Many insurance agencies are now marketing their company online. The key to doing this correctly, without spending too much money is a challenge for many agencies to overcome.
Another key item to focus on when setting up a digital marketing campaign is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is the method of affecting the visibility of a website in a search engine’s (such as Google or Yahoo) search results. The higher ranked websites appear not only closer to the top of the list of search results, but more frequently in a list of search results as well. Essentially, the higher the SEO the more clicks or viewers a website is bound to receive. Search engine optimization takes a lot of in-depth knowledge and you may need to hire a professional in the field to assist with an SEO initiative.
So how can you ensure your website is promoting a strong marketing message with a high SEO? Here are a few tips to assist you in managing these items.
Website Marketing Strategies
Spend Ample Time on your Home Page: Your home page is one of the most important marketing assets on your website. It is best to look at your home page as your calling card or face to the world. Many customers research their purchases online prior to making a decision. Make sure your home page is professional, informative, well-organized, and contains your contact information.
Follow the Rule of Simplicity: Making sure the design of your website is simple will make it easier not only for visitors to gather information, but for you to update information as well. A website that is easy to use with a clean design and simple navigation will be more inviting for viewers.
Build Your Business: The main reason for having a website is bring in business for your company. Viewing your website as a sales generating tool opposed to simply a flashy brochure will generate more web leads and business opportunities. Initially, you want to drive customers to your site, keep them there with a professional look, simple navigation, and compelling content, invite customers to join your email list or blog, and follow-up with them to build trust and business.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Select Your Keywords: The first step of your SEO process is deciding what terms you want to try to optimize for. Try to put yourself in the shoes of your potential customers and think what they are searching online. (Keep in mind many of their searches may include their city or neighborhood.) Once you have come up with as many potential searches you can think of, pick the most important phrases and words from those searches. These will be the keywords you will target on your site.
Incorporate Keywords into Your Page Titles: Write a descriptive title for each page using keywords you want people to find you with. (Your titles should be less than 70 characters long.) Page titles are the easiest way for you to target searches for specific keywords. Remove as many unnecessary words from the title as possible (i.e. as, the, and, etc.), however, ensure the title is still readable. This title will be your identity on the search engines, so try to incorporate your business type as well as your business name.
Make a Site Map: Creating a site map page with links to all of the pages on your website is not only helpful to visitors, but search engines as well. This is especially the case if your website is large and contains a lot of pages. There are free tools available such as www.XML-Sitemap.com that will assist your creation of an XML sitemap. Simply upload it to your website following creation and submit it to the search engine companies. Instruction on how to submit your sitemap is available on each search engine site.
Write Meta Descriptions: When you conduct a search online, the each result has a link and an accompanying description of that page. You can use tools like this one, Yoast SEO, to customize these descriptions. The tool you use to write these will depend on what you used to make your site. These descriptions serve as an ad for your pages, encouraging searchers to click on your page instead of the other search results.
Fine Tune Your Site: Once you have made an effort to increase your SEO, utilize software such as WebPosition to check your current ranking and compare your webpage against competitors. Based on the results and suggestions made by WebPosition, tweak and fine-tune your website to increase your SEO. Finally, keep in mind that the search engines decide what to list and how to list it. If you write page titles that seem to just pack keywords in without saying what’s actually on the page, for instance, the search engines are likely to pick their own title for that page. Think of the titles and page descriptions as suggestions to the search engines. If they are truthful and well-written, the search engines are more likely to accept them.
This means it is imperative that your agency stay on top of your marketing game by utilizing effective and innovative marketing techniques. One website marketing technique that we have found to be very successful is writing creative and helpful blog posts such as this one to provide our clients with the information they need to succeed. While not each blog that we write will apply to each of you, we strive to provide helpful insight that could be referenced, if not now, in the future as your agency grows. Building a similar relationship with your current and potential clients via blog posts on your website will not only convey your interest in their success, but will assist in building relationships as well.
Aside from providing a solid software platform to help agencies run better, we aim to provide assistance to our agency partners in every way we can. For that reason, we have taken the time to research and write about areas such as this that we feel would be of benefit to independent agents. In cases such as this we are able to draw from the knowledge of the marketing team at NuGrowth Solutions, our parent company, and Agency Marketing Partners, the insurance marketing arm of our business.
If you would like to find out more about our core competence – our Partner XE agency management system – and how it can help you as you strive to streamline workflow and build your books of business, please contact us at 800-747-9273 or [email protected].
According to an article written by Angelyn Treutel titled Top 10 Reasons to Use an Agency Management System, “90% of agencies use an agency management system.” Large or small, an agency management system not only increases efficiency and reduces costs, but also preserves past, present, and potential clients in one centralized location. Using the information and features available in your management system to enhance your marketing efforts is a sure-fire way to manage what used to be a daunting task.
Here are some helpful suggestions for how to utilize the reporting capabilities of your agency management system not just for your book of business, employee productivity and sales growth, expiration lists, call analysis, and product reports, but to conduct a marketing analysis as well.
