Health insurance agents have to come up with new ways to market their services while working with a minimal budget and also having a large amount of competition including billion-dollar corporations. That’s not an easy field but luckily there are plenty of opportunities for people to offer their services as hundreds of millions of American’s need coverage and most need assistance in getting that coverage.
Marketing is more challenging and expensive than ever and the opportunities to get free marketing are far and few between. To make matters worse, the free platforms have either lost their value as far as organic reach or they simply do not allow you to reach a new audience without paying. These parameters may keep you from landing clients every day, but it doesn’t mean you should avoid these platforms.
There are still proven and innovative ways to market your services as a health insurance advisor. The first thing you must appreciate is the fact that each of these platforms come with instructions or guidance on how to utilize them. Begin with search engines and research how to market on these platforms for free, how to connect with their audiences, verify yourself as an expert in your field and even share your content. These platforms want you to learn the free advantages they offer if only to motivate you to eventually spend money with them. While that may be what you eventually do, it’s nice to know that you still have affordable or even free options that still generate interest like:
- Google business listings: It doesnt really matter what you sell or do, if you have a business or work for yourself, there’s a high probability that you will want Google business listings. It is a free service that Google offers. Not only is it reliable, but the maps and listings features generate thousands of visitors of some businesses each month. Learn what you can about these features and how to maximize their uses.
- Facebook: While Facebook may not give you the freedom to engage followers with updates and new information like it once had, it does still offer a free way to communicate with thousands at a time. Groups are now becoming a popular feature and many are using them to share information about important topics like health insurance.
- Local business directories: Along with Google, there are sites that list local businesses, especially when it comes to services. With ecommerce businesses and corporations dominating the goods side of the market, the majority of small businesses that add to local communities are now service-based. Because of this, local websites will often feature their preferred local experts to help them compete with larger competitors.
- Realtors: Building a community is important and no one believes in that more than a realtor. These men and women have access to thousands of local residents as do you. While cross promotions may not be allowed on all platforms, sharing educational information via social media would certainly be not only allowable, but appreciated to any audience that is able to view the content.
- Linkedin: If you are great at working the computer throughout the day, then LinkedIn is the platform for you. Consider spending four hours a day on the site, connecting with people based on their geo, job title, company they work for or so much more. You can reach or connect with these people for free but it does take time.
- Local newsletters: As with directories, there are dozens of local newsletters floating about either through the mail or through email. This is again where networking can play a big role as you want to target local audiences. Local can mean affordable or even free and if you do not have the money to spend on marketing, these are examples of shortcuts that could be beneficial.
- Amazon: There are programs on Amazon that allow you to publish and promote books. Can you sell health insurance through Amazon? Of course not, but you can promote your brand and your knowledge and offer free information to millions who want to learn about how getting better coverage.
- YouTube: Google rankings are always a nice added bonus for any type of content. YouTube is not only owned by Google, but it is the world’s second largest search engine. Because of that, it is a great place to post content and the best part here is that you do not need to invest in graphics and crazy content strategies. YouTube is where people go to learn via video which means a 20 minute video of you talking about Medicare may get you more viewers than posting a great commercial without a budget on social media.
- Door to door: Not only is door to door marketing still effective, but it is completely free and comes with the added benefit of you not having to be in demand of anything else other than introducing yourself, providing a business card and asking for someones card in return. This personal impression is important, especially in health insurance as businesses and individuals usually prefer someone they can meet with or call directly.
- Emails: While you are grabbing all those business cards you are also building an email list. The phone numbers are actually less valuable now than the email address as this allows you to have non-pushy, but still direct communication with someone. The ability to provide them with updates about health insruance and offer your services if they have any questions gives you a major advantage if and when your services are needed and you did not have to spend your money to build that list.
These platforms and strategies are also utilized by the top competitors in the health insurance field. That’s why adding your actual time to this process is key as it’s what will separate you from other marketing efforts. Remember, health insurance coverage is not something people always are willing to trust to automation. That’s why having that connection with them is beneficial and can build long-term clients.