Community-Based Marketing for Insurance Agents

Consumers sometimes tire of seeing ads plastered across billboards, TV, and social media. They want more authentic engagement.

We’re here to say community-based marketing (CBM) is the way to go, especially as an independent insurance agent.

Historically, communities relied on word of mouth. CBM is simply a modern extension of that.

Let’s explore CBM and how it can assist your business.

What Is Community-Based Marketing?

CBM is much less about what you might think of as marketing and more about making connections.

Marketers phrase their definitions of community-based marketing in many different ways. Essentially, this marketing type is as the name implies: marketing that occurs within communities through:

• Open communication
• Shared experiences
• The exchange of values
• The creation of mutual meaning

The end goal of a community-based marketer is to identify and fulfill the needs of a community. It’s not to sell a certain number of policies or products.

The end goal of a community-based marketer is to identify and fulfill the needs of a community. It’s not to sell a certain number of policies or products.

CBM isn’t as easy to implement and track as social media campaigns or direct mailers but needs to be part of your marketing strategy anyways. Why?

Amid rising concerns about technology and AI, people are increasingly craving authentic connection. CBM naturally delivers this while also strengthening your presence in your local community.

What Defines a Community?

If you’re going to market in communities, you need to understand what one looks like. Just because a group of people gather doesn’t make them a community. To earn the title, a community must be a space where people:

• Share values and interests
• Create meaning and a sense of belonging

The space where we foster community can be online or offline. Sometimes these communities are right under your nose in your immediate geographical vicinity. In fact, you may already be part of one!

There’s also something called a brand community, a relatively new concept that’s been on the rise in tandem with CBM.

Brand communities tap into the social and emotional needs of members.

While you don’t need to build a full-scale brand community, the concept shows how powerful the shared identity that CBM provides can be.

Why Consider Community-Based Marketing?

You might be asking yourself, “Well, why should I even consider community-based marketing?” The following reasons make this unique type of marketing something that may be worth your while.

Brand on a Budget

Marketing on a small business budget can be a difficult task. Community outreach allows you to:

• Gain visibility
• Build relationships
• Bring in new business with minimal investment
• Set yourself apart from the competition

With these options in mind, you can expand your business’s brand without spending thousands of dollars on marketing ideas that only might help.

Even on a slim budget, you can find new ways to create a sense of place and tailor your business strategy.

Localize Your Business

As a small business, you already have inroads to people in your local community, giving you a competitive advantage over larger corporations based elsewhere.

But are you leveraging your connections and targeting your outreach to what resonates the most with your local clientele?

Serving your community is a great way to meet new people to hear what others feel and think about insurance trends, issues, and decision making.

Serving your community is a great way to meet new people to hear what others feel and think about insurance trends, issues, and decision making. The people serving with you could be your next lead, referral, or mutually beneficial relationship.

Prospects and clients will eventually hear about and admire what you do in the community via social media and word of mouth.

Gain Trust

Prospects don’t choose who they do business with based solely on product. They look for someone who reflects their core values.

Prospects don’t choose who they do business with based solely on product. They look for someone who reflects their core values.

In a world where insurance has become transactional, you have the power to stand out as the local, human connection clients need to navigate health care choices.

Your community involvement is a strategic way to humanize insurance, improve public perception and build awareness of your brand, and acquire loyal clients.

Remember, people do business with people and make decisions emotionally. In the end, generously offering your time and establishing yourself as a local mainstay may help show people they can trust you to handle complex insurance decisions and management.

Share Your Story

Once you’re involved, it’s important to keep others in the loop.

Publishing press releases, blog posts, and social media updates are all great ways to raise awareness about your activities and how you’re setting yourself apart.

Spreading the word is how you turn your kindness into a marketing component that builds your brand and your book.

Community involvement is not something that you should look at as a transactional event. It’s all about building relationships.

Community involvement is not something that you should look at as a transactional event. It’s all about building relationships. Seeing it only as a cash cow will lead to initial disappointment, as profiting from it will take a while.

Where and how you spend your time should mean more than the business it may bring.

Let CBM Influence Your Other Marketing

CBM is not traditional or digital marketing (although it might involve them to an extent). Let us be clear: traditional and digital marketing still need to play a role in your marketing strategy. It may just not be the only role.

The mindset you’ll cultivate as a community-based marketer should inform how you utilize other approaches. Make your traditional and digital marketing as much about emotional connection as possible.

Consider this marketing emotional continuum:

When a client feels an emotional connection to you, we believe they’re more likely to have higher customer satisfaction, give you their loyalty, promote you to others, and believe in (and buy) your products.

Humanizing your business through relationships can show your clients that you care more about them as a person with unique needs than about potential profit.

When a client feels an emotional connection to you, they’re more likely to have higher customer satisfaction, give you their loyalty, promote you to others, and believe in (and buy) your products.

Where Do You Find Community?

This might sound all well and good, but where can you find these communities? You have two options.

If you’re really gung-ho, create your own communities, or engage in communities to which you’re already connected.

