Use their strategies to generate more leads, sales and referrals
There’s nothing taboo about keeping tabs on successful agents. Competitive analysis has always been part of business. No two agents are ever alike, so it’s not a matter of copying — it’s a matter of learning from their strategies and successes, getting inspired by their ideas and improving on anything they’re not doing well. Here are 5 ways to find out what they are doing — or not doing — so you can improve your own sales and marketing strategies.
1. Keep an eye on their social media
Whether you’re already active on social media or not, you can learn a lot from the channels successful agents use by studying what they are posting and how they are engaging. Pay particular attention to:
- What channels they are most active on
- The kind of content they’re creating and sharing
- How often they post
- What gets the most engagement
- How many followers they have
- How they interact with followers
- The way they respond to comments — (especially the less friendly ones!)
2. Check out their websites
Look at their website through the eyes of a potential customer and ask yourself:
- Is the website well organized and easy to navigate?
- Is the content clear, readable and inviting?
- Do they include customer testimonials?
- Do they clearly present what they sell and what it’s like doing business with them?
- What do I like/not like about this website? What can I do better?
- Do they have a newsletter sign up form?
- Where are their calls to action (CTAs), and do they convince me to click or engage?
- Do they have a blog? What are they writing about?
Check these 6 tips for an effective website to see how you can improve your own website so it does what it should — attract, educate and convert potential customers (and retain the ones you have, too).
3. Read their online customer reviews
88% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations! See what people are saying about other agents. Both positive and negative reviews will give you great insight into what insurance customers want and expect from their providers.
4. Sign up to receive their newsletters
You might want to do this using an email account that doesn’t make it obvious that you are an agent. Check out how they often they send their newsletter. What kind of content they include? What might you do better? If you are receiving other mail from them as a result of signing up, what’s the content like? What might you do better? If you don’t already have an email marketing strategy in place, here are some simple and effective email marketing ideas.
5. Set Google® alerts
Google lets you set alerts that send you email notifications when new online content matches the keywords you enter. You can use an agent’s name, a specific kind of insurance, the name of your city or region, anything you want Google to search for you on a regular basis. You can use them to stay up on industry trends, too!
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