Facebook is one of the most fertile grounds for insurance branding and lead generation today, with about 1.88 billion people visiting the social networking site daily. While many of these users primarily want to connect, have fun, and meet new people, they will also happily follow brands that satisfy their lifestyle interests/needs, such as entertainment, information, or solutions. However, poor content and the lack of planning are common hindrances to creating highly engaging and converting insurance agency Facebook posts.
As an insurance agent or broker, you need a proper Facebook marketing strategy to not only get the attention and win the hearts of these users but also convert engagements into leads and sales. What to say, when and how to say it matter a lot as an inappropriate post can quickly cause a blow to your brand.
Getting the timing, quality, and relevance of your insurance agency Facebook posts right will help increase your brand visibility and maintain your target audience's interest in your products.
However, to create inspiring and highly converting Facebook content for your insurance agency, you'll want to avoid the following mistakes.
17 Insurance Facebook Post Mistakes You Should Avoid
1. Posting without goal
Without clear objectives, you may occasionally end up posting for the sake of staying active on social media. Some of your insurance Facebook posts will likely be irrelevant and may fail to generate meaningful engagement from your prospective clients. You should post with a purpose that is aligned to your overall Facebook insurance marketing strategy, such as to educate a specific demographic segment about their health insurance eligibility.
2. Posting too little or too often
However busy you might be, not posting regularly will lose you followers and potential leads. Some of the people who look to you for quick insights on insurance topics or trends may gradually stop following your business page. Similarly, bombarding your audience with multiple posts a day may be off-putting. Note that Facebook prioritizes "fresh" content and doesn't want to overwhelm its users with multiple posts from the same brand at a time.
Choose an appropriate Facebook posting frequency, such as two or five times a week or daily, to optimize engagement and value. A HubSpot study suggests publishing between two and five times per week on Facebook. As you can see in the screenshot below, the number of clicks starts falling as the number of posts increases.
Source: HubSpot
3. Posting at the wrong time
It's up to you to choose the best time for an insurance agency Facebook post. Here, by 'time,' we mean the time of day, that is morning, afternoon, evening, or night. This will be determined based on the activity data of your initial posts that you posted randomly at different times of the day. For example, if most of your posts that got engagement were posted in the morning, you should stick to posting at least one similar post at that time regularly. Meanwhile, you can keep testing other types of posts throughout the day. Interestingly, studies have found that the best time to post on Facebook is between 9 a.m. to 1 p.m, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
Source: SproutSocial
4. Focusing TOO MUCH on promotions
This is inappropriate because most prospects aren't really looking for insurance policies on Facebook. Excessive brand promotion runs counter to immediate user needs, including pressing concerns that your insurance products may be able to solve. Though you can occasionally advertise or promote your brand on Facebook, make sure to prioritize informative posts to generate buyer interest and push prospects further down the sales funnel.
5. Posting funny, boring, or off-brand content
Off-brand posts, such as jokes or funny memes, may be wasteful and less likely to bring meaningful engagement. While you should be publishing insurance-related Facebook posts, make sure that your audience cares about the topics you address. You can keep it casual and light, but always tie everything to the related concerns of homeowners, renters, motorists, business owners, etc.
6. Always adding links to your posts
Links will help drive traffic to your insurance agency's website or blog posts, but they shouldn't be a constant feature. Too many similar links to your site may hurt your reach if deemed "spammy" by Facebook. Studies also suggest that posts with only photos get 39% more engagement than posts that have links. As a rule of thumb, focus at least 70% of your posts on building your brand and trust and maximizing engagement.
7. Posting links the wrong way
When posting links, always tell your users what it's about. That's because people simply avoid clicking on a link that doesn't say anything about the destination page. You should also avoid posting very long URLs as it looks unsightly to users. You can also use a custom URL shortener tool, like bit.ly, ow.ly, or HootSuite, to make your links look clean and organized.
8. Using too much or irrelevant hashtags
At times you may be tempted to incorporate a trending hashtag into an insurance Facebook post regardless of its relevance. However, the bulk of likes or shares obtained with irrelevant hashtags may never yield any meaningful insurance lead. Therefore, before using this powerful feature, consider how relevant it is to your audience.
For instance, hashtags such as #insuranceforthebreadwinner will be more appropriate for earning members of the family who are wondering how best to protect their future with life insurance. Meanwhile, using hashtags such as #insureyourfuture, #insuranceforlife does give a general idea of life insurance but fails to attract the target audience, that is, the breadwinners of the family.
