secret that the insurance industry is highly competitive. Agencies operate in physical and virtual spaces, fighting to land the same clients. Identifying your unique selling proposition (USP) can help your agency stand out in the saturated marketplace. Your USP will illustrate what sets your agency apart and explain why people should do business with you.

Some agencies try to use their excellent customer service as a USP, but that only gets them so far. You need to go beyond excellent service to stand out. Go over some tips to help you identify a unique selling proposition that will wow your target market and turn them into loyal customers.

Brainstorm Ideas

Start by conducting a brainstorming session with your insurance agents. Create a list of reasons that people choose your agency instead of a competitor.

Maybe your agency prides itself in offering 24-hour customer service when the other independent agencies in your market work bank hours. Your insurance agency might give back to the local community, so each policy is an investment in the area. Maybe your agency offers value-added services that protect clients or uses the latest technology to make the entire process easier.

Remember, there aren’t any wrong suggestions when brainstorming. Open the floor to ideas, and then you can narrow them down as you move through the process.

Read Reviews

You should also read reviews and testimonials to identify your USP. Find out what your existing clients like about your agency. People generally only write reviews if they are exceptionally pleased or extremely unhappy. When they are exceptionally pleased, it’s often because your agency does something that other agencies don’t. In addition to reading your reviews to learn more about how your customers perceive your agency, take the time to respond to those reviews (yes, even the negative ones)! The average consumer isn’t expecting perfection from the businesses that they work with, but they are expecting honesty and integrity – they want to work with individuals and businesses who’ll stand by their work and do what they can to make things right if things don’t go as planned.

Identify Pain Points

Identifying pain points is also a critical component of developing your USP. What keeps people up at night when looking for insurance policies? Are they most worried about protecting their families? Are they afraid of writing high premium checks or making decisions without enough information? By identifying pain points, you can begin to consider ways that your insurance agency can solve their problems.

Review Your Book of Business to Get to Know Your Market

You have some ideas for your unique selling proposition, but will they speak to your target market? Review your existing book of business to get to know your target market. Evaluate the:

• Age
• Income level
• Gender mix
• Policies

This will help you create a USP that appeals to your target market. Keep in mind that the right USP can also help you expand past your current market and reach new people, too.

Research the Competition

At this point, you should have some ideas that set your agency apart. However, you won’t know for sure until you research the competition.

Create a list of the competitors in your market and then review their offerings. If something overlaps, you cannot use that as your USP. For example, do you offer quotes in as little as 30 minutes? That’s a great service, but it won’t make for a good USP if another agency does the same.

After conducting some research, you should come up with several things that set your insurance agency apart. Choose one as your USP.

Create Your USP

You can have the best idea in the world, but if you don’t communicate it properly, it won’t land with your market.

You need your USP to be to the point and assertive. Never create a USP that’s generic, such as “We sell the best policies,” or “Our agency offers the top customer service.” Neither example explains what the agency offers.

The USP should also focus on a customer pain point or value that you provide. This will elicit an emotional response that will help you attract new clients while holding onto your existing book of business.

Also, and possibly most importantly, this needs to be more than a snappy slogan. It’s a promise. At the same time, don’t shy away from hyperbole. You can use words like “best,” “favorite,” and “only” when creating your USP.

Write a draft and then edit it until it’s clear, concise, and memorable. As you do this, make sure that it highlights the benefits, not the product. In marketing, this is referred to as selling the sizzle, not the steak. You need to use benefits instead of insurance policies as your selling point.

Always Deliver on Your USP

Once you create your USP, make sure that your agency always delivers on that promise. If anything changes and you can’t deliver, change your USP to reflect your new business model.

Start Working on Your Unique Selling Proposition Today

The sooner you create your USP, the faster you can begin attracting new business. Start working on it today, and once it’s ready, put it on your insurance agency website and marketing materials.