How Video Marketing Grows An Insurance Agency

Tired of posting and getting crickets? We break down a simple, repeatable video strategy that turns attention into trust and trust into bound policies—without fancy gear or a production crew. Shelby McFarland, The Marketing Broker, shares how she records once and repurposes everywhere, why real faces beat AI gloss, and which short formats spark the most DMs for insurance agencies.

We get specific about what to film and where to post: podcast clips trimmed for Reels, selfie explainers on coverage gaps and claims timelines, b-roll from branding shoots and community events, and quick interviews with local businesses for cross-promotion. You’ll hear why under-a-minute videos outperform on Instagram and Facebook, how subtitles and strong hooks lift watch time, and the simple cadence that keeps your pipeline warm without burning hours—three weekly touchpoints that stack visibility and trust.

Mindset matters as much as mechanics. Shelby tackles fear of judgment head-on, reminding us that trolls don’t pay the bills and perfection stalls progress. Authenticity is the competitive edge as feeds fill with AI-generated content; your voice, your values, and your community focus cut through. We close with practical platform choices, tips to keep content human and helpful, and a clear plan to measure what moves the needle: watch time, saves, replies, and inbound quotes.

If you’re ready to show up on camera, grow engagement, and make your static posts work harder through algorithm lift, this playbook is your launchpad. Subscribe, share with a fellow agent who needs the nudge, and leave a quick review to tell us your first video idea—we’ll cheer you on and feature our favorites next week.

Transcript

Why Video Matters Now

How Shelby Uses Video

Video Ideas For Insurance Agents

Mindset: Ignore Trolls, Show Up

Platforms, Length, And Algorithm Boost

Resources And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_00 0:18

What's up, guys? It is your host, Shelby McFarland, the marketing broker. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of the Insurance Marketing Playbook. And I'm not gonna lie, this is the third time that I've tried to record this episode for you guys, and my phone is going off like crazy. So now that everything is on, do not disturb, the door is locked, no one's coming in. Let's get down to it and let me get this out for you guys because it's important information to help market your insurance agency. And if it helps you, I would love for you to send it over to another insurance person that it could also help. Let's talk about video marketing for your insurance agency and why it's so important. That's because it's the new thing. We want to make sure our face is out there, we want to make sure our voice is out there, we want to make sure people know who we are and it sets us apart from our competitors. Um, we can still have those stagnant posts, so still do those three times a week, like I've talked about in past episodes. But let's start incorporating some more videos into your marketing and into your digital um footprint. I want to talk about ways that I do it in my business, the marketing broker. I will take videos like this podcast right here, is on um my YouTube channel. We also take clips of it and put it on social media underneath the insurance marketing playbook. I also will do like some selfie videos that are educational, teaching people about marketing. Um, I'll do some b-roll videos, which are like the easiest thing to do, like when I'm doing branding shoots or if I'm at a networking event or if I'm presenting somewhere. My assistant will take videos and we'll put it together in a little clip that we can put on social media because people love to see the movement. Um, and the last way that I do videos on my personal stuff through the marketing broker is any kind of interviews that I'm on. So, like when I get interviewed on other podcasts, I'll actually take those, make them into little clips, um, and then we'll post those on social media as well. So let's talk about how you as an insurance agent can actually start doing videos that will start to see a big return of investment on your social media. I want you to do videos that are about you, maybe supporting something in the community. Maybe you do a weekly video that is educating people about what's happening in the insurance marketing world. I mean, in the insurance world, or maybe rates if you're allowed to talk about rates on social media. Um, another really cool idea is to have your um employees or other agents in your office to do some videos of them as well. Maybe those are selfie videos, or you have somebody come in and record some. Um, but really just make it authentic and true. We don't want to use AI videos. I know a lot of people are doing it, but the problem is we're all becoming so numb to AI already that we want to still show up true to ourselves and be ourself and make sure that we can um continue showing ourselves on social media to get those sales and lead and really be more organic with our marketing because social media is becoming a lot more AI and we want to make sure we keep it more social and more personable and things like that. So I want you to just take a few minutes after I get done with this video and see how you can start incorporating videos into your um into your marketing and into your strategy for social media. Now I know there are some thoughts. I'm sure you have thoughts right now about things. Um, but if you're embarrassed, get over it. I don't care if you're embarrassed. If you think people are gonna make fun of you, they will. If you think people are gonna talk bad about you, guess what? They will. But who cares? Because they don't pay your bills, they don't sell for your company, and if they're gonna talk bad about a video that you put out there, then they're definitely not someone that you want inner circle anyway. So screw them, move on, move forward, don't worry about it. I want you to take the step, be confident in yourself, know that you deserve to be on social media, and I want you to put yourself out there. Just think, those people that talk bad about you or make fun of you, they're the ones that are not brave enough to put stuff on social media. They're what we call trolls. We don't care about trolls. They're small, they're minor, they don't have anything big going on in their life, but you do. You own an insurance company, you sell insurance, you sell something that everybody in this world has to have. Literally, everybody has to have insurance. So be confident and know that you're the best in your community. And I want you to show up online for your people. Be yourself, introduce yourself, talk about things that's going on in the community. Maybe you do some kind of co-marketing with another um industry partner or you're interviewing other small businesses in town. Be creative about it and start putting your face out there via video because it's really gonna help you out and you're gonna see a huge boost in engagement on your social media page. So do that on Facebook, Instagram, Reels, as well as TikTok if you have a TikTok. If you don't, it's okay you don't have a TikTok. You at least need to start on Facebook and Instagram and then go out from there. Keep them short and sweet to the point, just like I do on this podcast. Um, podcast is like six to seven minutes, but when I do videos for social media, I usually keep them under a minute long because we all have ADD. We all have short attention spans, and we want to make sure that whatever we get out there, we can actually get out there pretty fast and people can get as much information in a small amount of time. And I promise you will start seeing those numbers increase on your social media, which will make all those other posts that you do even better because that means that people will start seeing that more, it'll start showing up more in the algorithm, um, and you'll be good there. So, okay, if you need help with anything, always know that you can go to insurance marketingplaybook.com, sign up for our newsletter. You can also follow me at the Marketing Broker, and you can find out more tips and tricks on how to market your insurance agency. And I kept this one real short, y'all. Under six minutes. Whoop whoop. I'll see you next week.