Among the many insurance marketing strategies out there, blogging continues to be a popular and useful tool across the years. We consider blogging an effective method and have the facts to back it up: websites with blogs have over 400% more pages indexed in Google than those without a blog, and more than 60% of consumers made a purchase based on a blog post.

See why we ranked blogging among our top insurance marketing strategies to gain website traffic

Beyond the stats, blogging also provides benefits like:

• Frequent new content, bumping you up in search results
• A platform to show off your brand and values
• More ways to directly connect with your community and build relationships
• Additional sales content ready-made to deliver to prospects
• Relatively low upfront and on-going costs, offering a potentially large ROI

So, how do you get started?

1. Start small and grow

As with any new process or strategy, start small with your blogging and scale as you go. Begin with one or two posts a month and slowly build as you get your footing. It takes time to establish your blog presence, but the wait is worth it. Focus on the quality of your content rather than the quantity to start.

2. Designate a point person/people

Ideas may flow freely, but action can be sparse. Ensure you have a team or a team member heading up the blogging process. Ideally, you should have a few individuals devoting time to your blog to diversify ideas and spread-out responsibility. Still, there should be one point person dedicated to moving things forward.

3. Generate ideas

The first place to look for ideas is other blogs in the industry. Check out their topics and determine if any would resonate with your audience. Check-in with your larger agency team, too. Discover the common questions team members get from customers and ask what topics they think are relevant. No idea is a bad idea at the start – this is the time to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.

4. Determine your keywords

To make your blog an effective marketing tool, you want to use relevant search words reasonably often in your posts. Your locality name plus “insurance,” or “insurance agency,” and other variations are an excellent place to start for most independent agencies. Another great combination is adding in your specialty for something, like “small business insurance Houston.” These key phrases have a lower competition since they focus on your local city or county, but they have a relatively high search volume.

Once you have a few phrases, you can discover more using tools like Google’s keyword planner to identify similar search phrases and rank your current terms by competition and search volume.

What’s your agency’s specialty? Discover how to determine and leverage your agency niche here

5. Make navigation easy

Before you start churning out posts, determine how you will categorize them. Take a look at your topic ideas and determine how you should group them (i.e., Auto insurance, Life insurance, Tips and Tricks, etc.). Organizing posts makes it easier for someone to continue diving into topics of interest, keeping them on your site longer, and increasing their engagement.

6. Spread the word

A blog without readers is like a tree falling in the woods – does it make an impact? The answer is no. Once you have a few posts up, begin sharing the news of your blog on your social media and via your regular newsletters. Add a “share” button on each post so readers can let others know about posts they enjoyed.

7. Make your website attractive to get your blog seen

No matter how great your blog content, if the site it’s hosted on is out-of-date or difficult to navigate, it won’t succeed. Ensure your agency has a professional, secure, and attractive landing place before implementing your blog strategy.

Partner Platform users can get a sleek, engaging custom website to promote their agency brand thanks to our Partner Connect agency website offerings. Find out more about how you can upgrade your agency’s website experience: contact us at [email protected] or 800.747.7005, Option 6.