3 Ways to Make Sure Your Marketing Reaches the Right Prospects in 2026

• December 1, 2025

By Mindi Zissman

For small and midsize independent insurance agencies, 2026 is the best and the hardest time to market a business. The industry is steady, technology is smarter and customers are always within reach. Yet, staying visible in a nonstop digital world takes more energy than ever.

Everywhere you turn, there’s another promise of an easier way to grow your marketing: a new artificial intelligence (AI) content generator, a turnkey social media calendar or a platform that posts for you while you sleep. The tools keep multiplying. The time to use them doesn’t.

Meanwhile, the ground beneath marketing is shifting fast. Consumers now expect the same seamless experience from their insurance agent that they get from their favorite online retailer: fast answers, personalized recommendations and a sense that someone’s actually listening. Those expectations keep climbing, even as your budgets don’t.

Across all industries, marketing spend has flatlined at an average of 7.7% of overall company revenue, according to Gartner. Further, nearly 6 in 10 chief marketing officers say they don’t have enough budget to execute their strategy, prompting many to turn to AI and data analytics to squeeze more performance from static budgets.

Within insurance, margins are even tighter. More than 3 in 4—78%—of small agencies receive no financial or material support from carriers for their marketing efforts, according to the 2024 Agency Universe Study, which also found independent agencies’ marketing budgets account for an average of just 16% of total expenditures.

It’s no wonder agency leaders are searching for shortcuts—social posts that “go viral,” email campaigns that magically convert or ways to automate visibility. However, many experts agree: Marketing that works starts long before the first email campaign. It starts with clarity—about who you are, who you serve and what kind of growth you want. Only then do the tactics become more than just activity.

Drawing on insights from agency marketing leaders, here are three steps to cut through the noise and build a foundation for marketing your agency in 2026.

Step 1: Find Somewhere to Stand

“Everyone wants to talk about tactics,” says Nicolas Ayers, chief marketing officer at GloveBox. “But the real problem is that most agencies are skipping the first step: figuring out who they are, who they serve and what they want to be known for.”

Ultimately, before you can stand out, you have to stand some­where. Too often, small businesses jump straight to execution—­
buying ads, launching newsletters and posting to every platform—without a clear strategy behind it.

Jim Flynn, executive vice president and chief brand strategist at OneFire, has seen that pattern for decades. “You can’t just start doing social media because you think you’re supposed to,” he says. “You need a plan. What are you going to do consistently? Who’s responsible for it? What kind of client are you trying to attract?”

Flynn calls this step “executive intention”—the process of defining exactly what growth should look like before choosing a single tactic. Without that clarity, even the most creative campaigns will scatter instead of scale, he warns. You have to do things in the right order.

“Marketing without executive intention is like sending your team onto the field without a play,” he adds. “You might have the best players, but they’re not working toward the same outcome.”

For agencies, clarity starts with the basics: Knowing who you serve, what you stand for and how you measure success. Once that’s written down and shared across the team, every marketing campaign you launch aligns with the original goals and strategy, and every marketing dollar suddenly has direction.

Action item: Draft your ideal client profile (ICP). A clear ICP turns “anyone who needs insurance” into a focused growth plan. Start by writing a one-page profile that answers:

• Segment: personal lines in specific ZIP codes? Contractors with 5-50 employees? Hospitality accounts?
• Triggers: new homeowners, new drivers, companies with a hiring surge, certificate-heavy work, or location moves?
• Value match: why is your agency the best fit for this ICP?
• Where they look: what groups, platforms or search terms does this client type use when they shop or ask for advice?

Use this profile to guide messaging, outreach and which channels deserve your time and effort.

Action item: Clarify your value. Write a single, specific sentence that finishes: “We’re the best choice for ______ because ______.”

• Make the “who” concrete.
• Make the “because” proof-based, including markets you place, turnaround speed, claims advocacy and risk guidance.
• Test it with your team and two trusted clients.

Step 2: Focus on Authenticity Instead of Volume

Not long ago, visibility was about reach. The goal was to show up everywhere—in search results, on every social channel, in every inbox. Agencies equated activity with awareness and awareness with growth.

But in 2026, that equation doesn’t add up. In an era when automation and AI-generated content can fill every feed in seconds, the challenge isn’t getting seen, it’s being trusted. There’s simply too much noise. Too many posts, too many “personalized” emails, too many identical promises. Clients have learned to tune out content that feels scripted or soulless, no matter how polished it looks.

The real marketing challenge now is authenticity and credibility.

“People buy from people,” Ayers says. “That hasn’t changed, even as the tools have. Everyone buys on emotion, then justifies with logic.” That emotional connection—the sense that your agency is real, relatable and reliable—has become the ultimate differentiator.

What was once only about visibility has become the new test of credibility. Clients no longer decide based on who shouts the loudest. They decide based on who feels most authentic, whose voice sounds human, whose posts reflect real experience and whose reviews suggest genuine care.

“You can automate content,” Flynn says, but “what you can’t automate is experience, and the empathy and perspective that come from actually helping people. That’s what makes your story real.”

Joseph Cox, director of marketing and engagement at Trusted Choice^®, sees this shift in how prospects evaluate agencies. “Consumers use search and social to verify who you are,” he says. “They’re not just looking for information. They’re looking for evidence that you’re real, responsive and trustworthy.”

Yana Glezina, director of brand and communications at ClientCircle, adds, “For local agencies, reviews and rankings are your storefront. Staying visible with accurate information and authentic feedback keeps you credible when people are deciding who to call.”

For independent agencies, credibility has become the currency of marketing in 2026. Every digital signal, from your website tone to your online reviews, either reinforces that credibility or undermines it. In a world where AI can mimic almost anything, being real has never mattered more.

