Blog

You may already have social media profiles for your insurance business on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter. But have you considered promoting your brand in Instagram? If not, maybe you should.

There are more than 1 billion monthly active users on Instagram,. And when companies go on Instagram, their audience is highly engaged—studies show that per-post engagement has grown at a rate of 53% yearly according to Hubspot.

Insurance agents and agencies have been quick to adopt Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Twitter as part of their branding strategy. But the industry is still pretty rare on Instagram. That gives you an automatic advantage when you sign up—you have less competition in your niche.

Even so, it can be difficult to translate the work you do into the visual medium of Instagram—at least at first. Here are a few tips for getting started.

Follow other insurance pros on Instagram. There aren’t a lot, but there are a few. Follow some of the top brands and independent agents you can find on the platform, and see what they’re doing. You’ll get ideas for the kind of content that gets interaction, plus the hashtags they’re using.

Use hashtags. Hashtags are key on Instagram. They help your audience find your posts, and make you visible to a broader audience. It’s important to be strategic about the hashtags you use—pick five to ten that you plan to use heavily, both relevant to your images and to your brand (such as your agency name).

Ask for what you want. You can’t include clickable links in your Instagram post—this is a drawback of the platform. But you can include non-clickable links and tell your audience to visit your website. You can do this with specific products you’re promoting, or include a general call to action that sends visitors to your agency website—where they can get an instant quote or learn more.

Make it personal. Insurance is all about building a relationship of trust with your customers—and Instagram helps you do that. The platform is a great place to show funny slice-of-life pics at the office, show your employees volunteering or active in the community, and show relatable details of your own life—both personally and professionally. This draws people in—and helps you build trust and transparency before your prospects are customers.

Instagram is definitely worth your time as a marketing platform. Check out what others in the insurance industry are doing, experiment with hashtags, and put up posts that showcase your company’s personality—and you should be able to generate traffic and business from the platform.