As an insurance agent, you want the best for your clients. Providing exemplary service increases the likelihood of word-of-mouth referrals. But there is so much more you can do to guarantee business growth with thoughtful and researched tactics. Insurance agents can develop ideal client personas for their business to better target marketing efforts and content creation and even improve the tailoring of policies. Decide who your ideal client is to determine how you can best serve them.
Insurance agents are in the business to serve— your communities and, of course, your clients. You were likely drawn to this career path for its stability and the opportunity to help others.
Word of mouth can be a huge catalyst for your agency as you grow and market your business. Referrals from those you have been able to assist successfully are preferred. But there is an opportunity to grow your business and help more clients when considering who else might benefit most from what you offer.
It’s time to consider: Who is your ideal client? What traits make up your perfect insurance customer persona ? Who can gain the most from your knowledge and services? Understanding the type of person you could potentially serve with your business permits you to work more accurately and efficiently with these future clients. Insurance agents and agencies can create ideal client personas to use marketing dollars and resources more effectively with a higher return on investment (ROI) while streamlining the business’s sales process.
Where to Start with Creating Client Personas
The idea of client personas became part of the marketing vernacular thanks to software designer Alan Cooper, who, in the late 1990s, wrote about segmenting target audiences regarding designing software. He created user personas. In fact, he named them: Chuck, Cynthia and Rob, for example. His writings suggest that creating a product or system for a broad audience with various traits is limiting. There is ultimately too much to consider when trying to please everyone. Using his theory brings us back to the question, “who is your insurance agency’s ideal client?”
Business owners, marketers and insurance agents and agencies create client personas by using fictitious— yet reality-based— traits to identify ideal customers. Doing this can be a significant initial step in expanding the marketing endeavors of insurance agents or agencies.
While creating these marketing personas may seem overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be. Start by making just one. Insurance agents often have access to data and analytics through digital marketing channels, like social media and Google analytics, as well as current customer statistics and demographics. Insurance agents can usually begin by looking at their existing client base. What scenarios with your current customers have been most beneficial for both parties? Or, during your onboarding process, ask questions that can help inform client personas as you continue this journey. Using some of the digital platforms available and your anecdotal knowledge, create one persona— one type of client— that your insurance offerings could help most. Consider demographics: Location, age, education, household income, family status, etc. Then expand: Type of employment, communication preferences, hobbies. But also get granular: Do they have a vehicle? Own a business? What challenges might they face in the next six months? The next year? Five years? As an insurance agent, how could you help address those challenges?
Some insurance agents may choose to utilize software solutions or client persona templates for insurance agents to help guide the process of creating client personas. Or, agents can make it an afternoon with the team and have a brainstorming session. Throw in some snacks and coffee, and you have a client persona-drafting party! There are numerous resources— free and otherwise— to assist in narrowing down client personas.
Once you develop an initial customer persona for insurance, it becomes easier to draft more personas— additional hypothetical (but, again, based on reality) clients for your insurance services. This process can help determine the best way to reach clients for the more niche offerings of your insurance business.
Consider the Negative
It can also prove helpful to develop negative personas. Create a persona for the client you don’t want to— or perhaps shouldn’t— serve. Identifying negative personas helps your business become even more efficient in serving your ideal clients. These negative personas can be developed using experience. For example, what were the similarities among potential clients who went further into your sales funnel and ultimately didn’t purchase or sign on for your services? All the same traits discussed previously apply— just for different reasons. Consider demographics, psychographics and behaviors. While using a term like negative persona may have bleak connotations, segmenting these less-than-ideal client personas isn’t identifying them as bad people. This segment is simply one that you and your insurance offerings may not serve as well. It just wouldn’t be a fit, and identifying this segment’s behavior traits and demographics early in the process is ideal for both parties.
How Creating Client Personas Helps Insurance Agents Help Others
However you decide to craft your client personas, it is worth the effort and research. With the resulting data and information, insurance agents can truly segment marketing and outreach efforts, determining which products may benefit different client personas and how to reach each target audience best. Agents can leverage the information for clarity in messaging, which ultimately builds trust and loyalty among clients. As discussed, developing these personas can help with marketing efforts, but these valuable behavioral insights also allow agents to tailor insurance policies better for each individual and their circumstance. For insurance agents, researching and developing segmented client personas benefit both the agent and the customer long-term, as the agent understands each client persona beyond the superficial. When you learn and incorporate this newfound knowledge into your processes, your client relationships will improve drastically. Opportunities for cross-selling and upselling become apparent sooner. Clients feel heard and understood by their insurance agent, which means you are more likely to keep these clients long-term. Developing insurance agent client personas sets up agents for success. Agents are also less likely to fall into one of the categories of insurance agents who struggle to remain in business.
Moving Forward
Once your ideal— and negative—client personas are developed, it’s time to put them to use! These personas help inform a majority of marketing decisions— from content creation for social media channels to segmenting newsletter topics based on recipient segment to informing one-on-one conversations with current and potential customers.
Potential insurance customers are in an extremely content-heavy world, with highly targeted ads and suggested content constantly in their newsfeeds and inboxes. Putting client personas to use for your business allows for a more fluid way of interacting with both potential and current customers. Ideal client personas help inform a customer journey map as well, offering a consistent throughline for customers as they interact with your insurance agency.
Take the Step
Create your insurance agency’s client personas to embark on a journey of growth and knowledge for your business. This process is a significant early step that can inform many aspects of your company, but stepping outside the box of your typical methods for your business can be a bit unnerving at times. It’s easy and comfortable to continue with the status quo, but that attitude will keep your client base status quo as well. Consider everything you have to gain.
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