How Twitter can help agencies generate leads, influence buying decisions
Here's how insurance agencies can leverage Twitter's platform as a tool for growth.
Twitter has a reputation for up-to-the-second news, a tumultuous environment, and 280-character limitations. This is why it has lagged behind Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Instagram in terms of adoption rates by businesses. There is a misperception about Twitter’s value to businesses as a tool for growth.
To determine if a social media platform is worth the time, it comes down to whether or not it can influence buying decisions and generate leads. Here’s why Twitter can have a positive effect on your insurance agency’s ability to influence buying decisions and generate leads.
Influence buying decisions
Forty percent of Twitter users reported purchasing something after seeing it on Twitter, according to the Digital Marketing Institute.
Here’s a little context, though.
Twitter’s ability to influence 40% of users to purchase goods has less to do with traditional marketing and more to do with something newer.
Influencer marketing.
The impact of influencer marketing has yet to make its mark on many businesses’ marketing budget. However, Twitter is at the forefront. Why? Twitter enables consumers to follow brands, people, and businesses that they like. They want to see their messages, engage with them, and buy their products.
The influence marketing industry was a $2 billion industry in 2017. By 2022, the industry will be worth more than $15 billion.
Verification only adds to the trust factor, and that’s what you should really be focused on here. Garnering the trust of your followers and growing your audience over time. Again, I’ll talk about how to do that in an upcoming blog post.
A verified Twitter user, identified by the blue badge next to their name, is an account that is of public interest and authentic.
Why is this important to you? If anyone can capture the essence and power of influencer marketing, it is the independent insurance agent. You can grow your agency by expanding your personal audience through Twitter.
Generate leads
As of 2019, Twitter has around 145 million daily users worldwide. There is an inaccurate perception of their demographic as well. More than 63% of Twitter users are between 35-65 years old. That’s roughly 91 million daily active users who probably have assets they need to insure.
Twitter is ranked as the fourth most-used tool by both B2C (53%) and B2B marketers (59%). It doesn’t matter if you sell commercial insurance or auto insurance; Twitter can work for your agency.
When you think about generating leads, you might think this means running ads. Yes, your agency can run ads on Twitter. And, you might consider the option depending on your marketing plan.
But, using Twitter successfully means more than running ads. Unlike Facebook and LinkedIn, Twitter doesn’t have a company information page. There are no maps showing where businesses are. Twitter is about the brand and its personality.
The fast-food industry has made waves with their funny retorts to Twitter users. Brands are more focused on establishing views and talking with consumers than selling to them. Twitter is by-and-large about participating in the public conversation. It’s important for your agency to join in.
There’s a couple of ways for you to do that.
Get local
As always, get local. Interact with local business accounts by commenting on their posts. Share local content and events, and, if you attend an event, mark your location when posting pictures from it. Use local hashtags.
Promote everything
Share all your website content. Every blog post, video, update, or added carrier on Twitter. Anything that can lead people back to your website or get someone to fill out a form is content to share.
Conclusion
Building a brand is not easy, especially in a digital marketplace.
With so many distractions, it can be hard to stand out. To do this, you need to adopt every tool at your disposal. Facebook and LinkedIn are powerful, heavily adopted tools. Twitter, if used correctly in unison with an optimized insurance agency website, can also be a powerful tool to influence buying decisions and generate new leads.
Zach Weeks is a content marketing specialist at Insurance Technologies Corporation (ITC), a provider of marketing, rating and management software and services to the insurance industry. ITC helps its customers across the U.S. grow their businesses and become more efficient through the philosophy of providing quality software and services.
This article originally appeared on ITC’s blog and is republished here with consent.
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