As much as relevance is a key factor in using hashtags that provide engagement, it's also important to keep a count of hashtags in your posts. Studies suggest that engagements are high for posts with a lower number of hashtags.
Source: SproutSocial
9. Choosing the wrong image size
Choosing the right size of images for your posts is very important as it ensures that the photo is not cropped and appears properly across all devices. Facebook's design recommendation for business posts is 1080 x 1080 pixels at minimum. You can also keep a resolution of 1,200 x 630 pixels if you need your posts to be in landscape format. There is no maximum resolution limit for image posts by Facebook.
10. Using the banned words in Fb posts
The use of degrading or disrespectful language may get your business Facebook page banned or suspended. Facebook is understood to have internal guidelines that are not publicly available on moderation. In a recently uncovered document by The Wall Street Journal, moderators are told about the sentences that are and aren't allowed. An example given for a sentence that wasn't allowed is: "It's disgusting and repulsive how fat and ugly John Smith is." So, it's important to always be respectful in all your posts and responses.
11. Using only texts in your posts
This deprives you of maximum user engagement. Instead, consider incorporating images and Facebook videos in your posts, which are found to drive the most engagement on Facebook. Examples of this include short insurance explainer videos or actual client testimonials.
12. Adding video link instead of uploading it
Videos linked from YouTube tend to have a smaller reach and engagement. YouTube links also look ugly in the timeline and newsfeed as they appear with a small thumbnail image, the title of the video, and one or two lines of video description text. Whereas natively uploaded videos are featured at the full width of the feed, making it more noticeable and real. These videos autoplay directly in the Facebook feed, thereby playing a key role in creating quick brand awareness and improving engagement.
Source: Statista
13. Using bad grammar
Insurance consumers expect a certain level of competence from you, and bad grammar can impact your reputation in that aspect. Appropriate use of industry jargon and terms in a typical insurance agency Facebook post portrays your professionalism and helps to build brand trust.
14. Lacking any kind of humor or emotions in the post
Boring content brings limited engagement. The most boring thing you can get is by posting only self-promotional content. Most insurance agents, especially the inexperienced ones, are caught in this trap of only trying to sell on social media. Whatever you are posting, always try to inject your personality into your posts. You can do it with your writing style, your pictures, and even with the overall look and feel of your post.
Keep providing relevant and useful information, but be entertaining too. Also, keep the right amount of balance between professionalism and humor. Always keep in mind that Facebook is a social media platform, and people like to see the human behind a post. So let your followers see you!
15. Not branding your graphics
Without a way to stand out, your Facebook insurance page will be a lot more difficult to notice in your followers' feeds. On the other hand, branded images are easier to spot online and trigger immediate user engagement.
16. Not responding to negative comments
Comments are a part of your post on Facebook. If someone posts a negative comment that has some rude remarks, it's your job to patiently and professionally handle it. Ignoring negative feedback or questions on Facebook portrays your agency as uncaring and unprofessional. For people to trust you as a reliable source of insurance solutions or advice, you need to address their genuine grievances as soon as possible. By quickly and professionally handling negative comments, you can stop most problems from intensifying.
17. Not using a clear call to action
Not including a CTA in your insurance agency Facebook post can hurt your conversion rates. On the other hand, a statement like "contact us to talk to a risk management expert" invites prospects to take a specific action that yields a particular benefit.
Assess the Need for Insurance Social Media Marketing
While managing an insurance Facebook post and engaging prospects every day isn't rocket science, it takes consistent efforts and a proper understanding of best practices to deliver the expected results. Accomplishing this in-house can be overwhelming for many insurance brokers or agencies. Engaging an insurance social media marketing company is usually the more cost-effective option. By leveraging such an agency's resources and expertise to post and engage your followers regularly, you can grow your visibility and traffic to your website and establish brand trust and client loyalty.
To help decide whether you need to involve an insurance social media marketing agency, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do I understand how social media algorithms work and impact visibility?
- Am I struggling with insurance Facebook post updates?
- Do I have the time to regularly respond to prospects/policyholder comments or concerns posted on my Facebook business page?
- Do I have the resources to deliver creative posts, high-quality videos, and other engaging social media content?
You can grow your client base with an effective social media strategy. At Stratosphere, we offer full-range social media marketing services for insurance agencies, from content creation to advertising. For more information on how to get better social media results for your insurance agency, contact us today!
