Traditional methods for marketing insurance, which play on visceral human reactions to extreme events, can help make brokers’ digital insurance marketing campaigns ‘go viral,’ blogger Patrick Murphy wrote for SiliconCloud Blog.
Murphy notes that traditional insurance marketing is built on the idea of answering the question ‘what if?’ For example, ‘What if I crash my car?’ or ‘What if a tree wrecks my garage during a storm?’
Considering “what if?” questions can evoke some strong emotional responses, Murphy writes. And emotions play a huge part in any digital online marketing campaign becoming a huge success.
“Videos, images and other content go viral because of shares,” Murphy writes. “People see it, tell their friends, their friends see it and tell theirs, and so on. People share things that cause an emotional reaction, so traditional marketing methods can become successful digital insurance marketing ideas.”
Murphy suggests viral sharing happens when people have one or more of the following three “overwhelming” responses to events:
Shock
“People share things that shock them,” Murphy writes. “If you gasp when you see something, you may not even have a choice. Those around you will actually ask to see whatever created that reaction. The risks that insurance protects you from generate images or videos that are both shocking and incredibly shareable.”
For example, Murphy notes that a YouTube search of the words ‘lucky escape’ will produce a number of videos of people from whom insurance would be a necessity.
“You will see people escape death in all sorts of insurable ways,” he notes. “Car crashes are the most popular. Each of these videos pulls a gasp from the viewer. Each is insurance related and the view counts run from the thousands into the millions.”
Laughter
“Insurance also lends itself to funny content,” Murphy writes. “Stories and images of the stupid things people to will always be the most shareable types of content…
“Insurance agents regularly hear stories of stupidity or encounter images of big mistakes people have made that are just funny. These can form the basis of an effective digital insurance marketing strategy.”
Sadness
Tears can be just as effective as laughter in marketing campaigns.
“Insurance agents also deal with potential tragedy and work to prevent it,” Murphy writes. “One of the best ways to prevent tragic accidents is to make people aware of the dangers, which makes for effective digital insurance marketing content too. When you create online content to promote your business, you should always add value. In this case the value to readers/viewers is the warning and understanding of danger.”
