How Insurance Influencer Marketing Can Transform Your Brand: Strategies for Success in 2024

In the United States, spending on sponsored content on social media is expected to rise by 16.0% this year to $8.14 billion, according to eMarketer. While influencer marketing typically conjures images of unboxing videos for fashion hauls or tutorials for beauty products, other industries — including insurance — are leveraging the strategy. It makes sense, as influencer marketing offers opportunities to increase reach, build consumer trust, and boost brand awareness with strong campaign ROIs. This blog shows how it can be a cost-effective tool to promote your health, life, auto, or travel insurance business, with tips and examples to get started.

Benefits of influencer marketing for insurance companies

Although running TV commercials, paying for billboard spaces, and mailing brochures can help insurance brands get their name in front of consumers, these traditional strategies can be expensive. Additionally, these tactics may need to do more to educate your audience about your products or services or build trust among sales-weary shoppers.

Influencer marketing, however, provides many advantages over traditional advertising.

Expanded reach

Your brand’s social media channels are great for reaching existing customers to whom you may be able to upsell new products or services or consumers who may already have some awareness about your brand. But working with content creators can help you target new audiences through the influencers’ followers.

Increased authenticity

Social media users—especially the younger generations, including Gen Z and millennials—tend to rely heavily on word-of-mouth marketing. These digital natives tend to be more ad-savvy and reliant on people they like and trust when considering a purchase. Recommendations from friends, family, and respected influencers are highly regarded for their authenticity and, therefore, nearly unmatched by direct advertising from brands.

Plus, according to IZEA’s influencer marketing research, influencer content has the greatest impact on product consideration across all age groups. 

Social media has evolved to become more than a way to keep up with long-distance friends or view your grandparents’ vacation photos; it now serves as a search engine for shoppers. 

Influencer marketing adds to the effectiveness of your SEO efforts by offering search engines relevant keywords, links to your website, and answers to frequently asked questions. These factors weigh heavily with search engines and will increase your visibility and the chances of your content and website showing up in results pages.

Social media platforms also function as search engines, with SEO keywords and hashtags enhancing visibility.

Improved ROI

Influencer marketing is one of the most cost-effective tools to grow your brand online. Opt for affordable influencers with a smaller but dedicated following (e.g., nano-, micro-, or mid-tier) that aligns with your target audience. 

Rather than pouring a considerable portion of your marketing budget into an extensive commercial ad campaign that may or may not hit the mark, start with an influencer marketing campaign. The right content creator can help you reach your target audience for a fraction of the cost and with a built-in following that already trusts the person posting, you’re far more likely to see a strong return on your investment.  

Examples of insurance influencer marketing

It’s important to remember that your creator’s content should seek to educate, inform, or entertain rather than simply push a hard-sell for your product or service. As you’ll see in some of these examples from various corners of the insurance industry, a big part of influencer marketing is creating awareness about a company or brand and encouraging viewers to seek out more information.

Health insurance

Anthem Blue Cross sought to raise awareness about California’s open enrollment by pairing with local content creator Caton Del Rosario to create this Instagram video during open enrollment. In the video, he explains the low-cost monthly plans, including free preventative care and virtual visits, and the fact that most Californians qualify for financial help.

Life insurance

When Gainbridge Life Insurance Company wanted to promote its SteadyPace multi-year guaranteed annuity plan, it turned to mid-tier Instagram influencer Marc Russel. The financial coach shared this video with his 310K followers to educate them on how annuities work and earn money. 

Auto Insurance

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wanted to educate drivers about the consequences of speeding and risk-taking behaviors while driving so it turned to influencer Jonathan Pfaehler. The husband and father created this personal Instagram post reminding his 706K followers that careless driving can result in high insurance rates, damage to your vehicle, and jeopardize the lives of those you love.

Cars.com, which sells cars and provides information about insurance costs and warranties, turned to financial educator Patrick Di Cesare to share considerations regarding purchasing an electric vehicle. He created this video for Cars.com to educate his 238.3K TikTok fans.

Finding insurance influencers

Ready to start creating campaigns but don’t know where to find insurance influencers? Check out IZEA.com. This well-trafficked hub lets you search for influencers using various filters, including topics, platforms, follower count, tags, location, and demographics, among others. 

For a comprehensive insurance influencer marketing campaign strategy and execution, our Managed Services team can help.