Make the most out of your insurance agency’s website, emails, and social posts by applying these psychological hacks to your content.
People tend to take action when they’re annoyed. Think about it. Bugs in general probably don’t annoy you. Rather, it’s that one fly buzzing incessantly around your face that agitates you to end its reign of terror with a sound swat. If you want prospects to convert, remind them that there’s some annoying problem before you start to pitch a solution.
Agitating the problem means using language and examples that remind your prospects of that thing that other insurance providers do (or don’t do) that really gets on their nerves. For example, you may remind prospects of pushy salespeople or of the annoyance of having to research a dozen different companies to find one that meets their needs or of their insurance contact who never returns their calls.
Once they’ve been reminded that they can do better, they’re ready for your message.
The simpler you make your message, the more responsive leads will be to it. That’s not just speculation. According to research supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the National Science Foundation, the more fluently you are able to process information, the better you think it is.
There’s a reason why politicians who speak in short, simple catch phrases win popular appeal. We like what we understand.
But more to the point, we don’t like what we don’t understand. When writers use unnecessarily complex language, readers actually perceive them as being less intelligent, according to Princeton professor Daniel M. Oppenheimer.
By the age of five months, infants have already begun responding to the sound of their own names with increased attention. That doesn’t change much as we get older.
Take advantage of this tendency using the power of technology and automation. You can incorporate your leads’ names in most communication media - from emails to gated web pages - using simple lines of code or merge field options. Email recipients and website users who see their names in a header will be primed to attend to the rest of the content.
Whether you’re making claims about the value of your insurance agency or about your prospects’ insurance needs, focus on making those claims concrete. You can use statistics and other numerical data to back our claims, case studies and testimonials, or just making the claims a little more specific. For example, rather than saying that your insurance agents are quick to respond to clients, tell prospects that your agents will return calls within 24 hours.
The more details you can provide to back your claims, the more trustworthy your agency will appear. The caveat, of course, is that you need to support your claims with more than details; you need to support them with actions as well.
The old adage flattery will get you everywhere has some merit. But don’t slather on the flattery. Rather than pointing it directly at your prospects, use it subtly by labeling your current clients as “discerning” or “forward-thinking” or “wise.” As in:
Nashville’s most forward-thinking homeowners have chosen our agency to protect their homes.
Most users, wanting to be considered wise, will feel more comfortable joining the group who have chosen your agency.