How to Hire an Insurance Copywriter

6 February, 2022

The insurance industry is experiencing a period of transformation, growth and disruption. A good insurance copywriter can help you come out on top. On the other hand, a bad insurance copywriter won’t do your business any favors. So how can you tell the difference? This guide will show you how to hire an insurance copywriter with the knowledge and skills necessary to make your insurance company look good.

A Strong Insurance Website Is Now a Must

The J.D. Power 2020 U.S. Auto Insurance Study found that auto insurance websites have become more important than agents in terms of contributing to customer satisfaction. For the first time ever, an insurer’s website has a bigger impact on customer experience than the insurance agents.

Whether you’re a carrier, an independent agent, a brokerage, a field marketing organization, an insurtech firm or another company operating in the insurance industry, your online presence is increasingly important. An active blog can attract traffic so your website gets noticed.

But strong insurance blogs are just the beginning. Your insurance content library should include many other essential pieces of insurance content, from social media posts and emails to case studies and white papers.  

Deloitte says the insurance industry can expect to see accelerated growth in 2022. At the same time, the industry is changing. Digital tools have transformed the nature of many everyday interactions, and customer expectations have changed. Your insurance copywriting needs to keep up.

Copywriting for the Insurance Industry Is a Specialized Niche

You have a lot of copywriters to choose from. It doesn’t take much to hang out your shingle and start offering your copywriting services, so pretty much anyone can call themselves a professional copywriter – but you don’t want just anyone. You want someone who can deliver great writing, effective SEO and insurance content that fits your company’s voice.

Because you’re operating in the insurance industry, you want something else, too: industry expertise.

The insurance market is a specialized niche. Someone who specializes in content marketing for beauty and fashion retailers might be great at what they do, but that doesn’t mean they’ll know the first thing about copywriting for insurance agencies. You need someone who know enough about insurance concepts to write about them and who understand enough about the industry to create effective marketing campaigns.

Insurance Business Expertise

Because insurance is a specialized niche, when you talk to copywriters, one of the first things you need to look for is insurance expertise.

Let’s say you’re comparing two copywriters. One focuses solely on the insurance industry. The other lists two or three dozen “specialties,” and insurance is somewhere on the list. Do you really think their knowledge of insurance industry issues will be the same? Probably not. You’re looking for a copywriting firm that truly specializes in insurance. If they cover other industries as well, find out what percentage of their clients are in the insurance industry. Also find out how long they’ve been writing for insurance clients.

You can also get a feel for their level of insurance industry knowledge by talking to them. Discuss the types of insurance topics you want to cover. Do they seem comfortable with the insurance lingo? Do they use insurance terms correctly? Are they familiar with life insurance, disability insurance, property insurance, liability insurance and any other lines you cover? If they have a hard time talking about insurance, they’ll probably have a hard time writing about insurance, too.

Quality Control

The copywriter you hire will create blog articles, social media posts, emails, press releases and other pieces of insurance content that represent your company. If the quality is subpar, people may assume that your company is subpar, too. Quality control is essential.

You want well-written content that isn’t littered with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, but that’s just the beginning. High-quality content also needs substance. It should be engaging and informative, the sort of quality content that people will actually want to take time to read.

It should also be original. Plagiarism can land your company is legal trouble and tarnish your reputation, so you need to know it won’t be an issue. We use Copyscape to check content for potential issues.

Beyond blatant plagiarism, you also want to make sure that the content is unique. Yes, other websites might have content on similar, or even the same, topics, but your pieces should be made from scratch for your website.

Talk to the copywriter about the quality control process. See if they use a plagiarism checker like Copyscape to ensure that content is free of plagiarism, and find out what other quality control checks they have in place.

SEO Savvy

The internet has gotten crowded. Your website is competing against millions of other websites for attention. The good news is that not all of these sites offer much rivalry. Many are inactive or have low quality. Most don’t deal with the same topics or have the same target audience. Your site can stand out, but it will take some work.

A good copywriter should incorporate SEO best practices that help your site rank in online searches for keywords. This requires the right knowledge as well as the right tools. We use Jaxxy to identify the most effective keywords to target, and we use Surfer to make sure content is optimized for the keywords we’re targeting.

Ask the copywriter you’re considering about SEO practices. Find out what tools they use to help your content get noticed in search engines.

Distribution

SEO is one way to get traffic to your site and support lead generation. Distribution is another.

Content distribution can take many forms, including social media, email and newsletters. The most effective methods will depend on your audience. The number of social media platforms has exploded in recent years, but you don’t have to be on every single one. Instead, you want to focus on the channels that target your audience. For B2B insurance marketing, this usually means leveraging LinkedIn.

Customization

You need content that represents your brand, not generic content that could come from any of your competitors. Your copywriter should work with you make this happen.

For example, you might have a house style guide that all content should follow. Your copywriter should be fine with using this in place of their standard style guide.

Even if you don’t have a house style guide, you may have a certain voice in mind. Maybe you want your content to be very casual and approachable, or maybe you want it to be highly technical and sophisticated.

The same goes for organization. You might want your content to follow a certain outline, and that’s fine. Your copywriter should adapt to your brand.

Collaboration and Thought Leadership

Sometimes you need a copywriter to work independently to get things done, but other times, you need collaboration. For example, you may need your copywriter to work with subject matter experts within your team. A good copywriter should be able to take interviews or notes and turn the ideas into great, easy-to-read content.

This includes thought leadership pieces. Right now, insurance leaders can achieve recognition through thought leadership. A good copywriter can work with you to develop thought leadership pieces based on your ideas but with minimal effort on your part.

Revision is also key. We offer revisions on all of the content we provide. Most of the time, our clients don’t request any revisions, but sometimes they do. They might want us to add a point, or they might want us to rephrase something to match their branding. And that’s fine! Content creation can require some back and forth, and your copywriter shouldn’t balk at that.

Your Editorial Calendar

A good content strategy requires some planning. You need to make sure that you’re producing content consistently. You also need to make sure you’re not focusing on one area while neglecting another. For example, if you sell both personal and business insurance products, you want your content to reflect both.

An editorial calendar can ensure that your content strategy is staying on track, and your copywriter should help you develop one. At the same time, you need a little flexibility. When a major current event occurs, whether it’s a new law or a major disaster, you may need to post something about it ASAP. A good copywriter will plan ahead but also be willing to make last-minute changes.

Your Insurance Copywriting Services Checklist

There’s a lot to keep in mind. If you’re hiring an insurance copywriter, use this checklist to make sure you’re not forgetting anything.

  • Do they specialize in insurance copywriting?
  • Are they immersed in the industry?
  • Do they understand insurance concepts and terms?
  • Do they have a solid quality control process?
  • Do they guarantee original content?
  • Do they distribute content using channels that are effective in the insurance industry?
  • Will they help you rank for key terms?
  • Will they customize the outline flow according to your needs?
  • Will they speak to your subject matter experts as needed?
  • Will they revise content as needed?
  • Can they get thought leadership content to market quickly?
  • Will they help you plan your editorial calendar?

Are you looking for an insurance copywriter? Inbound Insurance Marketing is the premier source of insurance copywriting services. Don’t settle for less. Contact us to learn more.