Social Media’s Role in Retention
“54% of millennials and 44% of Gen-X are likely to check an agent’s or advisor’s social media presence on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.” (LIMRA)
We’ve all heard about social media marketing strategies to acquire new leads and prospects, but have you ever thought about how social media can help you to retain your existing customers?
Having an active and authentic social media presence can have a HUGE impact on your retention rate. (and we all know that sustainable growth doesn’t happen unless your retention rate is healthy.)
Here’s an interesting statistic:
68% of consumers are willing to leave a business due to “perceived indifference.” (Ease)
“Perceived indifference” - not just a bad experience with customer service or a frustrating interaction with a salesperson, but “perceived indifference.”
We should be paying more attention to the issue of perceived indifference!
An active and authentic presence on social media can help shut down some of the perceived indifference your customers may experience - as long as you provide exceptional service and customer experience.
It’s no secret that in today’s day and age, many small businesses, along with almost all medium to large-scale companies, have social media management individuals and even entire TEAMS to take care of their social media activity and strategy.
Maintaining a consistent social media presence can be a lot of work and intimidating to many small business owners.
Your goal with social media doesn’t need to be for you to create a huge following and become an insurance influencer for this to be worthwhile.
Engaging with your customers via the channel(s) that are most convenient for them will help you to grow stronger relationships with them - thus improving your retention rate.
This post is here to give you some quick tips and a list of post ideas for your agency that will engage your current customers and aid in strengthening those precious relationships.
And guess what!
You can implement all of the following tips WITHOUT having to hire a social media expert to curate the “best” content for your page.
Some essential social media tips for retention:
RARELY hard-sell or self promote
Remember, the goal for these organic posts is to engage with your current customers/audience and strengthen those relationships - you don’t need to convince them with words that you’re their best option - SHOW them with the content you post (we’ll get into that in the list below)
Keep posts relevant to current news/local events.
Keep it REAL.
Be authentic to your personal and professional brand when deciding what to post, and don’t be afraid to be a human! Relatability goes a long way on social media.
Post consistently.
Consistency can mean many things - you could post once a day, once or twice a week, etc. Find a consistency that seems to work for you.
Use images & visual aids - NOT just text
Use free online post schedulers to automate part of the process.
What to Post
I’ve looked through many insurance agency Facebook and Twitter profiles to see what type of content they typically post.
Here’s what I found:
Almost everyone shares the content provided by their corporate office.
This looks nice, but if I had a dollar for every nearly identical post I saw across hundreds of insurance agency pages, let’s just say I’d have a lot of money.
You don’t have to scrap these posts altogether, but they shouldn’t be your only activity.
Another common post I see on almost every agency page goes something like this:
“Happy 4th of July(or insert another holiday) from us here at ________ _______ Insurance Agency. We hope you have fun and stay safe during this holiday weekend!”
Like the previously mentioned post, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this one.
However, if that’s the only thing your clients see on your social media page, it’s safe to say you don’t have an active presence.
If this rings true for your agency, don’t worry!
We’ve got a list of 20 different ideas for posts that will build your brand and encourage engagement from your customers - keeping you top of mind, strengthening relationships, and even generating referrals!
Like I said before, these post ideas will focus on reaching your customers organically - I won’t go into paid posts in this article.
1. Educational Content
Empower your customers by educating them. You could educate them on so many different things - here are a few ideas:
Specific policies
Relevant/compelling statistics
Tips for specific policies/risks
(ie. safe driving tips)
Local insurance regulations and what they mean for your customers
Bundling/discount tips
Specific scenarios and coverages
2. Testimonials (with permission, of course)
3. Share customer posts when they tag your agency.
4. Employee/Team Member spotlights or bios
This is a super easy way to help your customers get to know all the different staff members in your agency.
5. Retweet or share content from other profiles/pages
6. New product or service announcements
7. Tutorials on using your app or online service options
8. “Behind the Scenes”
Share a photo or video showing what a day looks like for your team in the office.
9. Contests or Giveaways
Up the ante of your referral program by doing a contest or giveaway!
10. Promote local events
11. Request referrals
12. Promote your clients’ small businesses or products
13. Start a conversation by asking a question or starting a poll.
Then, you can even use the poll results to educate some more!
14. Introduce new employees and team members
15. Shareable information about your agency
You can ask your customers to “share” the post on their profile so that it reaches a broader audience.
16. Ask for Facebook or Google reviews.
17. Charity (whether local or non-local) events and fundraisers
18. Funny memes/trends that relate to your products or experiences in the insurance world
According to Global Web Index, 54% of Gen-Z, 41% of Millennials, and 21% of Gen-X regularly engage with memes on the internet.
Google will be your best friend on this one - here are a few examples I found with one quick search:
19. Current news/events and what they mean for your customers - stay relevant!
20. Emergency info
Sharing instructions for your clients on what to do in an emergency related to their insurance can be very helpful!
Have any other post ideas for retention? Please share them with us in the comments below!
Some of these post ideas came from the following sources:
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