Just like larger companies, micro businesses also need small business insurance. However, their unique needs call for a tailored marketing approach that prioritizes empathy, respect, and understanding. In this blog, learn how to market insurance to micro small businesses.
Why Micro Businesses Matter
Small businesses may be “small” in size, sales, and staff, but they make up the backbone of the U.S. economy. In fact, the Small Business Administration finds that small businesses comprise 99.9 percent of all businesses in the U.S.
Micro businesses fall within this category and span a wide range of industries, including:
Despite their economic importance, micro businesses are often underserved by traditional insurance carriers. With average premiums under $2,500 and lengthy underwriting processes, many owners struggle to find coverage that is fast, affordable, and easy to understand.
Companies like Coterie Insurance are changing that. But as an agent or broker, how do you reach micro business owners who are juggling countless responsibilities? It starts with understanding what makes them unique.
1. Address the Unique Needs of Micro Businesses
The needs of micro small businesses, some with no more employees than the owner themselves, differ greatly from larger small businesses that employ one or two dozen employees if not more.
Adjust your marketing strategies to meet the unique needs of a micro small business. Start by considering that a micro business owner is likely more of a jack of all trades, with less time and resources available for their insurance. They need to clearly understand the insurance they need, why, and be able to purchase it quickly.
For example, a micro business operating with a single employee, the owner, may not need or be required to have a workers’ compensation policy.
Micro businesses may also have grown from a hobby or side hustle that, over time, grew enough to become an established business without checking off every item on the “essential business to-do- checklist.” You may need to spend a bit more time on education with these businesses.
Take time to identify and understand the unique challenges, requirements, and pain points felt by the micro small business owners you’re targeting. Ask questions, listen to their story, and then develop an actionable marketing strategy that fulfills their needs.
2. Respect Their Time and Priorities
Micro business owners manage nearly every aspect of their company, often including:
- Marketing and social media
- Bookkeeping and invoicing
- Inventory and fulfillment
- Hiring and training contractors
- Delivering the core service or product
With so many responsibilities, their time is extremely valuable. Your marketing and sales approach should reflect that by being:
- Quick: Provide fast quotes and easy communication.
- Simple: Avoid jargon and offer clear explanations.
- Convenient: Enable digital forms, e-signatures, and flexible hours.
Tech-forward carriers like Coterie Insurance allow agents to quote in seconds, even while on the phone with the client, making the buying process seamless.
Focus, too, on the ways your policies and processes support an ultra-busy owner. Emphasize the helpfulness of your customer service team, the knowledge of your agents, tech tools that allow business to be conducted in the evenings or weekends, and the rapidity with which claims are processed.
Knowing that your agency responds quickly to a micro business owner’s questions and concerns ensures they are not kept from other duties longer than is necessary, and they have the support they need.
3. Build Authentic Relationships
Micro business owners don’t want to feel like “just another transaction.” They value authentic, long-term relationships with trusted advisors.
79 percent of business buyers believe salespeople should serve as trusted advisors and not just sales reps. Position your agency to be a trusted source for guidance and information about small business insurance and how insurance helps protect micro businesses. Provide helpful information such as disaster prep and share best practices you may have learned from working with other micro small business owners.
Remember to focus on building a relationship, not pushing products for the sake of sales. Compare the benefits of your policies vs. the policies themselves: why does a plumber need a Business Owners Policy compared to a General Liability policy? What extra protection would he receive? What’s the likelihood he’d experience a claim covered by a BOP but not by GL insurance?
Nurturing an authentic relationship with micro-small business owners can have a ripple effect on your agency, too. Since micro businesses often network with one another, a good experience with your agency may encourage your clients to refer others in their network to your agency as well.
In fact, a whopping 83 percent of B2B customers are open to referring a business after a successful transaction. Additionally, 78 percent of those referrals amount to viable leads. Your efforts to develop a genuine relationship with micro small business owners may continue to pay off further down the road.
Connect with micro small businesses through your agency website
Your website is often the first place micro business owners go for answers. With 69% of insurance buyers researching online before purchasing, your digital presence must be clear, helpful, and easy to navigate.
A 2025 survey found that 35 percent of small businesses purchased commercial insurance online. Those who purchased online were generally very happy with the experience.
Further, almost 90 percent of B2B sales have shifted to teleconference, phone, or web avenues.
Your website should act as a digital hub where micro businesses can:
- Read educational content
A strong online experience makes it easier for micro business owners to get insured without unnecessary friction.
Partner with companies that focus on serving micro small businesses
Because micro small businesses are so underserved, it may benefit your agency to partner with a company built around fulfilling their needs, such as Coterie.
Coterie allows insurance agents and firms to determine if a given micro small business is in appetite, then quote, bind, and issue policies in a matter of minutes.
You’ll also have access to Coterie’s world-class customer support to ensure your clients’ questions, concerns, and issues are quickly rectified and solved.
Partnering with a company like Coterie allows your agency to satisfy the unique needs of micro small businesses and provide them with the commercial insurance they require while eliminating or avoiding the time-consuming frustrations so common in the typical insurance-buying process.
Market insurance to micro small businesses by showing empathy, respect, and understanding
Selling a policy to a micro small business is likely one of the more personal interactions you’ll have as a B2B insurance agent or firm. You won’t be put on hold as you skip through half a dozen departments, pawned off to someone who lacks any authority to buy from you, or asked to run through reams of bureaucratic red tape.
Instead, you’ll likely be speaking with micro-small business owners themselves or, at the very least, someone fairly close to the owner. Demonstrating your genuine interest in the success of the business and empathy for its struggles can go miles. It also helps you lay a foundation to offer a value-based solution to the business’s concerns and worries.
Market insurance to micro small businesses by empowering your product knowledge and sales skills with your humanity. You’ll be doing the business owner a great service they will come to appreciate and be grateful.