Track the dates that quotes went out and set a date for that quote to remind yourself to follow-up. Keep the conversation simple, genuine, and light.
Track the dates of policy expirations to evaluate the coverage of current clients and what additional coverage they might benefit from.
Keep track of important dates of your clients. Sending a Happy Birthday or Anniversary message to a current client is a great way to build relationships and convey that you recognize the important dates in their life. Also, knowing that their son or daughter is quickly approaching driving age and policy adjustments may need to be made will help you proactively reach out to ensure they have the coverage necessary to protect those they care about most.
Utilize the calendar feature to track the marketing efforts you have made throughout the year. This will help you as you plan next year’s activities and analyze what efforts were successful and which were not.
Use your management system to identify what lines of business your current clients do not have. Partner XE can easily create reports for any client with and/or without any line of business, giving you the ability to easily create cross sell marketing initiatives for CSRs or Producers.
As a company strongly focused on out of the box thinking, we here at SIS strive to incorporate the ability to conduct several tools that can be utilized for a marketing campaign in Partner XE. Our innovative Outlook Integration feature captures email conversations and stores them in the appropriate client folder. This feature enables you to recall previous marketing correspondence quickly and easily.
Our Notes, Messages, and to-do Lists help you stay organized with reminders of who has inquired about available services, who you have contacted about your valuable services, and where you are in the marketing process of a specific client or potential client. Also, the integrated Accounting module features financial and production reports; enabling you to understand the strengths or weaknesses of your marketing efforts.
If you would like to find out more about the Partner XE agency management system and how it can help you as you strive to implement a marketing program, streamline workflow and build your books of business, please contact us at 800-747-9273 or [email protected].
Did you know that your target customers need to hear your marketing message at least seven times to influence a buying decision? The best marketing programs provide high volume exposure and repeat touches in the market. This poses no problem for the big insurance giants who appear to have unlimited funds. For the independent insurance agent, however, it requires careful planning and creative thinking.
Unfortunately, many independent agencies, strapped for time and resources, focus on having prime office space, state-of-the-art computer equipment, and expensive office furnishings, but neglect to allocate the funds necessary to market their agency. In fact, when push comes to shove, the marketing budget is often the one that gets cut.
It is important to note, however, that you don’t need to break the bank in order to effectively market your agency. The fundamental secret to creating a high-impact marketing plan on a limited budget is to optimize what you have and focus on capturing the customers that will provide a return on your investment. Instead of hiring an expensive advertising agency that is incapable of cost-effective marketing tactics, use some of these low-budget marketing initiatives instead.
Website Strategies:
Have an easy to remember website address that relates to who your insurance company is or what you do. Also, make sure you list your website address in all of your agency materials.
Provide helpful insurance information to website visitors. Answer common coverage questions or offer helpful home/auto maintenance suggestions.
Don’t over-do it! There are ways to create an impressive site using less-complex template or open source approaches.
Don’t let your site stay stagnant. Refresh your content and add new material as often as you can.
Social Media Strategies:
Use social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to share relevant, educational, informational or entertaining content – not to self promote.
Join and actively participate in local online groups on LinkedIn
Locate a niche/ group where you can be an expert and offer helpful insurance hints and suggestions.
Here are a few quick links we stumbled upon with additional information on using LinkedIn for insurance:
Include a promotional message and your website address as part of your standard email signature. If you have social media accounts, invite people to “Like,” “Follow,” or “Join” you.
Run your email copy through a spam detection tool (i.e. EmailExam, Acxiom Digital, or Lyris Content Checker) to ensure your emails will not be caught in a spam filter.
Send email reminders when policy renewal dates are coming up.
Send monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly client newsletters.
If sending bulk mail, provide clients and potential clients with an easy opt-out email process. Sending email to people who want themselves to be removed from your list projects a poor business image.
Direct Marketing Strategies:
Create a more effective list by using demographics, psychographics, and some of the other list segment tools available.
Before committing large sums of money to full-blown programs, test your mailing and telemarketing in small quantities first. Also, use the information you learn on every program to make the next work better.
Postcard mailers have a low production cost, the first-class postage is more cost efficient, and work very well. Drive interested parties to a web form or a toll-free phone number.
Use two color printing instead of four-color printing. This will save money and pull as much response as would a four-color mailing.
We here at SIS understand the challenges of our clients and the importance of budgeting wisely when owning a small business. Through our experiences, we have noticed some additional cost saving marketing techniques include sending handwritten personal notes to prospects and customers, creating content that can be used in multiple marketing scenarios, and partnering with larger insurance businesses to increase credibility. Also, build a successful co-op relationship with your insurance carriers enabling you to offer competitive products and pricing.
Aside from providing a solid software platform to help agencies run better, we aim to provide assistance to our agency partners in every way we can. For that reason, we have taken the time to research and write about areas such as this that we feel would be of benefit to independent agents. In cases such as this we are able to draw from the knowledge of the marketing team at NuGrowth Solutions, our parent company, and Agency Marketing Partners, the insurance marketing arm of our business.
