Social Media for Life Insurance Agents: Beneficial or Harmful?
In the present times, Social Media is playing an important role in every field. Whether you want to use it personally or present yourself as a brand, whether you want to improve your business or do social work - with the help of Social Media, you can complete all these tasks very easily and in a better way.
Now that Social Media has become so important in human life, can the Life Insurance Business remain untouched by it? So the answer is - no, provided it is used wisely in the Insurance Business.
Friends, we are basically writing this article of Jeevan Bima Bazaar for those Life Insurance Agents who are stuck in doubts about the use of Social Media and its results. Who want to know whether the use of Social Media will benefit or harm their Insurance Business.
So through today's article, I will give you information about the advantages and disadvantages of Social Media while being unbiased. So that you can decide whether you should use Social Media to make your Insurance Business successful or not. So let's start this important information-
Importance of Social Media for Life Insurance Agent
If you talk to people living in your area and collect data about how many people in your area are using Social Media, then you will also find that most people of your society will be using different platforms of Social Media. Yes, if such assessment is done on the basis of age group, then this figure can be different according to different age groups. But still you will find most people of your area using Social Media.
Now if a lot of people are present together on a platform and if as a Life Insurance Agent you can also reach that platform, then this can be a golden opportunity for you and your business. Provided that you know the right way to put your point across. In this direction, a Life Insurance Agent can easily fulfill many of his objectives through Social Media:
Reaching Out to Customers:
There are many types of people available on different Social Media platforms. In such a situation, by properly using platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube, you can reach out to New Customers. Yes, you may not be able to talk to everyone one by one, but despite this, you can reach out to more and more people at once and influence more people.
Building a Professional Image:
You will find many such people in the society who have some special kind of talent, but due to lack of access to the right platform, their talent is not able to reach the people. Social Media is such a platform for such people, which provides such people an equal opportunity to show their talent. I am sure that you too will be aware of many such celebrities who have achieved a better position with the help of Social Media.
As a Life Insurance Agent, you also have this opportunity, by using Social Media you can also reach out to people with your knowledge and build your professional image.
Development of Business Relationships:
Social Media is not only an easy way to reach new customers, but with its help you can also build your business relationships. I know many such Life Insurance Agents who started their business from Social Media and by developing relationships, they are today moving on the path of success.
I want to share one of my experiences here. A woman agent was doing her Life Insurance Business in a big city. In a few years, when her business improved a bit, her husband got transferred to another district. She was forced to transfer her agency to the new district.
The new city was completely new for her. She did not know anyone in this new city. On our suggestion, she created her account on Facebook, YouTube, Blogger website and WhatsApp and first of all started the work of policy service. After Policy Servicing, she started sharing customer conversations and her experiences on Social Media. She did not get any profit for the first six months, she kept incurring losses.
In the seventh month, she sold her first insurance whose Sum Assured was Rs. 50 lakhs. This was the biggest insurance of her life. Even today she is using Social Media and has kept two staff to regulate Social Media.
So friends, the right use of Social Media can not only get you New Insurance, but it is also a medium through which you can develop your Business Relations. Not only this, it is also a medium through which Social Media can help you reach the kind of customers you want to work with.
Use of Social Media in Policy Servicing:
The use of Social Media for Policy Servicing is very beneficial for a Life Insurance Agent. Its use saves a lot of time and money of the agent and develops a professional image.
In Life Insurance Policy Servicing, the use of Social Media proves to be very useful for tasks such as Premium Reminders, Survival Benefit Reminders, Revival Reminders. For this, digital resources such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Email can be used.
Benefits of Social Media in Life Insurance Business
While on one hand Social Media is being used by people for their own entertainment and other reasons, on the other hand many people are using it to improve their different businesses and are improving their Insurance Business.
Now in such a situation a natural question may arise in your mind that if Social Media is used to improve the Life Insurance Business, then what benefits can a Life Insurance Agent get from it? So let's understand the benefits that a Life Insurance Agent gets from the use of Social Media-
Wide Reach: By using Digital Platforms a Life Insurance Agent can reach his Insurance Business to a large group of audience.
Low Cost: Generally, creating a new account on Social Media, publishing your views on your Social Media account is absolutely free. But if you want to promote a product on Social Media, then you can do this work at a very nominal cost.
Branding: On Social Media, you can reach out to people through your articles, videos and other means. You can listen to their problems and provide them solutions like an expert advisor. Your professional image is built by the activities you do.
Saving Time: In Life Insurance Business, it often happens that at a certain time you need to do some special activity related to your Insurance Business. Normally, you need to participate in such activities. But with the help of some automated processes and post scheduling tools on Social Media, you can do such activities very easily. By doing this, you can save a lot of time.
Disadvantages of Social Media in Life Insurance Business
There are different types of advantages and disadvantages in doing every kind of work, the same rule applies to those who try to do Life Insurance Business on Social Media. Let us know that if you use Social Media as a medium to do Life Insurance Business, then what challenges will you have to face by doing this and how can you suffer losses.
Competition: If you want to try for Life Insurance Business through Digital Platform, then you have to understand that you are not alone here, many people like you are engaged in this effort to improve their business. If you want to achieve success by making Social Media a medium, then you have to do better than others.
Strengthening Rival Agents: Generally, in an effort to perform better on Social Media, you share your work methods on Digital Platforms. This is a golden opportunity for your rival agents. They can be a big challenge for you to learn your work methods and do better than you.
