In a recent post we looked at some of the great insurance companies blogs out there on the web.
These companies have great blog content that address common questions that consumers have and they also create the kind of content that can do well on social media and go viral.
If you’re an insurance company you’re probably wondering how you can get more from your blogging and social media effort. In this post we’ll give you 8 different types of blog posts you can write that will really bring in your target customers through search, social media and other channels.
These formulas are ones that work for our clients at GBW and even for our own blog.
1. Address A Common Fear
People generally don’t want to be ripped off and don’t want to risk losing what they have. This is obviously something insurance companies can help with. As someone in insurance, you see first-hand, every day the ways people can lose everything.
A post that addresses a common fear and gives your target customer a solution is great. Here is a post on contractor fraud. If you see an area where people are expressing common fears, write about it in a post. You can bet that if your customers are sharing fears over the phone and in person that many more are looking online for the information.
2. Write About A Current Event
One unfortunate reality of life is that bad things happen. We can’t control much of it, but that doesn’t make it more manageable. One thing that can help people is being as prepared as possible. It gives us a sense of security when we realize that things will happen and that we have a plan for dealing with it when it does.
Current events are always something people are looking at. Whether it’s a hurricane, tornado, landslide, data breech or something else; these things are reminders to people to look into their own affairs. When you write about current events you hit on the keywords people are looking for and if you provide advice for dealing with that type of event you’ll provide real value to consumers.
3. Useful Tips For Common Situations
There are a few people out there that like to drive their car for many years. They know they can rely on their car or maybe they have a collectible that they want to hang on to and keep running like a top.
It’s a common situation for someone to have an old car, but there are a number of frustrations that can arise if you don’t keep up the maintenance. This is a hassle for the car owner and for the insurance company (if there’s an accident). That’s why posts like this one – Keeping Older Cars Healthy – is great. It addresses a common situation and provides actionable tips that consumers can use.
4. Focus On Niche Customers And Their Issues
The insurance industry is vast, but people don’t live in a general world. We each live in our own little niche worlds. When you write blog posts, address the needs of segments of your customer base. That’s what this post on small business equipment issues does. The focus is on a segment of customers. It’s detailed and focused and that really connects with small business owners.
5. Share A Story
Part of branding and connecting with potential customers is letting them get to know who your brand is. This means sharing information about the people or a story from the company’s past. These posts are more fun and light, but they can let people in to see who you are and what you stand for. Here is an example of a post that shares insight into the workers and another one that shares a photo from the good old days.
6. Help Your Customers Get Money
Nobody likes to lose money and most people like to find ways to get more money. That’s why this type of post – 6 Ways Teens Can Save On Car Insurance – is the exact type of post that does well for insurance companies. The post gives actionable steps that helps the teen and the parents to save money on the insurance bill each month. It also leads to safer driving, which is another obvious bonus.
With blogging, a lot of times success is determined by how you word the title and structure the post. In this case, giving people ways to get or save money is good. The post could have been – 6 Teen Driving Tips. That’s an okay post, but 6 Ways Teens Can Save On Car Insurance is much more appealing.
7. Explain A New Or Existing Service
When you work in your business you know pretty much how everything works. The thing that can sneak up on you is the fact that your customers don’t know nearly as much about how your company works. This is why a blog post explaining your services can be really appealing especially if it solves a big need for customers.
Here is a post on how Progressive Service Center works. Some customers probably had no idea that Progressive even offered service.
If you’re getting a lot of questions on a specific aspect of your business, create a blog post explaining how it works. Again, if people are asking on the phone you can bet that more are looking for the answer online.
8. Use Studies And Stats
You’ve heard people say that they hate math. Well, that must be a silent majority because when it comes to blogging, people love stats and studies. That’s why posts like this one on pet spending did so well.
People love seeing studies especially when they cover topics that are close to their hearts. Many people love their pets and they might not even realize how much they’re spending.
Insurance companies have access to a number of studies. Use these studies in your blog posts and you’ll attract scores of readers through social media. Readers love reading the posts and they love sharing them on Twitter and Facebook too.
Conclusion
As with everything in business, there are formulas that work really well. Implement the formulas that are most appealing to you and from there you can experiment with other things. It’s good to keep experimenting so you can figure out if there is something you can do differently that will be even better. We’re always doing that at GBW, but for now these are 8 of the best blog post formulas we’ve found that work for companies in different industries.
We know they will work for insurance companies as well.