If there is one consistent component of digital marketing — it is the fact that nothing stays the same. Tactics are in a constant state of change. The most effective strategy or campaign of March could be obsolete and ineffective by June.
So how does one make sense of it all and stay up to date on the latest trends? We will do just that in this breakdown of digital marketing tips and tactics to look forward to in 2023. We will unpack three specific strategies that health insurance brokers and agencies can leverage for digital marketing success in 2023 and beyond.
- 1. The Video Marketing Explosion: Video content is already a huge hit. Just check out a few of these stats from WebFx’s 2022 Video Marketing Research Data:
- * Customers are 10 times more likely to interact with a video than a block of text.
- * Your website is 53 times more likely to end up on the first page of Google results if you utilize a video on the landing page.
- * When you include a video on your landing page, it can increase your conversion rates by up to 80%.
- * If you include the word “video” in an email campaign’s subject line, there is a 26% decrease in the unsubscribe rate.
In addition to all this statistical goodness, the rise in popularity of video and reel style content on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram has caused Google to take notice. Video is no longer used as just an immersive communication channel. Video content is now also commonly used to explain concepts and to find information that consumers and B2B professionals are seeking out. As a result, Gen Z users are accessing Social Media video content in a way that would have previously been reserved for traditional search engines.
In our studies, something like almost 40 percent of young people, when they are looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram,” Prabhakar Raghavan, a Google senior vice president, said at a technology conference in July.
As a result, Google is rolling out features to help searchers find information faster through videos. The results pages now frequently show short form videos as part of search engine results. You can also now more easily mark-up your video with key moment milestones and keywords that Google can extract for keyword relevance.
Key Takeaways for Brokers & Agencies:
- * Create video to help explain concepts your clients frequently inquire about.
- * Do not obsess over not having access to a professional videographer or a fancy studio in which to shoot.
- * Content is king. You can create impactful, short form, selfie-style videos to post on your website, YouTube, or Social Media channels and reap the rewards of the looming 2023 video explosion.
2. E-A-T Signals Will Remain Essential: One thing that has remained consistent with digital marketing is the criteria needed to have a strongly optimized website. Aside from the technical components of SEO, the core tenants of the E-A-T principle have and will remain intact in 2023 and beyond. Search engines will evaluate your website based on three main criteria:
- * Expertise
- * Authority
- * Trustworthiness
They key components of search engines will continue to look at your website’s Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness when ranking content. The user experience remains central to search engine ranking. Showing that your site is worth users time will remain essential in ranking websites.
Key Takeaways for Brokers & Agencies:
- * In the Health insurance industry, your E-A-T signals can include:
- – Social media proof (link to accounts and pull in social media content)
- – Employer/client testimonials
- – Carrier logos
- – Links to authoritative health insurance-related white papers
- – Sharing content from industry thought leaders at your company
- – CE Credit posting
- – Licensed expertise, industry specific badges, and much more!
- – Making sure your site is secure with an SSL certificate
- * Find creative ways to highlight your company’s expertise, authority, and trustworthiness on your corporate website and experience the organic ranking benefits.
- * Be a Part of The Email Marketing Renaissance: Email marketing is the oldest form of digital marketing. Because of this, the proclamations about its demise have been going on for decades. It seems every year there are handful of click bait articles released proclaiming email marketing is dead! Complete nonsense. If anything, email marketing is thriving more than ever before; in 2023 email can be an effective tool for brokers as agencies to generate new business as well as nurture existing client relationships. Just look at some of the recent statistics about the success and impact of email marketing from HubSpot’s recent statistics report:99% of email users check their inbox every day, with some people checking 20 times a day; of those people, 58% of consumers check their email first thing in the morning.
- * 81% of B2B marketers say their most used form of content marketing is email newsletters.
- * 77% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months.
- * 74% of Baby Boomers think email is the most personal channel to receive communications from brands, followed by 72% of Gen X, 64% of Millennials, and 60% of Gen Z.
- * In 2022, 50% of consumers said they buy from marketing emails at least once per month.
- * Email marketing ROI is 4200% ($40 for every $1 spent).
- * Email is 40% better at converting (in comparison to Social Media ads).
Needless to say — Email marketing is alive and well. Below are four email marketing-specific tips that brokers and agencies can implement for sales and nurturing success in 2023.
Key Takeaways for Brokers & Agencies:
- * Create email campaigns to attract new business by generating a local employer audience. You can acquire new employer audiences by producing content downloads or hosting networking events where you capture email contacts for follow up.
- * Nurture existing and new clients by creating campaigns like new client welcome emails, anniversary email reminders, and client / product newsletters.
- * Include video (remember tip #1) in your email campaigns whenever possible and watch your engagement grow. According to a 2022 Webdew report — the open rate of emails increased by 6% by adding “video” in the email subject line and click-through rate improved by 300% just by incorporating video content in email campaigns.
- * Test then test some more! Test your subject lines, calls to action, and content messaging types. The best part of email marketing is you can experiment and test to see which messaging components resonate best with your audience. While all the stats we listed above offer great reassurance, no data point matters more than how your audience engages with your messaging. So, test to measure what works best and then repeat the process.