If you would like to find out more about our core competence – our Partner XE agency management system – and how it can help you as you strive to streamline workflow and build your books of business, please contact us at 800-747-9273 or [email protected].
Sometimes you read something and get an “ a ha” moment. For me, reading insurance tech guru Steve Anderson’s recent post Create A Balanced Approach to Marketing was one of those times. It is not that what he said was really anything new. It is how he said it that really made an impression.
In marketing there is always a new trend, and of course those selling the services that parallel the trend always tell us their way is better. Social media experts tell you to ignore social media at your own peril. Internet marketers talk about SEO and paid search. Direct mail specialists talk about how there is no better way to get your message in front of a client. Those selling billboards on the side of the road tell you the same thing. So which is it? It depends on who your clients are and where they spend their time.
As Steve says, if you are marketing primarily to seniors, traditional methods like direct mail and print ads are more likely to hit their target than paid search. If you are marketing primarily to the younger set, the reverse might be true.
Steve’s tips:
“Get to know their habits, get to know their likes and dislikes, get to know the most critical problems they want to solve and the driving goals they want to achieve. Once you do that, it’s reasonably easy to figure out where they “gather” and use the appropriate marketing methods to reach out to them.
Remember to “check” what any expert tells you (including me) against your common sense …if your gut is telling you something is off, 99% of the time, you’re going to be right.”
Digital Marketing for Independent Insurance Agents
Enhancing traditional insurance marketing methods with online tools and resources:
Digital Marketing is an important tool for Independent Insurance Agents, however, in an age of constant change and innovation in the tools and resources available to market your insurance agency, it can be tough to keep up – particularly when marketing is not your core business.
Fortunately there are some great resources out there like ACT to help make keeping up a little easier. In another excellent article published by the organization, Expand Your Marketing Strategy Online,Three Digital Parallels to Traditional Tactics, author Matt Marko, discusses three digital techniques that can be used to “extend the strong local presence they have developed to local prospects.”
Our top 8 take-aways:
The online equivalent of the Yellow Pages is Local Search.
Agencies should take advantage of free options that audit how effectively they have claimed their local search listings and make it possible to create listings with each of the primary search engines from one website.
Business listings should remain consistent across search engines and include as much relevant content as possible (address, phone number, email address, website, etc.)
It is a good idea to generate as many online references to your business as you can among search engines.
For agencies that have nurtured word-of-mouth referrals from their customers, encouraging your customers to share their feedback online is an easy way to amplify their voice.
Agencies should create a strategy for getting customers to review their business online.
On-line advertising, whether through local media outlets or through Facebook can replace or supplement newspaper advertising.
Facebook give you pinpoint targeting options that print and online publications cannot.
Partner XE by SIS is the leading web based agency management system designed to give you all the capabilities required to run your agency today and well into the future at a price point you’ll appreciate. That’s why over 500 agencies have chosen Partner XE and SIS to help them grow their business. If you are interested in learning more about SIS or our Partner XE agency management system please give us a call at 800-747-9273 or fill out a short contact form and one of our representatives will be in touch soon.
You know data is valuable. It’s what we use daily to make decisions, and it’s what we use to measure our successes. But are you using data effectively in your agency?
A wealth of insurance tech is available to capture and manage data, and the coronavirus pandemic accelerated data use in the insurance industry. According to a survey from Insurity, over 80% of agencies plan to “invest more heavily in data and analytics” following the 2020 pandemic outbreak. And with good reason – Willis Towers Watson found that over 66% of agencies say data analytics helped them reduce expenses, and 60% say it helped increase sales.
There are many ways to improve your insurance agency management, but one of the most impactful is hiring the right people. When you have the right people for the right job, you start from an optimal point.
But how do you know who to hire? We’ve got your answers in our latest eGuide, Who You Hire Matters: The How and Why of Hiring Great Producers and Leaders.
“We all need somebody to lean on,” as Bill Withers said in his famous song Lean on Me. Yet, it can be challenging to know when and how to ask for help. Working in an independent agency, you likely need more help than you know. With a small team, everyone is usually tackling more than one job at a time, making it easy for something to fall through the cracks.
Though you may intend to put effort and thought into something, invariably other time-sensative matters comes up. For many agencies, that something is insurance agency marketing. Whether it’s a customer request, an uptick in claims, or another important measure, marketing gets put on the back burner again.
So how do you know when it’s been too long since you paid attention to your insurance marketing? There are a few signs that it’s time to get help.
Many insurance agencies are now marketing their company online. The key to doing this correctly, without spending too much money is a challenge for many agencies to overcome.
According to an article written by Angelyn Treutel titled 
Did you know that your target customers need to hear your marketing message at least seven times to influence a buying decision? The best marketing programs provide high volume exposure and repeat touches in the market. This poses no problem for the big insurance giants who appear to have unlimited funds. For the independent insurance agent, however, it requires careful planning and creative thinking.