The insurance industry is one of the biggest in the world. There are tons of insurance companies. We see their marketing efforts everywhere especially on TV, radio and sponsorship. Yet when we go to choose an insurance company to help with our insurance needs we, as consumers, often go back to the basics of businesses. Those basics are word of mouth, referrals and trust.
When it comes to business decisions, consumers look for trust. For insurance, consumers ask their family and friends. Often, a young adult will go with that recommendation and stick with the company for the duration of their lives.
So how do insurance companies earn that trust?
Well, you have to provide great products and great service. When you treat your current customers well you’ll get the good word of mouth. Beyond that, you have to provide information to the customer that proves your willingness to help them out in life. And there are a number of things insurance companies can share with consumers.
Because the insurance industry is so competitive, a number of companies are blogging as a way to share information with customers. Here is a list of companies doing a great job with their insurance blogs.
1. State Farm
State Farm is the company I use for all my insurance. My grandfather became a State Farm insurance agent at a time when he was in his late 20s and the father of four young girls. He took a risk and became a great success in a small town in Wisconsin. Every since then my family has been using State Farm and it’s been wonderful.
State Farm has an entire learning center where they answer all kinds of questions. The company really understands the importance of answering all the common questions consumers have about insurance; and there are a lot of them. If you have a question, you’ll probably find the answer here. And that’s the whole point of blogging – get new consumers to discover your brand and earning their trust with great information.
Visit: State Farm Learning Center | @StateFarm
2. Allstate
Allstate is well-known for their commercials just like a few of the others on this list. But they also have a really wonderful blog with all kinds of great information. Lists posts do so well in the blogging world because people love lists. They’re easy to scan. They’re easy to follow and for insurance companies, lists make a lot of sense. Allstate has all kinds of lists for popular questions like spring cleaning or taking care of your motorcycle. For insurance companies, you know the questions your customers are asking and if they’re asking you on the phone you know they’re asking them online and answering those questions with blog posts is a great SEO strategy.
Visit: The Allstate Blog | @Allstate
3. The Hartford
The Hartford does a lot of sponsorships and so do other companies on this list. The Hartford also has a blog where they talk about home and driving safety. There are a few things I’d upgrade like the blog’s URL structure and some of the titles, but when you cut through that you’ll find some really great and useful content that I’m sure consumers find interesting. The key is fixing things up a bit to make sure people can find it.
Visit: For A Lifetime Blog | @TheHartford
4. American Family
American Family Insurance is a big company up here in Wisconsin and the Midwest. I know a lot of people that use their services. There are local agents with buildings painted in the familiar royal blue and red with white. It’s a strong brand and they have something kind of unique with their blog.
They call it the Dream Protectors Blog. That’s pretty neat. Insurance is about safety and making sure you and your loved ones are protected for live’s disasters. They cover things focused on protecting those dreams. It’s interesting when companies touch on current events like tornadoes or home fires because you know people are out there searching for things like “protect my home from a fire” when they see a home fire on the news.
Visit: Dream Protectors Blog | @AmericanFamInsu
5. The Cincinnati Insurance Company
This blog has a real simple, but great blog design. It’s easy to read and easy to scan. You can flip through the pages and find what you’re looking for in the side category archives. They update every couple days and cover the things people are looking for online right now. That’s a key in this industry – write about the things people are looking for online right now, which is often based on the latest disasters in the news.
Visit: The Cincinnati Insurance Company Blog
6. GEICO
When you think of insurance, one of the companies you probably think of first is GEICO. They’ve done a pretty good job of making sure the entire world knows their brand. You’ve seen the commercials with the green lizard and before that it was the cavemen. It’s a pretty well-known brand for a company that was originally an insurance company for government employees.
GEICO does a great job with their blog. First, I like the branding. The mascot is there. They have timely posts like the post on St. Patrick’s Day safety and all kinds of other useful posts for staying safe and protecting yourself and your family from the dangers in life.
Visit: GEICO Blog | @GEICO
7. Nationwide
One thing I love about advertising is the jingles. Nationwide has a great one with Nationwide Is On Your Side. I love it every time. I think they have Maggie Rose singing it sometimes and she’s one of my favorite country singers. Then you have Nationwide sponsoring the minor league Nascar circuit, which makes complete sense.
But they also have this blog with tons of great information. I don’t know if this post on puppies is really relevant, but it’s fun and shows some personality. Posts on things like driving safe in the rain are more my speed and there are plenty like that on this blog. Here in Wisconsin we need posts like this for driving in the snow.
Visit: Nationwide Blog | @Nationwide
8. Progressive
Progressive is probably best known for their TV commercial personality, Flo, but I recently read about them in Jim Collins’ book, Great By Choice. They’re a very interesting company and it’s no surprise that a company with their approach would have a useful blog for prospective customers.
The one thing I’m a little confused on is that they stopped the blog in 2013. There are some really great posts including this one on new cars that was also an infographic.
There is so much potential for blog posts her that I hope Progressive picks things back up.
On a side note, I like that they incorporated the Twitter handle @ in their blog name. I’ve been experimenting with those kinds of things on another blog and it’s working really well.
Visit: @Progressive Blog | @Progressive
9. Liberty Mutual
Consistency is an important element of effective blogging. Liberty Mutual keeps their blog up-to-date with posts every couple of weeks. They touch on all kinds of issues that affect consumers including information about distracted drivers. Again, insurance companies have access to all kinds of studies and when they share information on save driving, improving home safety and more you know you can trust them because of their research.
This is another great blog with an appealing design and very useful content.
Visit: Safe And Smart Living | @LibertyMutual
10. Farmers Insurance
The Farmers Cares Blog launched in 2010 with the goal of providing tips and insight to consumers. In addition, the blog was aimed at showing how Farmers participated in a variety of charity events across the world.
You’ve probably seen the recent Farmers commercials on TV where the actor is discussion stats like, “Did you know that XX% of at-home accidents could be prevented by X.” These are helpful stats and with all the research insurance companies do they can really provide great insight on a blog.
And that’s what Farmers does on their blog along with other great posts like defending homes against wildfire and freezing weather in the winter.
Visit: Farmers Cares | @WeAreFarmers
Hopefully these blogs and blog posts can provide some inspiration for your insurance company. Even if you’re an agent, providing information to your potential clients can really earn you the trust people need when making a decision on their insurance needs.