How to Find Life Insurance Prospects Using Social Media

Editor’s note: This post was originally published on 7/27/16 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehension.

Your clients are the heart of your insurance business.

Before you have a client, they’re a prospect.

And knowing how to find life insurance prospects plays a huge part in your success.

Social media as a prospect-finding tool

We’ve covered lots of social media topics on the blog before like:

• How to succeed on social media
• Building trust
• Prospecting

Today, we’re going to dive into the nitty-gritty of what an effective social media strategy looks like so you can create one for your insurance business and find more life insurance prospects that will become clients!

How to find insurance leads

Here’s how to build a social media prospecting strategy that gets results.

Step 1: Outline your Goals

Build your strategy based on goals that will drive your business.

• Expectations. Sure, you want to generate sales from your social media efforts. But that’s the long game. On your social media channels, your goal should be to make connections and build relationships with people before they want to buy. Then, when they are ready to make the purchase, they’ll give you a call.

• Value. Before a prospect will engage with you, they need to know that you can provide them with value. Make it worth their time to interact with your brand by sharing relevant, interesting content that prospects need and that simultaneously showcases your expertise and positions you as a trusted information source.

• Investment. The truth is, social media can be a huge time-suck – if you don’t have a plan. Before you start posting away and interacting with prospects, know how much time you want to spend on it each day. A good starting point is to spend about an hour every day on social media. Those activities will include writing content, posting information, answering comments and interacting with followers.

Step 2: Know what to post

Understanding the content you should post on your social media channels warrants its own step.

You see, if you’re not strategic about creating your content, you might as well not engage in a  social media marketing strategy.

That’s akin to cold-calling people who already have great insurance from an insurance producer they know, like and trust.

This is what good content looks like:

• It’s targeted to your audience’s needs.
• It offers a fresh and engaging take – it doesn’t repeat what’s already out there.
• It should be informational.
• It can be original or curated (content you’ve aggregated or summarized from other authoritative sources).

With this kind of content, you’ll position yourself as a subject-matter expert and prospects will trust you.

Step 3: Get started

Once you choose the social media platforms to use, it’s time to make your channels great.

• Set it up. For the social media platforms with which you choose to work, you’ll need to create a profile.
• Write your bio. The bio should showcase what you’re all about. But instead of telling your audience who you are, show them. Avoid using industry jargon, and be personable.

• Use an image. Your profile picture should be professional, and include a header image, too, for example, your company logo. Make sure that these images are consistent across each platform that you use.

Your social media strategy in action

You have an overview of how to get started in the social media scene, but if you want to get the most from your efforts, it’s necessary to dig a little deeper.

Educate and engage with content

Your goal is to effectively communicate with your audience and turn them into prospects who will transition into actual clients.

As a life insurance producer, you want to provide content that’s fun and interesting but also educates and informs.

There are a couple different types of content that you can use to grab the attention of your audience.

• Blogs. These are a great outlet to show your expertise across specialty areas and life insurance in general. You don’t even have to come up with original content all the time – you can share articles from other trusted sources that offer value.
• Videos. A portion of your audience will respond better to a more visual medium. They find it easier to make a connection when they’re seeing you speak as opposed to reading.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you’re generating content for social media.

• What can you tell your audience about life insurance that may surprise them?
• What’s a benefit of having life insurance that most people would want but probably don’t know is available?
• When is the best time to buy and why?

Look at your social media accounts as “storefronts”

Your social media profile is akin to window shopping.

It allows people to see what you have to offer before they decide to pull the trigger.

If you’re walking through the mall and see a storefront with hideously ugly clothes on display, are you going to excitedly rush in to buy a new wardrobe?

What if there’s one half-clothed mannequin in the window and that’s all?

The point is to give your audience an enticing picture of what you’re all about and what you can do for them.

Focus on:

• Having a professional profile picture. This is likely the first thing people will notice, so it needs to look great!
• Making sure your profiles are consistent across different social media outlets. Keep the same tone so that your audience knows what to expect and gets a true sense of who you are.
• Completing your profile. Use every opportunity to show your value.

Use your bio to connect

Your bio on your social media profiles is crucial.

It’s the place where you can let your audience know what makes you different from other life insurance producers.

You can also use it as an opportunity to show people why they should care that you’re different.

Let them see that you’re intelligent, skilled and that you’re an authority in your field.

But, you should also let your audience see your personality. Don’t be so serious that you’re off-putting.

Here are some ideas to keep in mind when you’re crafting your bio.

• Yes, it’s your bio, but mix it up a bit. Don’t go overboard with, “I did this,” and “I did that.”
• Share a story that’s relevant to your audience. What experiences have you had that they can relate to?
• Always tie in your audience’s pain points. Relate your own background and experiences to how you’ve helped people succeed and find solutions.

Use testimonials

When you showcase your clients’ success, you’re sharing valuable content and boosting your own credibility.

You can even take a picture with your client and post it along with their story.

While keeping it short and to the point, share their before, during, and after.

The story should highlight:

• What was happening in their life that made them start to think about life insurance.
• The experience they had working with you.
• Their results.

Put your social media to work for you

With these steps, you have enough to get started with a social media strategy that will help you to connect with people and ultimately increase your number of prospects.

Are your social media offerings getting you the attention you want?