Insurance Content Marketing Framework to Increase Engagement
In recent years, marketing has evolved to revolve around the customer. Companies across various industries now create content that speaks directly to their target audience. However, many companies – insurance agencies included – fail to implement a content strategy that’s relevant to the specific stage of the funnel their target audience is at the moment they engage with their brand. That’s why this week I’ll outline the ultimate insurance content marketing framework – the See Think Do content marketing strategy.
The See Think Do marketing strategy was created by Avinash Kaushik – entrepreneur, author and public speaker. His approach will help you look at your marketing content and:
- Identify gaps.
- Truly reflect on whether your initiatives are broad enough and optimized enough for each intent stage.
- Provide insight into if you’re fully measuring the efficiency, outcome, and value from each stage.
Before we get into implementing this strategy, you need to understand the logic behind this insurance content marketing framework.
Defining the Insurance Content Marketing Framework
This insurance content marketing framework focuses on your audience’s buyer intent.
Audience intent is categorized on the three stages listed in the name – See, Think, and Do. The fact is every buyer goes through these stages as they navigate through the buyer’s journey. Your role is to provide content that speaks to each of these stages.
- See – the largest possible audience you can reach
- Think – people thinking about buying a product or service like yours
- Do – people ready to take make a purchase
In terms of benefits brokers your audience can be identified as follows:
- See – Employers with under 500 employees in the US
- Think – Employers who need employee benefits services and are deciding whether to work with an insurance agent.
- Do – Employers who need employee benefits services, want to work with an insurance agent, and are ready to sign a BoR right now.
When applied to content marketing, consider your website. Does your agency’s website share content for all three stages of intent? If your website only has content calling for your audience to buy your services, then you’re only speaking to the Do stage and limiting your success. Many agency websites focus on the Do stage – “Get a quote today!” Sound familiar?
To achieve true growth you need content for ALL three stages. Create content for the See stage so you can speak to your widest possible audience. Create content for the Think stage to generate more leads at the top of the funnel, build relationships, and increase conversions at a lower acquisition cost.
Implementing this content marketing strategy for brokers means when a lead interacts with your brand, you’ll have an engagement point perfectly suited for any stage of buyer intent.
A See Think Do Content Strategy Example
Hubspot
Hubspot, a company we often reference, is a great example of how to effectively use this approach. They’re not just a Do company, they also create content for the See and Think stages of audience intent.
You can immediately see their Do engagement point, “Get Started” at the top right corner and middle of the homepage; highlighted with their orange CTA buttons. For See marketing they have a variety of free, informative content in their “Resources” section where they host a blog, and also share guides and templates. For Think marketing, they share a plethora of marketing-related research and data.
With so much content riddled throughout their website based on the See-Think-Do strategy, they maintain relevance to their target audience no matter which stage they’re at the moment they interact with Hubspot’s website.
For a marketer merely seeking strategy advice for a specific project they’re working on then, they can read Hubspot’s blog, or download one of their guides. Or for a marketer who’s considering to get automation software for their company, they can check Hubspot’s customer stories for reviews and case studies. If they’re at the Do stage and ready to buy, they can easily click “Get Started”.
Establishing this insurance content marketing framework will help keep your agency relevant to your audience as they navigate through each stage. Focusing only on the Do stage can potentially limit your agency’s relevance to your audience – and you’ll see it in your conversion rates.
Building an Insurance Content Marketing Framework
Hubspot has used this strategy to create tailored content. But, this framework won’t work with a copy and paste approach. Understand your audience; their channels, preferred type of content consumption, etc. and apply this strategy.
Define Your Audience by Buyer Intent
- See – Employers with under 500 employees in the US
- Think – Employers who need employee benefits services and are deciding whether to work with an insurance agent.
- Do – Employers who need employee benefits services, want to work with an insurance agent, and are ready to sign a BoR right now.
Audit Your Existing Content
Create a spreadsheet listing all of your content and categorize each piece into one of the buyer intent stages – See, Think, Do. Organizing your content like this will help provide insight into whether or not your content will successfully get your audience to take a desired action at that stage of intent.
Measure Content Success
If you have data, input how effective each piece of content is for their intended action into your spreadsheet. You’ll need to have clear key performance indicators (KPIs) in place to accurately measure content success. A simplified example:
- See content can be measured by the number of downloads or views.
- Think content can be measured by lead conversions.
- Do content can be measured by sales.
Marketing automation software, like Hubspot or Marketo, can provide you the ability to create a blog, landing pages, and install forms on your website. The platform also measures which landing pages generate the most leads. Marketing automation software like Hubspot makes implementing See Think Do marketing for insurance agents easier.
Auditing your content will give you insights into which intent stage you’re ignoring. You may also find that even though you have content that speaks to all three stages, there’s a heavy imbalance. For example, you may have a lot of content that is relevant to the Think and Do stage, but are limited on See content. To make your content marketing strategy for brokers effective, you should consider having a balanced library of content for each stage.
Optimize Existing Content
It’s always easier to improve existing content rather than creating it from scratch. Once you’ve categorized your existing content to speak to the relevant stages of buyer intent, then optimize so it can better align with its intended goal. For example, if your company’s blog falls into the See stage, then revisit old blog posts and add more visuals, broaden your topic choices to appeal to employers who are who are simply looking for help with a variety of challenges but not necessarily for employee benefits.
Fill in the Gaps
After optimizing your existing content now it’s time to create new content to fill in the gaps. By this point, you should fully understand your audience and their preferred content for each stage. In order to effectively apply this content marketing strategy for brokers, you need to create content to fill in the gaps. Create free guides on increasing employee participation for the See stage. Share employee benefits research and data for the Think stage. Create case studies for the Do stage.
Do market research and surveys with your current customers to gain insight into what types of content they deem relevant to each stage. This will help provide the right type of content at the right time, no matter where they are in the buyer’s journey.
Final Thoughts About Insurance Content Marketing Framework
Implementing this insurance content marketing framework isn’t difficult, it’s just a different way of thinking about content. Taking on this perspective will help you build stronger relationships earlier on in the buyer’s journey, and by extension drive more conversions down the funnel.
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