How to Create a Successful Content Marketing Strategy for Your Insurance Firm

The insurance industry is a competitive marketplace, content marketing provides a powerful tool for insurance firms looking to attract and retain customers. 82% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing. Failure to include content marketing within a marketing strategy could leave your insurance firm at a disadvantage.

By creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content, you can establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and build trust with your customers.

However, creating a successful content marketing strategy is not easy. It requires careful planning, execution, and measurement to ensure that your content is resonating with your audience and drives results for your business.

Step 1: Define your target audience

Before you start creating content, it's essential to understand who you are trying to reach. Who are your ideal customers? What are their characteristics, needs, interests, and challenges? The more you know about your target audience, the better you can tailor your content to aid consumer understanding and meet your audience’s needs and expectations.

Step 2: Set your content marketing goals

What do you want to achieve with your content marketing efforts? Do you want to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, generate leads, or do something else? Your content marketing goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Remember, the customer, and their information needs, should be at the heart of your communications activities and communication strategies should not be based on commercial goals alone.

Step 3: Determine your content marketing budget

Creating and promoting high-quality content can be time-consuming and costly. It's essential to determine how much you are willing and able to invest in your content marketing efforts. This will help you prioritise your resources and make informed decisions about the types of content you create and the channels you use to promote it.

Step 4: Develop a content marketing plan

Now that you have defined your target audience, set your goals, and determined your budget, it's time to develop a content marketing plan. This should include:

A content calendar: This is a schedule of the types of content you will create and when you will publish it. 51% of the businesses that invest in content marketing publish content every day.

A content strategy: This outlines the themes and topics you will cover, the formats you will use (e.g., blog posts, videos, infographics), and the tone and style of your content. Before content is released, communications should be appropriately tested and signed-off to ensure they can be adequately understood by the target recipients.  

The type of content uploaded will vary depending on the products and services your insurance firm offers, however below are some examples:

Blog posts: Insurance firms could create educational blog posts on topics related to their products and services, such as tips for choosing the right coverage, common insurance mistakes to avoid, or the benefits of various types of policies. Ensure the blog post is formatted to avoid large paragraphs as 73% of people admit to skimming blog posts.

Videos: Video is a popular and effective way to engage and inform viewers. Insurance firms could create videos on a range of topics, such as how to file a claim, the importance of insurance for small businesses, or the benefits of different insurance products.

Infographics: Infographics are a visually appealing way to present information and statistics. Insurance firms could create infographics on topics such as the risks of not having insurance, the cost of common insurance claims, or the benefits of insurance for different life stages. However, this must not be presented in a way that exploits customers’ behavioural biases or uses data in a way that misleads people or omits important information.

Case studies & testimonials: Case studies and testimonials are a great way to demonstrate the value of insurance products and services. Insurance firms could create case studies highlighting how their products and services helped a specific customer or business overcome a specific challenge or risk. Insurance firms could also request testimonials from their customers and create content using these testimonials.

eBooks: eBooks are a more in-depth form of content that allows insurance firms to provide more information and insights on a particular topic. eBooks could be on topics such as the importance of insurance for small businesses, the benefits of different types of insurance policies, or the process of filing a claim.

Webinars: Webinars are online seminars that allow insurance firms to present information and interact with their audience in real time. Insurance firms could host webinars on topics such as how to choose the right coverage, the benefits of insurance for small businesses, or the process of filing a claim.

Social media posts: Insurance firms can use social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to share updates, news, and insights related to their products and services.

By creating and sharing a variety of types of content, insurance firms can attract and engage their target audience and establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry.

A distribution plan: This outlines the channels you will use to promote your content (e.g., social media, email marketing, paid to advertise) and the tactics you will use to reach your target audience.

Step 5: Create and publish high-quality content

Now it's time to start creating and publishing your content. Be sure to adhere to your content calendar and plan, and focus on creating valuable, relevant, and consistent content that resonates with your target audience. Remember the 3 E’s of content marketing: Entertain, Educate and Engage. Most importantly, however, make sure your content complies with the relevant regulatory requirements, including the higher standards imposed by the new Consumer Duty.

Step 6: Promote and distribute your content

Once you have published your content, it's essential to promote and distribute it to reach as many people as possible. This could include sharing it on your social media channels, emailing it to your subscribers, or running paid advertising campaigns.

Step 7: Measure and analyse your results

To understand the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts, it's essential to measure and analyse your results. Use tools like Google Analytics to track your website traffic, engagement, and conversions. Use this data to optimize your content marketing strategy and improve your results over time.

By following these steps and continuously refining your content marketing strategy, you can effectively attract and retain customers for your insurance firm.

It is also important to keep marketing material under regular review to ensure that your communications continue to equip customers with the right information, at the right time, to enable them to make informed decisions about products and services. Where a communication does not achieve this, or poses a risk of consumer harm, it should be removed from circulation.

As a regulated firm, you must also ensure that your marketing is clear, fair and non-misleading and, where applicable, that rules surrounding communications and financial promotions are adhered to.