Theft of New Business: Since all Digital Platforms are an open platform for everyone. Therefore, all your activities on your Social Media platform are available to everyone. In such a situation, if a customer contacts you on Social Media and tries to understand the Insurance Policy and another agent realizes this, then he can definitely try to steal your customer.
Credibility Issue: If a person tries to understand a Life Insurance policy on a Digital Platform, then you cannot find out in any way whether he is a customer or another Life Insurance Agent is talking to you to learn about your online efforts. If you get caught in such a trap laid by another Life Insurance Agent, then on one hand your time is wasted and on the other hand your technology goes to another agent.
Limited Impact: On the Digital Platform, you can leave only a limited impact on new customers. Since Life Insurance Business is related to financial matters and nowadays so much online fraud is being done that due to this people will not be able to trust you.
Note: To avoid all the above disadvantages and for better performance, my brief suggestion would be to use the Digital Platform only to develop business relations with people. For the remaining efforts, you should contact them directly.
Social Media Strategies for Life Insurance Agents
Think about it once- if you have to organize a small party or any other event, do you start it suddenly or do you make a plan to make that party or event successful? Remember, if any work is started without any plan then the chances of its success are very less and generally you have to face many problems in such work.
Similarly, if you want to try on Digital Platform to make your Life Insurance Business successful then you have to make a better strategy. I would like to draw your attention to some things-
Choosing the Right Digital Platform:
At present, many types of Digital Platforms are available for everyone which can be used by everyone. So first of all you must understand which platform is made for what purpose. So that you can choose the platform that is suitable and suitable for you.
Facebook: This platform can be used to make new friends, find old friends and express your views on social issues. Here you can share short posts, images, videos. So I think this platform will be suitable for you to find new customers and develop business relations with them.
X (Twitter): This is a platform where you will find leaders, actors, celebrities, doctors, engineers and all other types of people. You can put your views briefly on this platform. If you want to sell big insurance then this platform can be a good option for you.
Linked-in: Actually this platform was created to fulfill employment related needs. People who need people to get work done or people who are looking for employment. This platform can prove to be a suitable platform for those people. If you are a development officer or CLIA in an organization like LIC, then with the help of this platform you can find new agents.
Instagram: On this platform, mainly images and videos can be shared. So if you are comfortable with these contents, then you can use Instagram to put your point across.
Youtube: This is a platform where you can present your point through videos. So if you feel that you can explain to people in a better way, then this platform can also be a suitable option for you.
Note: Remember, while choosing a Digital Platform, you should choose only those platforms on which you can post content easily. For example, if you do not know how to create images and videos and you choose Instagram and share someone else's content, then you may be accused of copyright infringement and face a penalty.
Planning for Digital Content:
Once you have chosen which Digital Platforms you want to work on, the first thing you must think about is what kind of content can be included on that platform. That is, can you give information on it through articles or through videos or present your point in some other way.
Once you know about the above, you should think about which of the existing options you are comfortable with. Once you have decided this thing, then you have to think about what you want to do on your Digital Platform? Let me clarify my point-
Including Educational Posts: You should publish more loudly about that Life Insurance policy in your Social Media posts, for which you consider yourself more expert. Apart from this, it can be beneficial for you to include information related to insurance awareness, Life Insurance policy servicing in your post.
Include Customer Stories: You should feature customer experiences on your social media platforms from people you have sold life insurance policies to or assisted with policy servicing or helped get death claims paid for policies.
Incorporate Live Q&A: If possible, you should organize live sessions from time to time and tell people on your Social Media platforms that if they have any problem with their Life Insurance policy, they must join your live session to get it resolved.
Ensure Time Duration
In the context of efforts to make Insurance Business successful with the help of Digital Platforms, one of our important suggestions for you would be that it would be best to use Digital Platforms only and only for developing new relationships. If you will work by relying on Digital Platforms with the hope of selling insurance, then I am afraid you may fail.
So I would strongly say to you that you should give only one to two hours of your free time to Social Media. Choose the time keeping in mind your convenience and keep presenting the information of the time you choose on your Social Media platform from time to time. So that your audience knows about this and they can contact you whenever needed.
Tips for Insurance Agents to use Digital Platforms
If you are trying to improve your Insurance Business, then I have some suggestions for you and I would say that no matter what, you must follow them-
Maintain Authenticity: Remember, it may take years of hard work to make a name but a few moments are enough to spoil the name. So, our suggestion for you would be to be very careful in whatever information you are publishing on your Social Media. Always publish correct, accurate and authentic information on Social Media.
Develop New Business Relationships: Remember, your presence on the Digital Platform is only and only for the purpose of accelerating your business. I think you should not focus on insurance sales on your Digital Platform. Rather, your focus should be on how to develop relationships with new people so that you can reach out to them.
Be Cautious: Remember, every Digital Platform is freely available to everyone, so do not share any of your information here which may cause problems for you in the future.
Maintain Balance: Remember, you are in a business that deals with money transactions. Due to online fraud, most people avoid taking any financial decision based on digital claims. So, use your free time on Digital Platforms. Because selling insurance policies here is a very difficult task.
Conclusion
The use of Digital Platforms can be a great tool to improve the Life Insurance Business, but it is not everything for this business. It is a medium with the help of which new customers can be connected and your business can be promoted. You have to understand that customers can be reached through digital mediums, but personal contact and efforts are very important to complete the sales process.
Know in Detail in the Video
To know more about the information given in this article, watch the video given below carefully till the end. If you have any questions in this regard, then write your questions in the comment box of the video.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please do not enter any spam link in the comment box.