“Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom.”

-Sam Walton

There’s an old axiom that “conventional wisdom” is an oxymoron.

Nowhere is that more true than in the world of insurance marketing. Is that surprising? Google “insurance marketing tips” and you’ll see some 30,000,000+ results.

Not all the tips are going to be good.

In fact, a heck of a lot of insurance marketing tips are written by people who subscribe to out-of-date formulas based on 20^th century thinking. What about insurance marketing in the modern age? If you’re going to make sense of it, you’re going to have to learn which tips to ignore.

Tip #1: “Post on Social Media, Regardless of Your Knowledge or Strategy”

Social media is great. Just about everyone and their grandmother agrees that it’s an innovative new avenue to reach people via advertisement.

But when your tip is simply “advertise with Facebook Ads,” don’t you think that’s missing a little…something?

When someone tells you to advertise on Facebook, they’ll likely point out that Facebook has some 1.79 billion active users (per Statista.com) and almost a billion daily active users.

Is that really supposed to convince us that your advertisements are going to work?

After all, the world is full of 7 billion users, 7 billion of which use the Earth daily. But that doesn’t mean you know how to reach them effectively and give them your insurance marketing spiel.

But we’re not going to throw out the baby with the bathwater here.

Social media is an important avenue for your business. It’s a new advertising platform that if you’re not engaging in, you need to at least consider it.

But “considering it” isn’t enough. You’re going to need an actual method to the madness of social media. That’s why leadPops offers easy to launch funnels—it makes all of the work much quicker and ensures that your social media is actually accomplishing something beyond sending out blanket advertisements.

Tip #2: “Make a Video to ‘Go Viral’”

Whenever you hear someone recommending that you “go viral,” think about it in a new way. Think about it as if they said that you should fall in love.

Going viral isn’t as easy as making a video designed to go viral.

Like the tip above, the concept of making a video actually is valuable. If your video itself is of value to your potential leads—the people looking for insurance.

If it’s not, or doesn’t provide any entertainment value, then people are going to ignore it, and you’re going to be discouraged.

This is where you want your creativity to run wild. Don’t just “make a video.” Sit down and brainstorm some ideas for making a video that people will actually want to watch. Ask yourself questions like:

• What do my customers most ask me about? (Make a video answering these questions)
• What do most people get wrong about the insurance industry? (Dispel some myths!)
• If I had one thing to tell someone starting out in insurance, what would it be? (Dish out the basics!)

Starting from the perspective of your potential customer is far more powerful than simply sitting down and hoping a video will go viral.

Tip #3: “Always Be Closing.”

You know the advice—the one given out by Alec Baldwin’s shady salesman character in “Glengarry Glen Ross”? It’s inspiring to certain people, the idea that you should always look to make the sale.

Forget all that.

Many people do not respond to the high-pressure sales treatment. In fact, it can actively turn some users off. The Wall Street Journal even noted how a “high pressure sales culture” at Wells Fargo spiraled out of control—and that’s not a good thing.

“Always Be Closing,” or ABC, is the relic of a different age.

These days, people want to feel valued. They want a customized experience that makes them feel comfortable about their choices for insurance agent. In all likelihood, you’ve experienced this exact phenomenon when you make your own sales: you don’t always reel in the leads you pressured.

This isn’t to say, however, that you should make no effort whatsoever.

Think about sales on the Internet as “fishing” more than “hunting.” In hunting, you might set a bait, but you actively look for the animal and try to hunt it down. In fishing, you let the fish come to you simply by going to the right spot and making your bait enticing.

Fortunately for you, you have much better intentions with the fish you reel in when it comes to insurance marketing.

So don’t be afraid to set quality bait with real lead generation on your site. Find what attracts people and avoid the “ABCs” of sales.

Tip #4: “Follow Up on Your Leads—Hard”

This tip is like an extension of the “ABC” mindset. People will tell you that you have to follow up on your leads very hard if you’re going to turn them into sales.

The truth is, you only need to occasionally reach out in the right way with email follow-ups if you’re going to succeed.

In this day and age, just about everyone has a fat spam folder full of junk they hardly remember signing up for. If you capture someone in your email newsletter, don’t harass them so much that you make them want to give up entirely and unsubscribe.

Following up on leads should be both simple and gentle. Reach out to them occasionally to let them know you might have a valuable offer for them. Don’t send them two emails a day full of content they don’t care about.

Tip #5: “Find Your Niche”

You’re an insurance agent, not a squirrel looking for a secure place to hide the winter goods. As an insurance agent, you have the right to reach out to people in a big way. Don’t let advice like “find your niche” limit your potential.

At InsuranceJournal.com, one insurance agent’s recommendation for better marketing included making a bigger footprint when it comes to your agency’s scope. Even if you’re a small town insurance agent, that’s no reason that your clients have to be limited to the city limits of that small town.

Don’t be afraid to reach out. Don’t be afraid to branch out. Expand your thinking.

It can start with an effective web presence. No one has to know you’re a small town insurance agent when they look at your website. They just have to see your online presence to know that you’re serious about providing the best insurance services around.

You can start doing that as early as today. Not only should you re-evaluate your own website, but you should try to think of services that can expand your leads beyond your small town and give you access to entirely new markets.

With leadPops, that’s exactly what you can do. Try our free trial today and throw out the old-timey, “traditional” insurance marketing tips that don’t really help you after all. You’ll find that it’s much better to blaze your own trail when you pick the right strategies.