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5 Key Mistakes most Insurance & Financial Companies Make

For the past decade, I personally have had the privilege of working in the insurance and finance industry providing marketing or branding solutions to 10 insurance companies throughout Dubai.

The best part of this interaction was that I worked with all 3 tiers of the industry i.e., re-insurance, insurance and brokerage. It has given me considerable experience and understanding in how to effectively market their brand with regard to their target audience.

I feel humbled and offer my gratitude for the kind of love we received from all our valued clients in return for the creative ideas we shared. Having worked for almost a decade in this industry, my mind has stretched like a rubber band not to return to its original position. For example, given the creative challenges of our clients projects, we simply had to exceed their expectations.

From branding to collateral, creating a press ad to radio campaign, website development to outdoor media, and window graphics to mascot, we've created entire communication for this industry. We are in fact indebted to this vertical.

Our track record demonstrates the level of professionalism and on-time delivery we have come to know over the past 9+ years. It has been an amazing learning experience of almost a decade even though I bungled a bilingual project once, which resulted in a delayed delivery.

As one who understands the insurance and finance industry and their way of conducting day-to-day operations, I'm also able to see where there is a need for improvement to continue to thrive in today's global economy.

These thoughts are put together to give back to the trade and help them maintain their development as well as success.

So, it is imperative to point out that virtually every client of ours is continuing in a forward and prosperous direction.

However, many times insurance and financial companies overlook safeguarding the future of their own firm.

Below is a list of several key points to help them implement and grow their business.

#1 LEVERAGING SOCIAL MEDIA
Marketing as a culture is yet to grow in the insurance and financial industry. They appear to be content with direct marketing through their large team of consultants.
In fact, this is how the industry evolved and the majority of it continues to consider the Internet as a possibility. Most of them don't realize that with digital marketing their reach will expand, operations cost will reduce, and they will be able to develop long term business constancy.
This is one industry where only big players have their marketing teams but still they are not as consistent as they could be. Their content lacks creativity and punch and there are hardly great stories that are published on the social media.
There are number of large brokers that haven't entered the social media scene on a regular basis which may be in part, due to their lack of noteworthy creativity and scarcity of published stories using a social media platform. They don't realize what they are losing at the moment. By the time they realize that using social media is a great idea, it may be too late, as social media marketing takes time before a significant ROI is realized.

#2 PROVIDING A PERSONAL PROFILE
A large amount of brokers have no personal profiles of their own. When you are promoting services such as life insurance or health insurance, your personal profile plays a key role. This has the ability to reveal who you are and what type of experience you have in the insurance or finance industry. It is from their profile that the potential buyers can evaluate and determine if you are worth giving their business to or not.
It is also a way to win the confidence of your potential clients.
As an insurance or financial consultant, it's important to realize that what you are promoting is intangible. There is no physical product you are offering to your potential buyers that can be gauged and examined prior to making a purchase.
Still, some professionals make no investment in their personal profiles which may consist of their success stories and testimonials apart from other information. It can enable their potential clients to respond to them in their own convenience, have it with them in case they need assistance in the future and possibly pass it on to someone else.
All you need to do is to create something innovative which can be easily shared on mobile devices.

#3 DATABASE MANAGEMENT
This is one front where insurance and financial companies need to enhance their infrastructure and have qualified tele-marketers.
Many times I have come across situations where one broker's tele-marketing team kept on calling me every 3 months for financial consultation. This happened in spite of my serious warning to them to delete my mobile number from their database, but to no avail.
Perhaps this happens due to them rotating the same database amongst different tele-marketers. There doesn't seem to any provision to warn the admin to delete a contact details if someone is not interested or doesn't want to be contacted again.
They are yet to understand and follow the unsubscribe system that is treated as necessary in emailing and Opt Out for SMS marketing. It is time for them to implement this in their systems and avoid annoying potential customers.

#4 EDUCATING THE CLIENTS
In these industries, there is so much happening around the world. The rules and regulations change quite frequently from city to city.
However, not many brokers take time to share them for free on their websites in return for an email ID. Should they do it, it will help them build their database while they win the confidence of their potential clients by simply helping them.
The more information you share, the more you gain. It's that simple. People begin to trust you more, than when you keep all the secrets or information within your mind.
I would suggest that you have a dynamic website with a separate section to publish news, latest rules and regulations, privacy policy terms, and disclaimers. This will help you attract more potential visitors to the site.
The best part is that all these rules and other relevant information is published across various media, and all you need to do is copy and paste the content with the source it is published on, unless you wish to rewrite in your own words and have your own copyright on the content.
In addition, I will suggest that you have your monthly newsletter and start emailing it to your regular clients and those that are keen to receive them.

#5 BLOGGING
It is the need of the hour for every industry to build relationships with their clients before they are asked to make a purchase. You talk of pizzas or vehicles or even beauty products, you would find that building a relationship has become vital for every industry.
It is a buyer's market, so it makes sense to begin blogging to share your knowledge and experience.
Since blogging is one element of content marketing, which is the "in-thing" in building trust with potential clients, it will help you in enhancing your personal branding as well.
Isn't it cool that by simply blogging you build your audience and eventually they convert into sales? From the mere desk of your office, you are reaching a huge number of potential customers. All you need is a website or a dynamic page within your existing website to blog.
Not only will it build your image, but it will bring traffic to your website and help you in SEO initiatives. Your ranking in Google will also increase. What's more, you may get many opportunities for public speaking, get noticed by a newspaper editor, and for all you know, get published without any efforts from a professional PR agency.
Does that motivate you enough to secure your own future, while you secure the future of your clients?
It makes sense. Start today.
Suggestion:
As Zig Ziglar rightly said that there are no traffic jams on the extra mile; whichever company will make those extra and consistent efforts of educating their potential clients will certainly reap the benefits.
Parting Note:
Thank you for reading this article. Please drop your comments below and should you like the article, please share it for the benefit of others.
However, should you wish to view our unique marketing bundle offers, please visit the url http://www.bananamarketers.com/marketing.php or to reach out to me, please drop an email on deepak@bananamarketers.com