Connecting with clients in a wired world presents a whole new approach when growing an insurance agency. Most consumers today rely on social media, as well as friends and family, opposed to promotions and advertisements to form their decisions about products and services. In today’s market, consumers are well informed and socially engaged. This does not change the fact that consumers want to feel they have a personal relationship with the companies they engage with. One way that companies can ensure they are successfully marketing on a digital platform, while maintaining the personal relationship that consumers need is through Google+.
What is Google+ and Do I Need It?
Currently, there are over 200 social networking sites, some of which host more than a billion users. One very prominent and upcoming social media site that is owned and operated by Google Inc. is Google+. Originally founded in 2011, Google+ hosts more than 500 million registered users worldwide.
Some of the features of Google+ include:
Stream– This is where users see updates from those in their circles. Users have the ability to post comments and upload/share photos and videos.
Circles– This feature enables users to organize people into groups for sharing purposes. Sections range from Family and Friends categories to All Users on the Google+ system.
Hangouts– These are places used to facilitate group videos chats. You can have a maximum of 10 users at a time participating in a single chat in which users can even share YouTube videos, documents, and create instant webcasts.
Messenger– Available to Android, iPhone, and SMS devices, Messenger enables users to communicate and share photos with those in their circles instantly.
The Benefits of Google+
Now that we have reviewed some of the basics about Google+, let’s take a look at how it can benefit you and your agency. Many agencies have adopted Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter pages to enhance marketing efforts. With a presence on these sites, many ask how adding a Google+ account will really make a difference. The answer is simple. When it comes to social media and having a dominating web presence, there is high probability that you will never be 100% covered. By using Google+ you can be sure to close the gap between your percentage now and the ultimate 100%.
Here are a few benefits to creating a Google+ Business Profile:
Most importantly, your current and potential customers are already on there. With over 500 million active members in a little over 2 years, Google+ provides you with the opportunity to engage with your clients on their level.
Remember, less users=less competition. Start building relationships now when you can still be heard. The number of individuals and businesses joining Google+ increases daily.
Another positive is that Google+ allows for a more direct and personal relationship with clients. Google+, unlike Facebook and Twitter, is dominated by quality info that is professional and informational. Consumers appreciate a site that is not cluttered with unnecessary information and advertisements.
You will also set your agency up with the ability to be part of the future integration with other Google products. Who knows what plans Google has for the future!
This post is part of a series on Insurance Marketing Strategies brought to you by SIS. At SIS we view it as our job to make all the behind the scenes tasks that go into running an independent insurance agency simpler, so you can focus on growing your book of business.
We do this by doing what we do best – listening to our clients’ needs, constantly working to build a better agency management system, providing outstanding ongoing customer support and looking for the next “best way” we can help you out.
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.
In today’s insurance environment, agencies are experiencing rapid change like never before. Globalization and the constant innovation of technology have resulted in a continuously evolving business environment. Change management, the approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations to a desired future state, is a structured approach in an agency for ensuring that changes are smoothly and successfully implement to achieve lasting benefits.
Managing change successfully is not an easy task, nor should the efforts to do so be taken lightly. Companies that refuse to change get left behind by those who embrace it. Successful agency owners need not question whether or not change is necessary, but focus on how to successfully manage change to ensure the success of the business.
Jeff Yates, the Executive Director of the Agents Council for Technology (ACT) recently published a thought-provoking article entitled Agency Strategies to Manage Change Successfully. In his article, he provides six perceptive ways for an agency to successfully manage change and in turn grow their business.
Yates emphasizes that “Agencies can position themselves to prosper in this rapidly changing environment by creating a culture that embraces innovation and implementing a defined change management process.”
Management Sets the Tone
It is the agency management team that plays a pivotal role in building a culture where “innovation is prized as a core value of the business.” Encouraging ideas on how the agency can do things better from employees and clients, surveying clients regularly, and setting up client advisory councils will provide the ability to test new ideas and generate fresh thinking.
Keeping up with Innovation in Other Industries
Keeping up with the innovations occurring in other industries is essential to success. Though agility is important in reacting to competition, being “anticipatory” will allow agencies to become the competition instead of simply trying to keep up with it. In order to be the “anticipatory” firm, changes need to be made immediately enabling themselves to be where consumers and competitors will be in the future.
