Many wholesale insurance brokerages are generalists—what they focus on is the risk that’s too challenging for the standard market, across all specializations. Niche marketing takes that one step further. Instead of specializing in challenging risk across any insurance area, you’re focusing in on one specific area—like excess transportation, cyber liability, or neutraceuticals, or specializations like those in a specific region.
Niche marketing can be an extremely powerful way to differentiate yourself from the competition. To a retail insurance agent deciding which wholesaler to work with, hearing that you have specialized expertise in exactly the problem they’re trying to solve is very attractive.
You don’t have to abandon your business in a broad spectrum of specializations to position yourself as a niche expert—it’s all in how you market. If you have the resources, you can position your business in a number of niches. Here’s what’s involved.
Figure out who’s underserved. Which areas of specialization have the hardest time finding products that meet their needs? It might take some research and conversations with agents to find out where the pain points are. But once you know, you can start developing products that target an underserved population—and bring you more business.
Your niche will be most profitable if there’s not a lot of competition, and if there’s at least a moderate level of demand. Very high levels of demand are ideal, but not necessarily required—since if you’re the only game in town with that specialization, even a moderate level of business, in general, could translate to a lot of business for you.
Blogging to your niche. Once you’ve decided on a niche area to specialize in, start blogging on the topic. Blogging helps your website show up in search results, making you visible to people looking for exactly your expertise. It also helps you build credibility and establish yourself as an expert in that market.
Build a targeted list. When building a list to market to, pull all the emails you have access to already—from trade shows, earlier list building efforts, associations, and other contacts—that focus on that specific target market. Once you’ve assembled a list from your existing contacts, you will most likely need to work with a list-building company to expand it.
Start an email newsletter. The marketing messages you send to your list can include repurposed blog posts or articles inspired by your blog content that’s helpful and relevant to that list. Track the emails that have the highest open rates to see what sparks the most interest—that can help you not only drive your blog posting strategy, but also refine your tactics when identifying what products and expertise are most needed.
Niche marketing can be extremely effective in helping you get an advantage over the competition—and attract business from underserved markets. Build a list of insurance agents in your niche, develop email newsletter content that capitalizes on your expertise in that area, and boost your website SEO and build on that expertise with a content strategy. From there, make sure all your marketing efforts are niche-specific, rather than seeking to speak to everyone—and you should see success in niche marketing.
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