To help your insurance and employee benefits agency, many branding and marketing experts suggest you develop a “positioning statement.” It provides a concise description of how you and your agency fulfill the needs of your target market. Your internal teams – sales, marketing, service, and support – can all benefit from your market position statement. This is in contrast to your mission statement, which is consumer-facing summary of your brand, products, and services.
So, how can you get started on your agency market position statement? Here are three things to consider.
1: Identify your target customers. Who are your best prospects? Have you found success in a particular market niche? Other than being your customers, is there something common trait among your clients? Are they all (or primarily) small businesses with 10 to 25 employees? Are they all or predominately retailers, manufacturers, food service, science, or tech businesses? Do they all share a common challenge that you’ve been able to address successfully? If your pitch to them has worked, are there other businesses to whom you can extend it?
2: Know your competition. Who do you consider your primary competition? What are they doing that you are not doing? What are you doing that they are not doing? What carriers and products do you offer? Are they different from your competitors? Your analysis will help you recognize your points of differentiation. These will help you identify opportunities for your future outreach and sales.
3: Identify your priorities. What do you want to accomplish through your business? Of course, we know you want to make money – maybe even lots of money. You also want to help your clients find the coverage that’s right for their businesses and employees. What are the customer pain points that you want to solve? Is reducing costs for clients’ businesses and their employees your priority? Do you want to do it while also saving the planet?
Value-based health care could be a priority. In a competitive health insurance market, it can certainly be a differentiator for you. Value-based case encourages health care providers to work collaboratively in managing patients’ health goals. The result is improved patient outcomes, cost savings, enhanced quality, and increased accountability and transparency. Your positioning statement will help you determine your focus and organize your thoughts to achieve them.
More things to consider: The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation offers more considerations in developing your market positioning statement. Check out their advice in 10 Reasons Your Business Needs a Positioning Statement and How to Start Building Your Today.
HubSpot’s article, 16 Examples of Positioning Statements & How to Craft Your Own, includes positioning statement templates you can use. It also features statements used by well-known and lesser-known brands as examples to assist you.
Zendesk, which positions itself as on a mission to simplify the complexities of business, published its own guidance in a 2023 article, 12 Positioning Statement Examples and How to Write Your Own. It highlights 12 statements developed by some of the nation’s leading businesses.
You may also want to read our blog, 3 Tips to Creating a Tag Line for Your Agency, which can help you develop a public-facing statement to help you better connect with prospects and customers.