Create Your Own

Establishing your own communities takes time and genuine interest. However, it can be one of the most effective ways to practice this marketing strategy. Some examples include:

• A bi-monthly morning coffee and conversation group that you host at the local library. You publicize topics of conversation. Pick those that would be relevant to your clients’ demographic.
• Monthly or bi-monthly bingo or trivia nights you host at your local community center.
• A more direct “Questions about Insurance” group that you host monthly at your office.

It’s helpful to have a partner when forming your own communities, as it can be a big undertaking. If you have downlines, consider asking them to assist you. Find other professionals in your area that cater to the same audience and might be interested in helping you plan and host events.

Tap into Others

You might already be a part of a community or at least know of existing communities you could join where you can plant the seeds of CBM. Some local opportunities could be:

• Your library or local community center that already hosts book clubs
• Bingo or trivia nights
• Hobby clubs
• Exercise groups

Don’t come in just advertising your services, though, and be mindful of any group rules regarding self-promotion. Build the foundation of a relationship first. Your line of work and knowledge on insurance will come up naturally over time.

Your line of work and knowledge on insurance will come up natural over time.

In the future, you’ll be the resident professional for your insurance niche. Some community members may already feel comfortable enough around you to ask questions, express needs, and even employ your services.

Affinity Partnerships

Don’t forget the power of affinity partnerships. If you’re already working with other businesses or organizations in your area to garner leads, reach out to those businesses and make a CBM pitch! Build on the existing relationship and support each other, either joining a community together or starting your own.

How Do You Market in Communities?

We’ve talked theoretically about CBM marketing and provided some examples of communities you can create or join, but you may be looking for some more concrete examples on how to get started with this type of marketing.

There are myriad ways to implement CBM. Before diving into planning an event, take a good look at your mindset.

Change Your Mindset

Cultivating the mindset of a community-based marketer will make or break your long-term success. With CBM, you’re not looking for a certain number of direct mailers to be returned or a certain number of likes on your social media campaign.

You’re looking for authentic relationships, which are much harder to track and quantify. Keep in mind these tenants to develop a strong CBM mindset:

• Listen more than you talk
• Notice the needs of people, expressed verbally or non-verbally
• Ask yourself, “How can I fulfill these needs?”

If you nurture a good mindset, invest the time needed, and focus on emotional connection first, CBM will work its magic. But it’s involvement with a purpose: to seek out needs and fulfill them, not just to socialize and have a good time.

You’re trying to foster an intentional community (not just the general “community” found in your neighborhood, town, or city at large) that has consciousness of kind, rituals and traditions, and moral responsibility.

If you nurture a good mindset, invest the time needed, and focus on emotional connection first, CBM will work its magic.

Be Involved

Instead of boosting the number of clients, write down all the ways you can think of getting involved in a community.

Don’t filter out any ideas during this brainstorming session. There are no wrong answers! Consider some of these:

• Service – Volunteer at nonprofits, organize clean-ups, or partner on fundraisers
• Education – Offer insurance Q&As, speak at senior centers, or run literacy workshops

This list of ideas just scratches the surface! Your list will depend on your personality, interests, budget, and comfort level, among other things. Don’t be afraid to engage communities of all ages, even if your client base is older.

You never know how forming connections with younger people will impact your business in positive ways. You’re building a culture of community involvement, which may bear fruit in surprising ways.

CBM does take a good chunk of time and sustained focus but investing in your selected community should pay back dividends.

After you make a master list of ideas, follow these steps:

1. Start organizing them into a marketing plan.
2. Prioritize some over others.
3. Pursue one at a time and think quality over quantity.
4. Consider your schedule and how much time you can dedicate to your CBM efforts.
5. Draft a timeline.

This method does take a good chunk of time and sustained focus, but investing in your selected community should pay back dividends.

Go Online

Although tapping into existing communities or creating your own will be easier in person (think emotional connection!), you do have the option of exploring CBM online. Digital communities can stand on their own or be part of your in-person efforts.

Some outlets for online CBM include:

• Broadcast educational Facebook live or TikTok videos
• Join Facebook groups about different hobbies, interests, or stages of life
• Post on insurance forums on Reddit
• Utilize community-building apps like Nextdoor
• Read insurance blogs and post comments
• Share content on your social media

In general, creating unique online communities will take more time and effort to foster. Consider joining an existing community to get your feet wet with digital CBM. And remember, your ultimate goal is to listen and notice the needs of others!

What About During Busy Seasons?

During busy seasons like AEP, scale back event-heavy CBM but stay visible. Try some of the following:

• Attend meetings when you can
• Stay active online
• Prep sponsorships early

If you lead one of the communities you’ve joined, assign temporary helpers to keep things running. Light touchpoitns preserve your momentum without draining time.

Expand your marketing mindset to include CBM where you can tap into powerful communities. With that, you can foster a sense of belonging and obligation and provide opportunities to answer the needs of others.

If you’re looking for a supportive agent community, Ritter provides sales support, portfolio reviews, an Ritter’s Round Table Facebook group, numerous online and in-person events, quoting, educational resources, and more. We’d love to have you as part of our community! Register for free today.