If you, as an insurance professional, are working on a marketing plan for your agency, video marketing can be a powerful tool to use. While text can be effective on its own, video can take your marketing to the next level in terms of engagement and impact.
Why to adopt video marketing
You may not think you need to adopt video marketing—or you may see the barriers to entry that’s too high—but the benefits are hard to ignore. Videos are a clear and appealing way to deliver information. They are a compelling way to present interesting information, and engaging visuals can get people more invested in the services your agency provides compared to text alone.
There are also material benefits to including video in your marketing plan. For instance, Google reviews your webpage and analyzes the featured content. If you have a diverse array of content (like featuring text, video, and images on a single page), you can improve your ranking in the search engine.
Featuring video content also keeps visitors on your webpage for a longer time. One benefit is that this increases the chances of visitors further exploring your website. If you have a video that mentions multiple products or services, they may visit each product’s respective webpage. They also may leave the video playing in a different tab while they explore the website on their own.
This leads to yet another benefit when it comes to your webpage appearing in search engines: Google Analytics tracks the amount of time people spend on a given webpage. This means the more time people spend watching your videos, the higher the webpage ranks online.
Creating and implementing videos
While these are the benefits to video marketing, how do you start incorporating it into your marketing plan? Before you start putting people in front of a camera (or even purchasing a camera), you’re going to want to draft a plan to reach a certain audience with a specific product or service.
You also need to consider where you will be posting the video. Here are the questions that you must ask yourself for each video that you want to make:
- Is it for social media? Or is it for a specific webpage?
- Do you want to target a younger or older audience?
- When it comes to addressing an audience, do you prefer a casual tone? Or do you prefer something a bit more serious? Once you have a clear idea of what kind of video you want to make, it is time to realize it. You can either outsource the production and post-production to an agency or create the video in-house. If you choose to outsource the video, you may need to screen different production companies to determine which one suits your needs the best.
If you choose to make it in-house, there are a few more considerations, which include writing and editing a script, planning your shoot (from shot composition to location), and shooting and editing video. A lot of work goes into video production, and while it may seem tempting to cut corners, viewers will notice dips in quality.
If you are looking for a place to start, PIA Northeast offers members access to its Digital Marketing Tools, which includes some videos that you can post on your website and on social media.
After you’ve posted your video to an appropriate platform (such as your webpage or on social media), keep a close eye on your metrics, so you can measure each video’s success. This information will help you make more effective videos in the future. Be sure to listen to feedback from your audience too, this also will help.
In conclusion
Video production is more accessible than ever, but it’s no walk in the park. A lot of work goes into producing and promoting videos, even if you outsource the lTeabor.
However, if you determine that video marketing is the best course of action for your marketing plan, you can find it rewarding and beneficial for you and your agency.
Matt McDonough is PIA Northeast's writer, editor and content curator. Matt joined PIA Northeast in September 2023. Before that, he had been an editor for the online entertainment magazine Collider from 2021-23 as a copy editor for its lists section. Matt entered the world of journalism at his alma mater, SUNY New Paltz, writing and reporting for the college's student run newspaper, The New Paltz Oracle. He graduated from SUNY New Paltz with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a minor in Creative Writing in 2020.