Action Item: Claim your Google Business Profile. Your Google Business Profile is often the first impression a potential client gets, even before they visit your website. A complete and active profile helps your agency show up in local search results and signals credibility to both clients and search engines. It’s one of the simplest yet most effective ways to improve visibility online—and it’s free.

Here’s a quick checklist to get you started:

• Verify your profile and make sure your address, phone number and hours are correct.
• Add professional photos of your office and team.
• Post updates or community involvement a few times a month.
• Ask satisfied clients to leave reviews.
• Respond promptly and courteously to reviews, both positive and negative.

Action Item: Turn reviews into reputation. Online reviews live where first impressions happen: Google, Facebook and other search platforms. They’re often the first proof a potential client sees when evaluating an agency. A steady stream of credible, specific feedback tells clients and search engines that your business is active, responsive and real. In local markets, where reputation spreads quickly, reviews can strengthen credibility faster than any paid campaign.

Here’s a quick checklist to get you started:

• Send a short thank you email with a direct review link after every successful claim or renewal.
• Embed recent reviews or testimonials on your website.
• Share authentic client stories on social media, with permission.
• Avoid mass review requests. Steady activity looks more trustworthy to both people and algorithms.
• Respond thoughtfully to reviews, especially the critical ones.

Action Item: Rethink search engine optimization (SEO) for the age of AI search. Search behavior is changing fast. AI-driven results now surface content from social media, videos and Google Business Profiles, alongside traditional websites. That means you don’t need to “crack the top five” to get found—you just need to show up consistently where people search.

This shift has given rise to answer engine optimization (AEO), optimizing your content so it appears in AI-generated results when someone asks a question. In other words, it’s about creating content that answers, not just appears.

To improve visibility organically:

• Keep your Google Business Profile up to date.
• Share short videos or reels on social media answering common insurance questions.
• Use intent-based keywords that match what people ask, such as “how to protect my business from lawsuits” not just “commercial insurance.”
• Link every post or video back to your website or profile.

SEO in 2026 is about credibility through helpfulness—showing up as a trusted, active source for answers.

Step 3: Be Intentional About Implementation

With your positioning clear and your digital credibility in place, execution becomes much less chaotic. The goal now isn’t to do more. It’s to do the right few things well, repeatedly.

“Most agencies are trying to be everywhere at once,” Ayers says. “That’s what burns them out. You have to narrow your focus and pick where your clients are and go deeper there.”

Start by focusing on where your ideal clients actually spend their time. For many commercial prospects, that’s LinkedIn and email. For personal lines of coverage, it’s often Facebook, local search and community groups. Pick a small set of channels that fit your ICP and ignore the rest for now. Spreading yourself thin creates noise; focus produces results.

“Marketing doesn’t fail because of bad ideas but inconsistency,” Flynn says. “When every post starts from scratch, you lose rhythm. The agencies that win are the ones that do fewer things but do them every week.”

For example, a simple pattern—one short client story, one practical tip one clear call to action (CTA)—keeps you visible without burning time. The story shows who you are, the tip adds value and the call to action makes it easy to take the next step.

Then repurpose, on purpose. “Agencies get stuck thinking they have to produce something new all the time,” Cox says. “But if you look at your best-performing content, most of it’s timeless. Repurpose that, because people often need to hear your message more than once.”

For example, turn one client Q&A into a 200-word post, a 30-second video and a short email. Save your best explainer paragraphs as reusable snippets. This isn’t about gaming the algorithms; it’s about respecting your team’s time while staying consistently helpful.

Finally, automate the boring, not the human. Use tools for review requests after renewals, reminders ahead of milestones and quick follow-ups on form fills. But keep the message human in tone and give staff an easy way to personalize before sending.

“Technology should amplify your work, not erase your voice,” Glezina says. “Automation is great for follow-ups and reminders, but people still want to feel like they’re talking to a person, not a platform.”

When execution aligns with your strategy and credibility, small agencies stop chasing activity and start compounding momentum. That’s when marketing feels less like “keeping up” and more like building something.

Action Item: Build a reusable marketing toolkit. Stop reinventing every campaign from scratch. Create a shared digital folder with ready-to-use templates and assets your team can pull from.

Start with:

• Your brand guidelines: tone, sample posts and a list of words you do and don’t use.
• Core visuals: logo files, branded photos and a color palette.
• Standard templates: social post layout, testimonial format, email signature and a review request form.
• A short checklist for new campaigns: who it’s for, what problem it solves and how you’ll measure it.

As Flynn says, “You can’t build momentum if you’re starting over every Monday.” A simple toolkit turns ideas into action faster and keeps every message consistent.

Action Items: Create a free content capture system. Your best marketing content already lives inside your agency—it just needs a place to land.

Flynn suggests setting up a shared email inbox or a simple shared document where team members can drop quick notes about client interactions, success stories or lessons learned. “Encourage everyone to contribute small details in real time—what problem they solved, how they helped or what made a client’s day easier.”

Over time, you’ll build a living library of real examples that reflect how your agency helps people—the kind of content AI can’t create and competitors can’t copy.

Marketing that lasts isn’t built on hacks or hashtags. It’s built on something harder to automate or generate with AI: intention. The agencies that grow in 2026 will be those that are clear about who they are, confident in how they show up and consistent in how they follow through.

Because the truth is there’s no secret formula hiding in the next trend or AI tool. The advantage belongs to the agencies that do the quiet work: choosing focus over frenzy, relationships over reach and momentum over motion.

Mindi Zissman is president of Zissman Media, ghostwriters for risk and insurance businesses and executives.