Employee Involvement & Training are Key
Encouraging employee involvement in the shaping of necessary changes will also enable agencies to successfully implement change. Empowering and rewarding employees that are innovative will encourage employees to work through any issues and pursue problems until they are fixed. An innovative agency has the right employees in the correct spots, such as those willing to embrace change and ask the right questions to get their jobs done correctly. Many agencies encourage diverse thinking and a deeper understanding of the various client segments by maintaining a staff that reveals multiple generations and ethnic groups. Providing employees with the training necessary for them to become more effective and increase overall job satisfaction is important as well.
Slow Down in order to Speed Up”
Coined by Paul Fuller from here at SIS, this phrase emphasizes the importance of taking the time to ensure the change being considered is worth pursuing. This applies to many facets of the business, from technology to workflows. Opposed to automating a previous workflow that was created for a paper environment, agencies need to rethink these workflows and how they might need to be reworked in a paperless environment.
Willingness to Experiment
In order to successfully manage change, agencies must be willing to experiment and tweak new technologies while listen to the feedback from clients and others. Great examples of these technologies are mobile friendly websites and mobile apps. “There is no question mobility and the ‘connected’ consumer are both ‘hard’ trends that will increasingly affect us.” Internet marketing is also a new technology that many agencies are “experimenting” with. The necessary steps to becoming an innovative agency are experimentation, measurement of the effectiveness of any changes made, and refine implementations when needed.
Innovations Save Time & Money
Let’s discuss time and money, which many of us know can make or break an agencies based upon utilization of each. Efficacious innovations often save time by decreasing the time needed to accomplish certain tasks. By implementing certain innovations, what once took an average of 23 days to complete can be reduced to 2-3 days.
Yates’ closing statement emphasizes that though there are many available technologies that will enhance your competitive position, there are four key steps agencies must take to manage change successfully. Agencies that embrace innovation, keep up with trends and opportunities, empower their employees, and implement a defined change management process “will continue to experience rapid and profound change.”
Partner Effectively
At SIS, our agency partners’ success is our success and we are committed to helping them grow and expand. Understanding that innovations save both time and money, and contribute significantly to growth potential, we view it as our responsibility to stay ahead of the curve.
To that end, we build our goals and expectations on continuous improvement and adaptation to provide the best service possible. We listen to what clients want and incorporate their feedback into product enhancements. We have a strong user group that helps drive productive innovation. Clients benefit from a management system partner vested in their success and we benefit from the exceptional insight we gain from the people who use the system day in and day out.
We welcome a partnership with you and would like to talk about how we can work together to develop innovative solutions. Our goal is to make our agency partners’ job simpler by consistently working to build a better agency management system, providing exceptional training, and always looking for the next “best way” we can help you succeed. Contact us at 800-747-9273 or fill out a quick contact form and we will be in touch.
Independent Insurance Agencies Must Plan for Future Growth
Right now, there are many factors affecting the growth and success of insurance agencies. Factors such as the internet, generational differences, legislation, case law, the economy, the soft market, and the vast fortune carriers have made the last five years have placed many insurance agencies at a disadvantage. From increased technology to a focus on identity fraud protection, there are many angles to consider when thinking of the future of your agency.
Recently, an article titled 5 Ways Agency Principals Can Seize the Future was published by the chair of ACT’s Agencies of the Future initiative Peter van Aartrijk. In this article, Aartrijk provided 5 insightful ways that an Agency can seize the future and in turn grow a successful agency. In this article, Aartrijk not only discussed the 5 ways an agency can seize the future, he also provided helpful links to additional resources covering each point.
The 5 points included in Aartrijk’s article were:
Brand – Aartrijk emphasizes the understanding that “a brand isn’t tangible”. It is a result of the actions that you take and the customer service that you provide that resides in the minds of your owners, employees, customers, prospects, business partners, and opinion leaders.
Leadership – Here Aartrijk discusses the need for both transformational and transactional leadership in order to succeed. A successful agency leader must be willing to gain new information and insight from a multitude of sources.
Staffing – “Smart agency owners invest in people and training.” Aartrijk states that within the next 10 years, nearly half of the individuals working in the insurance agency will retire. If you do not embrace the next generational leaders that are currently ready to get involved now, your agency could be stuck with a minimal work force that is lacking the skills that could be passed down from tenured agents.
Social – Aartrijk emphasizes the importance of not sitting on the sidelines of the current consumer revolution. To ensure a strong future in the insurance business, agencies need to be “fully engaged, year round, in online and social networking activities”. He stresses that relationships are very important to the industry, and building these relationships with digital media is imperative to success.
