facebook tips for insurance agencies - amazon s3 · advertising through facebook and optimization...

Facebook Tips for Independent Insurance Agencies Facebook still continues to grow as the world’s most powerful social network. It has a very large user base of several million users, most of whom are very active. Facebook was created on the idea of bringing people together through their personalities and ideas. It provides a place where people can connect with each other and also with the brands that they care about.

Facebook created an official space for brands back in 2007 and continues to change the ways that marketers interact and engage with their current and potential audiences. This cheat sheet offers you a great guide to kick starting marketing success through Facebook.

Building the Presence of Your Brand

The presence you have on Facebook is made up of a number of things, each of which should give value to your audience or entertain them to make your brand stronger. These are the key areas that you want to focus on and this is how you can get started.

Your Brand Page

The Facebook Page of your brand is the main component of your Facebook presence. There are a lot of benefits to creating a Facebook Page for your company or brand. It allows people to find you on Facebook for a start. It also allows you to connect with the followers of your page personally. It will enable you to connect to a large group of people and learn more about your audience.

The Cover Photo

The cover photo is at the top of the company profile page. It goes behind your logo and creates a nice look. The Facebook Page should be considered an extension of your business so take time to customize its backdrop and we recommend hiring a designer to create these backdrops so that the size and resolution is correct for optimum viewing and it contains the information your users need to contact you and understand what your agency's value proposition is.

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There is a lot more flexibility and creative freedom with your cover photo and you can change it as often as you like. It’s also larger than a profile photo and comes with more room for creativity. The cover photo can include things like brand messaging, promotional campaigns, or even the products you offer. There really is no end to what choices you can make with your cover photo.At minimum, your cover photo should should contain:

1. Your agency's message, such as.. “Rated #1 insurance agency in 'your town' by ‘publication/organization’” or “Serving 'your town' personalized insurance services since 'year of founding’”.

2. Contact information - email, phone, address, website url.

Profile Photo

The profile photo is placed to the bottom left of your cover photo as shown in the square box on the image above. It shows the users of Facebook who you are and lets them recognize you. It is a thumbnail that gets attached to every action you take on Facebook. It is attached to every post and comment that you make on the site.

When it comes to brands, profile photos are usually the logo of your company. If it is not the logo then use some other easily recognizable image that has no text because a profile photo is just too small to read. The profile picture you choose, much like your company’s logo, will almost never change.



The About Section

The About section on your profile is a tab accessed through the navigation bar at the top of the page. It sits under the profile and cover photos. The About section is split into two parts. The first part is information about your page. It gives you the chance to share information about your company. It gives you the room to show off a description of your company as well as awards you’ve won, products you have, and contact information. The second part is milestones. Milestones give you the opportunity to share important moments from the history of your company or brand.

Timeline

The timeline is where you post updates on your Facebook Page. You need to post regularly to build followers and get the most out of paid advertising, which will be covered later. Timeline posts can be text or images, as well as links and videos. You can also create slide decks and photo albums on a timeline. There will be more details later on the different types of posts you can make.

Tabs

Tabs appear in two different places of your Facebook Page. They are on the left side of the timeline and also on the navigation bar under the cover photo. You can use the tabs to promote nearly anything. Content is a good idea as well as a Contact tab. They give you the option to create landing pages to your content directly on Facebook and this is something any user can do.

You can also use tabs to host different apps that allow businesses to get a lot more out of their Facebook Page. Apps let you run contests, connect Facebook with your other social networking accounts, create an electronic storefront, and much more. Take a look at the Facebook App Center to see what apps are available for your Page.



Exactly how you use your Facebook tabs is dependent upon your social strategy and what you hope to get out of it. The advantage of using tabs to create a landing page rather than linking to one is that your audience doesn’t leave Facebook to access the content.

Insights

Insights are something that can only be seen by the admin of a Page. Facebook Pages have an insights page that shows you different analytical information about your Page. This information gives you an insight into your audience and shows which things you’ve posted have had the most success. This gives you a better idea of how to build your fan base and traffic.

How to Build Your Fan Base

Building your fan base is the most essential thing to do with your social network. There are many different ways marketers can build their fan base. The following is a look at what you can do.

Create Content

You need to create content on a regular basis to build and maintain the audience of your Facebook Page. These posts also need to be entertaining, informative, or engaging. Your audience has to get something out of the post. It is important not to post too much, however. One or two posts per day is the recommended number of posts for businesses. It allows you to connect with your audience on a regular basis but not overexpose your brand and drive them away.

The mix of content you post should follow what is known as the 4-1-1 Rule. The 4-1-1 Rule was created by Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute. It basically means that for every four light and informative posts you make you should also offer one soft sell and one hard sell, such as a product demo.

So, make sure that the posts on your Facebook Page are a mix of fun posts and more educational and restrained ones.



Posts

As it was mentioned earlier you, can make almost any type of post on your Facebook Page.

Facebook will automatically change your post to make it more user-friendly. If you post a link, Facebook provides a handy preview showing an image, description, and title that it pulls from the metadata of the link.

It’s suggested that the majority of your posts be images as they are the most engaging kinds of posts and create click-through. Give good thought to the images you post on your blog as it will likely be the image that is displayed when you post a link.

If you plan on using an image as an advert then be wary about how much text is on the picture. Facebook has a strict policy on this that states an image ad can’t be more than 20% text. Either avoid using text entirely or use the grid tool provided by Facebook to see how much of your image is text and adjust it accordingly.

Pinning Posts to the Top

If there is a post you want to shine a greater light on, then you have the option of pinning it to the top of your Page. Pinning a post literally pins it to the top of your Page. It is the first post anyone visiting your Page will see no matter what time you posted it. Pinning a post is a good way to increase how many people engage with the post and see the content of it.

