Insurance
July 21, 2022

Tips for Marketing Your Brand’s BOP to Small Businesses

If you want to increase your business, focusing on selling Business Owners Policy (BOP) coverage to area small businesses can help you more easily meet that goal.

The small business market continues to grow, with more than 32 million businesses in the U.S. as of 2021. For many of these businesses, general liability insurance does not provide enough comprehensive coverage to limit their risk. In addition, many of these businesses are unaware of how a BOP works and all its advantages.

There’s another upside to selling BOP coverage: small businesses are typically underserved by the insurance industry in general. That means you should find less competition in this area. Also, client retention among small business owners is typically long-term.

What Small Businesses Want From A BOP

Understanding what the customer wants and providing it is a simple business model that works for most insurance companies. But having a great product, like a BOP, is not enough to get the attention of small business owners. Beyond BOP insurance, they are looking for three things: value, service, and customization.

  • Value: Small business owners make decisions every day that affect their bottom line. They have to choose the best way to direct their funds to improve their business. To decide to pay an insurance premium of any size, business owners must understand the value of the policy to their business.
  • Service: Time is a limited commodity for small business owners, so they tend to prefer online, self-serve options. Business owners need the flexibility of managing their coverage, paying premiums, and filing claims at midnight if that’s when they find the time. But they also want the support of an expert they can call with questions because they don’t have time to become insurance experts themselves.
  • Customization: Many small business owners are true entrepreneurs, bringing some new product or service to market. They know they are unique, and they expect insurance coverage that is customized to their business. Also, small business owners cannot afford to pay for coverage they do not need. They want a policy that covers their exposures and nothing else.

4 Tips to Market BOP Coverage More Effectively

You know that a BOP is the best option for small business owners, and every business should have one. Use these tips to market your company’s BOP more effectively to small businesses:

  1. Gain Their Trust: Use your online presence to demonstrate that your insurance company is a trusted partner to business owners and to gain name recognition for your brand. A website that offers information about your products and tells your story is essential, along with maintaining a branded identity on social media. Begin building a relationship between your brand and your prospective audience.
  2. Publish Case Studies: There is no better way to demonstrate the value of your BOP than to document clients’ success stories. Ask some of your BOP clients if they would be willing to participate in a case study. Be sure to include the problem their business had and how a BOP solved it. Put the case studies on your website and also make them available to agents to include in marketing packets.
  3. Educate Business Owners: Find opportunities to teach business owners about BOP coverage and the unique benefits of buying a policy from your company. Business owners attend educational workshops all the time to get information about best practices for running a business. Check with your local Chamber of Commerce or other business organizations and volunteer to give a seminar or workshop on BOPs for small business owners.
  4. Get Into Their Inbox: Bringing the information they need directly to busy business owners could get their attention. Create valuable content that speaks directly to small business owners and shows the expertise your brand brings to this insurance space. Implement email campaigns that provide education and guidance via blogs, short articles, and video explainers. Content marketing, when done right, can be one of the most effective ways of connecting your insurance brand to small business owners.

Successfully marketing your insurance brand to small business owners could significantly increase the number of BOPs you write. The key is to connect to this underserved market segment with messages that resonate with them. For help developing those messages and a comprehensive strategy to deploy them, contact LIGHTSTREAM.