Stage 2: Creating a Marketing plan and Refining Your Message

Stage 2: Creating a Marketing Plan and Refining Your Message

Stage 2: Creating a Marketing Plan and Refining Your Message

1. Write down your USP and positioning statement

Your unique selling point or proposition (USP for short) is what makes your business unique and different from any other competitor. What is one thing you do that customers care about that your competitors don’t do or are not as good at doing? When writing your positioning statement, you will need to have this USP or point-of-difference clearly established. Once you have your point of difference, complete the sentence to create your own positioning statement.

To (target market), (your business name) is the one (product category) that (point of difference.)

For example: the positioning statement for an insurance agency in Madison, WI would be... To individuals and businesses in the Madison, WI area, ABC Agency is one insurance agency that offers new clients an easy way to request and receive a quote within one business day. (It could also be... that offers an efficient and thorough coverage review process on new and renewal business by using thorough checklists and personalized review calls.) It’s all about what sets you apart!

2. Evaluate your agency’s strengths

Your agency needs to determine what sets you apart from your competitors. Run through your strengths and develop goals on how you plan to use those strenths to your advantage. Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself after identifying your strengths: • How can I further develop and showcase my strengths? • What do I offer that gives my agency a competitive advantage? • Who would be interested in learning more about your strengths?

3. After creating your business goals, it’s time to understand your target audience.

When creating a digital marketing plan, it’s important to describe and outline your target audience. You can reference your positioning statement which should include a short description of your target audience. Your target audience are your ideal clients and customers. As an insurance agent, you likely sell both personal and commercial, as well as life and health so your audience may be quite broad.

However, the location of your audience will be an important piece of preparing your marketing content. You may describe your target audience as individuals, families, business owners and commercial businesses in XYZ city or a certain area. This will help you create social media campaigns and ads, as well as pick out keywords to include on your website.

When picking social media platforms to utilize, remember to pick platforms where your target market is active on instead of picking platforms that you like the best. For example, you wouldn’t advertise to families on LinkedIn, as that is a business/professional page. A personal insurance ad would be better received on Facebook.

4. It’s time to put this all together

You can create a written marketing plan (recommended) or you can write down notes about your target audience, positioning statement, strengths, etc. Either way, this information is important to think about.

For more details on writing your marketing plan, review these sites for descriptions and templates.

HubSpot: Everything You Need to Write a Marketing Plan with Examples Marketing Plan Template AddThis Academy: The Ultimate Marketing Plan Template Downloadable Template

Stage 2: Creating a Marketing Plan and Refining Your Message

According to the same study by The London School of Economics and Political Science, the average age of users were between the ages of 18 and 29 and 33% of users were between the ages of 30 and 49.

There are many other social media platforms that may be applicable to your agency. However, for starters these are the core four social media sites that can help to target a majority of your audience.

5. Decide which social media platform would be best for you and your agency.

(Stage 3 will outline how to set these up, the best times to post for each social media site and exactly what to include in your posts for the best engagement.)

Facebook: Plan your Facebook posts to be tailored to a local audience. According to Statistica, 79% of actively engaged Facebook users were between the ages of 30 and 49 years. Facebook will be the best spot to target a large chunk of your target audience.

Twitter: Plan your Twitter posts to focus on more global and trending topics. According to Omnicore Agency, 38% of Twitter users are between the ages of 18 and 29 and 26% of Twitter users are between the ages of 30 and 49. Twitter is another great option for targeting your target audience.

LinkedIn: Plan your LinkedIn posts to focus on business insights for other people in the insurance industry. According to a study done by The London School of Economics and Political Science, the average age of users were between the ages of 30 to 64.

6. Now that you’ve outlined your positioning statement, goals and target audiences, it’s time to develop a content calendar.

A content calendar is great for keeping you on track with your digital marketing schedule. While you can’t schedule everything ahead of time, a content calendar will help you get a starting point for deciding what content you want to post when. Attempt to plan content for the next quarter, or if you’re feeling ambitious, the next six months. First, start with your website. What are some ways that you can reach your business goals by adding content to your website? A blog area on your website is a great spot to add content without disrupting the most important information on your other pages. Take a look at some of the carriers your agency works with. What are some topics that they cover on their blogs or elsewhere on their websites? Consider holidays and other seasonal factors when creating your content calendar. Are there seasonal topics that would be important to your audiences? From there, you can take the content you plan to share on your website, and plan to post those same topics on your soon-to-be social media sites. Now you have an idea for the content you’re going to create! Let’s get started on developing your online presence.

Your online presence

Instagram: Plan your Instagram posts to be mainly “just-for-fun” posts to connect your agency’s community together. Instagram is a fun platform that will help your customers and potential customers get an inside look into the office and the workplace culture.