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As we all weather the storm of a cold real estate market, finding ways to keep a sales pipeline warm can be difficult. When sales slow down, it’s natural to feel the squeeze. Nonetheless, there are specific marketing actions you can take right now to ensure your business remains visible, relevant, and prosperous. Let’s talk about two key areas that can make an impact: Local SEO and Social Media.

 

Boost Your Local SEO

Local SEO plays a pivotal role in maintaining your online presence, especially when potential clients are searching for title insurance services in your area. Here’s how to make the most of it:

 

Optimize Your Google Business Page

Google is still the largest search engine by a wide margin and your Google Business Page may serve as the initial point of contact for potential clients. Optimize your “GBP” with this checklist:

 

1. Keep Your Company Information Updated.

Double-check that your business name, address, phone number, and website URL are accurate. In addition to your Google Business Page, make sure your company information is accurate across all listing services like: Yelp, Bing Places, BBB, Yellow Pages, etc. Inaccurate information can hinder your SEO efforts and potentially frustrate potential clients. On the flip side, search engines will boost your ranking if your information is consistent across multiple listing websites

When updating your information across these services, you might have to claim the business by verifying via a phone call. The service will call the phone number you listed on the business profile to have you confirm with a live person or provide you with an automated code to type in. If you’re a remote worker and the business phone number needs to be the main switchboard number, be sure to coordinate this with whoever answers that phone.

 

2. Add an Engaging Description.

Craft a clear, succinct, and compelling description of your services. Be sure to also include the ideal outcome for your customer in this description. It’s great to have many years of experience and acute knowledge of your local regulations, but it’s important to say your version of, “We make the closing process smooth and transparent so our customers leave the closing table feeling both educated and satisfied.”

 

3. Add Visual Content.

Add high-quality photos and videos of your office, team, and any hosted events. For businesses with a tangible product, the purpose of the product section is straightforward. A landscaper can post each type of service they provide from seasonal lawn treatments to hardscape projects. The product for a title insurance company is underwriting expertise and customer service, among other things, but this product section is where your blog posts can go.

 

4. Ask for and Respond to Reviews.

Encourage satisfied clients to leave positive reviews and promptly respond to all reviews to demonstrate your value for customer feedback. Yes, responding to negative feedback is equally – if not more – important than responding to positive feedback. Responding to negative feedback might be tricky because a negative review might get posted in the middle of litigation by someone involved, but have an internal discussion about an appropriate response. For better or worse, the search engines don’t rank your page as high if you don’t respond to all reviews.

 

Leverage Individual Social Media

Social media has been made so much easier with the design and AI tools in recent years. No longer do you need to invest in a room full of equipment and learn robust editing programs to create professional promotional graphics or videos. No longer do you need to be a copywriter to create an article from a few thoughts. For all its quirks, social media still stands as a powerful instrument for nurturing relationships and showcasing your expertise. Here’s how to make the most of it:

 

Utilize Individual Employee Pages:

Would it be a big surprise to hear that personal social media pages get a broader reach and higher engagement than company pages? On LinkedIn, posts from individual pages get twice as many impressions and five times as much engagement. Encourage your team members who are active or comfortable using social media to enhance their LinkedIn profiles and share company content. This not only broadens your reach but also adds a personal touch that can foster trust with potential clients. Highlight their expertise and accomplishments to position your agency as a thought leader in the industry. To ease into social media for business purposes, doing an instant repost of company posts on LinkedIn is an effective way to get your company in front of your network without you having to type anything.

 

Develop a Social Media Content Strategy:

A well-devised content strategy can effectively keep your audience engaged and informed. Consider these steps:

 

1. Research, Create & Evaluate Engaging Content.

Honestly, this is probably the hardest part to figure out if you’re starting from somewhere close to ground zero and it’s ok to not know where to start. What’s not ok is ignoring available analytics resources to figure out not only what to talk about, but what’s working or what’s not working. Some might say to just talk about what you’re comfortable with, but there needs to be a foundation of knowledge about what your audience wants to hear about. You can utilize Google’s Keyword Planner to see the search volume for different subtopics under title insurance. Set up Google Alerts to send you title insurance-related articles to your email each morning. And we’ve all done it, so look at what your competitors post on their social media pages to see if something similar would work if you tailor it to fit your company’s voice. LinkedIn and Facebook have built-in analytics dashboards that show you metrics about your posts and followers, but also has a page to show how you stack up against the competitor pages of your choosing. Utilize different formats such as blogs, videos, infographics, and webinars to cater to diverse preferences. A tool like Canva makes creating graphics very easy with little ramp-up time.

 

2. Establish a Content Calendar.

Organize a calendar to plan and schedule posts in advance. Include a variety of content such as industry news, tips, success stories, and company updates. If this works for you, create a new calendar in Outlook(or whatever email service you use) and start building content to the point where you’re working a week ahead or even a month ahead so you have the flexibility to revise your posts if needed.

 

3. Stay Consistent with a Posting Schedule.

Some say that LinkedIn has a “5-3-2” formula for their recommended weekly post schedule for a business page. What this means is: that you should repost five posts per week that are related to your industry, make three posts per week about industry topics, and make two posts per week that specifically promote your company. It’s not realistic for many of us to consistently post quality content 5 times per week, but the balance of customer-focused content and self-promotion is the key takeaway from that formula. Whatever the frequency is that you’re able to maintain initially, it’s important to keep a balance of engagement, information that is relevant to your audience, and self/company promotion.

What also needs to be consistent is company colors and fonts. Several websites can tell you the color codes of an uploaded company logo. Fonts may be a bit more tricky, but feel free to reach out to us and we’d be happy to help you identify your company’s fonts. Knowing these colors and fonts is also important to know when ordering any promotional items or for company advertisements at industry events. We aren’t going to get into any significant depth about brand guidelines here, but just make sure it looks like the different posts are coming from the same company as you get started.

 

 

There are specific, immediate actions you can take to put yourself in a better position than your competition to earn business right and when the market picks back up. Focusing on local SEO ensures your business is easily found by potential clients in your area while leveraging individual social media pages and a well-planned content strategy enhances your online presence and builds stronger connections with your audience. By optimizing your Google Business Page, engaging with reviews, maintaining consistent information across listings, and utilizing social media effectively, you’ll be well-equipped to stay relevant and prosperous, even in slower times. Remember, the key to success is staying visible, engaging your audience, and continually adapting to the changing market dynamics.