Say you were launching a big campaign or event for example. It’s a good idea to pin the main post relating to that event to the top of your Page until the event dates are fulfilled.

Using Native Videos

A native video is essentially a video posted to, and hosted within, Facebook. It’s a very popular way to express yourself on Facebook and share things with people. Of course, this type of thing is not just limited to the individual users of Facebook. It is a tool that can also be used by brands. Native videos are seen by more people than video links that people post. They can be seen directly through Facebook and users have the option to have them automatically play. There’s no need to click a link and wait for it to load; something people are not very willing to do.



A native video needs to be very engaging and attention grabbing as they play automatically. They need to make a user stop scrolling and pay attention. Here are a few tips on how to do that.

· Make the video so engaging it attracts attention even without sound · Use the first few frames to make a bold and attention grabbing statement to ensure your viewer stays around · Make sure to use smart copy (the text that accompanies the video will help you create interest with it and make people

curious about the video)

Advertising through Facebook and Optimization

Having a Facebook Page and updating it regularly is only the first step in building your audience and taking advantage of the large user base of Facebook. If you want to take it a step further then you should consider running paid advertising and promotion with Facebook and their advanced targeting system that delivers your ads to people who actually want to see them.

Ad Content Facebook has a number of different ways you can advertise. They are designed to help you achieve the outcome you want from your campaign. These goals include:

· Website Clicks-these ads send people to your website · Website Conversions;-these adverts increase conversions on

your website (you need to add a conversion pixel on to your website before you can run a website conversion ad)

· Page Post Engagement-this type of add exposes your posts to more people



· Page Likes-this campaign promotes your Page specifically and shows it to people who are likely to Like your page · App Installs-this campaign gets people to install your app · App Engagement-an app engagement campaign makes people engage with your app more · Offer Claims-this gives you the chance to make offers to people that they can later redeem in your store · Local Awareness-this campaign is an ad campaign that focuses on people located near your business to increase your presence in

the local community · Event Responses-this campaign gets more people to attend your event · Video Review-these are ads that promote your videos to increase the views they have

You should base which kind of ad campaign you run based on the goal of your campaign. In this way, your campaigns have better results by being based on the audience you want to engage and what you want them to do.

What are Dark Posts?

A Dark Post is a special kind of post that helps your marketers reach their objectives on Facebook. These are unique ads that promote things that you don’t want to be on your own timeline. Basically you create a Dark Post and run an ad campaign to promote it without publishing the post on your Page.

This kind of post gives you the chance to use ads that are targeted away from your current fans. You avoid the risk of alienating them by giving them mixed messages about your company. It also allows you to run an A/B test on the campaign without having to actually post it. You can see how effective a campaign is before running with it on your timeline.

Targeting

One of the perks of advertising on Facebook is their advanced targeting system. It lets you target users based on different things about them and what they do on Facebook. This can be targeting people by their interests and how they behave, as well as by their location. There is also the possibility of creating a “Custom Audience List” that lets you decide your own target audience using these factors:



· By a List of Customers-you can use a list of your own customers and match up their names and phone numbers to Facebook

profiles · By Traffic on Your Website-you have the option of targeting people who use your website, or specific pages on your site · By App Activity-this option creates a list of people that do

certain things in your app or game · By Interest - this option gives you the opportunity to target

users by what they search for and their activity · By Location - targeting users that are in the locations you

serve is a good way to keep your ads relevant to where you provide services and increase your click through rate

· Other Demographics - you can target your ads to users based on demographics such as male, female, age, etc.

When you use an automatic marketing platform like this and combine it with Facebook advertising you can create a promotional campaign that runs alongside your other current marketing efforts. You can target known customers using information from your own marketing automation platform for example. It also gives you the chance to engage with an unknown audience using personal data gathered from different channels to send these targeted Facebook ads to specific users.

By adding more details to the targeting system of Facebook you are able to target users that have used your website. Uploading a customer list from your database or using custom audience lists will create an audience similar to yours. This lookalike audience enables you to reach past your real audience by targeting people who are like your audience but aren’t part of it.



Optimizing your Ads

Even though Facebook ads work by using a pay-per-click system, optimization is still important. Take these steps to optimize your ads and get the most out of them.

Run More Than One Type of Campaign

It’s important that you run different kinds of campaigns by using the many targeting options available to you. This lets you create a specific message and send it to your target audience. The more relevant to your audience the content is, the more likely they are to click the ad and engage with you.

Change Your Content and Add New Content Once or Twice a Week

It’s important that you keep the ads you run fresh so that your audience isn’t exhausted by seeing the same ad and the same message time and time again.

Use an A/B Test

By using A/B tests you can see which parts of your ad campaign are working and change the ad accordingly. You can test things like the image and text you use. Knowing what does and doesn’t work helps you create better ads and spend that advertising money properly.

Experiment With Different Types of Ads

Facebook lets you choose from many different ad types. It’s important to use a mix of all of them. Use sponsored posts and event responses when you need them. See how well each type of advert works for your audience and the goals of your campaign.

Provide lots of Different Content

Don’t just use one type of content if you are planning to use Facebook to generate leads. Mix up your gated content with un-gated content to keep the target audience interested. It also helps you understand when your audience will buy from you.



Don’t Neglect to Use Images

You should never doubt the importance of images. These images really do matter and can have a significant effect on how many people engage with your ads and click-through to your content. Use creative art that really grabs their attention and interests your audience.

Need help with your Facebook marketing? Quoteshark is the nation's #1 insurance marketing service endorsed by major insurance carriers. Our founders are independent insurance agents who partnered with the nation's top marketing experts to help local agents stay successful in today's changing insurance marketplace.

Click here to learn more.



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facebook tips for insurance agencies - amazon s3 · advertising through facebook and optimization...

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