Inbound Marketing For Title Insurance Firms
If you’re just starting out as a title insurance sales representative, or you’ve been at it a while, no one needs to tell you how tough and competitive the business is. You’re succeeding because you’re an ace at sales—you’re outgoing, you’re fearless and you’re great at cultivating leads.
You probably love everything about the sales process: from finding a list of targets, to making cold calls or cold visits, to socializing and entertaining your prospects, and of course, closing that sale.
Would you feel like it was cheating if you could build a pipeline right from your desktop without doing much research?
You may have heard about inbound marketing. Very simply, it’s a marketing strategy based on your online content, designed to allow the customers who need your services to find you and make the decision to hire you.
Of course, in the title insurance industry, you won’t convert a sale simply by having great content. But you will get new leads, especially residential real estate title insurance agents where the population of brokers, agents, buyers, sellers and attorneys isn’t as concentrated as in commercial real estate.
Does that sound intriguing? If so, here are some of the basic necessities for an inbound marketing program:
- An attractive, user friendly website with relevant calls to action
- An easy-to-use blogging platform
- Digital video capabilities
- Social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, G+)
- Automated response templates or live chat software for immediate response to inquiries
- At least one piece of free premium content to offer in exchange for opting into a contact list
The goal of all of these pieces is to get the people visiting your website to view your experience and qualifications, find value in your blog posts and other available resources, and if they like what they see, make it very easy for them to reach you. The rest is up to you.
Title insurance representatives have two important things to consider. The first is your audience. As I said earlier, your potential sources of business are many, and when you blog and provide content, you have to make decisions as to which audiences you want to attract. If you want more business referrals from law firms, for example, then your blog posts need to be interesting and informative for them.
The second is how you will structure your content platforms and subsequent commission payments. Answer the following questions:
- Will the voice and perspective of the written content come from the company itself?
- Will each sales rep be responsible for his or her own blog and content?
- Will these be hosted on the company’s main site, or on individual platforms?
- If the latter, how will they remain consistent with the brand?
- How will you properly track lead generation to make sure a sales rep is properly credited or commissioned?
As you know, the title insurance industry, and your professional licensing, is subject to many regulations, which have only increased in the face of the current mortgage financial crisis. Make sure you review them, possibly with an expert, so that all of your inbound marketing activities are fully compliant.
I’m not suggesting that inbound marketing will replace your active sales work. If you generate a lead via inbound marketing you still have to call on that lead and make the active social connection to close the sale. You still have your traditional pipeline to call on (especially important for commercial real estate title insurance reps, where long-standing professional relationships are very crucial). However, it can give you that edge you need to connect with the customers that are actively looking for you.
Alex is a blogger at The Kyle Law Firm in New Braunfels, Texas. He wants to learn more about inbound marketing strategies.