Metrics- Finally, Aartrijk stresses the need for agencies to focus on the effectiveness of the marketing and sales efforts. “Knowing your numbers is a key differentiator between the growing agency and the one that is not.”
To review the full article, 5 Ways Agency Principals Can Seize the Future, written by Peter van Aartrijk, please click on the link below.
Practical Resolutions – and tips on how to keep them.
As we turn the corner into the New Year, everyone seems to be making a resolution of one sort or another. Some want to lose weight, others want to cut out sugar,quit smoking, exercise more, spend more time with the family, … you name it. Ironically or not, many make the same resolution year in and year out and never keep them past February or March. Instead of same old, same old (or maybe in addition to same old, same old) in 2013 think about streamlining business processes and get your office organized for the year ahead.
Here are a few suggestions to get you started…
Improve your renewal processes.
Create custom reports to bring the information to the forefront.
Look internally. Get your team together and collectively figure out if there is a better way to handing the large amounts of policies that are downloading or being manually renewed.
Get your house in order
Update workstations and old equipment
Set new goals for going paperless and, if you haven’t already, document your plan to do so. (For suggestions on how to move to a more paperless work environment, read Best Practices: Go Paperless )
Beef up agency security
Keep data in a password-protected, encrypted space
Create “strong” passwords and keep them secure
Keep User Permissions Tightly Controlled
For more practical suggestions on how to improve the security of your agency data read Keeping Agency Data Secure
Invest in the future
Take the time to review, document and share internal Best Practices
Make continual improvement and training of all staff members a priority. (For additional insight, read Steve Anderson’s Training Pays Big Dividends
Focus on Marketing Strategy and on Setting and Meeting aggressive sales goals.
Identify the marketing channels that your customers and prospects will respond to. There are numerous ways to attract new business. As Steve Anderson wrote in Create A Balanced Approach to Marketing, “go where your prospects and customers already gather.”
If we all had an infinite amount of money we could throw our marketing dollars to the wind – putting money into the fad of the moment or whatever happened to suit our fancy at the time. But if that were the case, would we really be working the business or would we be off lounging on the beach somewhere? Since it is safe to assume that money is not infinite and that decisions need to be made as to where to best spend your marketing dollars (any dollars really) the logical next step is to determine where and how to get the best return on your investment.
In a recent article published by ACT, Grow Your Agency & Improve Your Marketing by Tracking Key Metrics, Chuck Blondino, Northwest Region Marketing Director for Safeco Insurance makes a strong case for using metrics to track what is and isn’t working, where your best business is coming from and adjusting your tactics accordingly.
High growth agencies, he says, track metrics.
“While most agencies change little in size of their personal lines books, there are a select few high growth agencies consistently increasing their total personal lines books by 10 to 24%. (Safeco NW Region top 25 personal lines high growth agencies study in 2011) Comparing the commonalities of these agencies, it’s clear that they stand out in their sales methods, training, and support. One thing really was truly unique – these agencies tracked their marketing efforts and knew what was effective and what was not.”
Every effort needs to start somewhere. When it comes to tracking the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, that start is as basic as they come. The first question that must be asked of every new client is “How did you hear about us.” The caveat is, don’t just ask it, track it. With this information at your fingertips, it all flows from there.
What makes this article really valuable is that Blondino not only tells you that you need to start tracking metrics… he gives solid examples of what to track and how to track it.
There are over 400,000 Google searches every second. In a blink, hundreds of thousands of people are searching for what they need. With so many people looking for so many different things, odds are there is someone out there seeking your agency. Are you helping them...
When choosing an agency management system, it can feel like you’re sitting at the poker table. Livelihood and legacy are on the line. If you pick the wrong system, you stand to lose efficiency, time and money. If choose correctly, you win a partner that will help...
We recently read the 2017 Insurance Marketing Benchmarks from OutBound Engine, and one thing is clear: agencies continue to struggle with insurance marketing strategies. OutBound surveyed over 240 agents on how they brought in business. Though each had some...
In today’s insurance environment, agencies are experiencing rapid change like never before. Globalization and the constant innovation of technology have resulted in a continuously evolving business environment. Change management, the approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations to a desired future state, is a structured approach in an agency for ensuring that changes are smoothly and successfully implement to achieve lasting benefits.
Connecting with clients in a wired world presents a whole new approach when growing an insurance agency. Most consumers today rely on social media, as well as friends and family, opposed to promotions and advertisements to form their decisions about products and services. In today’s market, consumers are well informed and socially engaged. This does not change the fact that consumers want to feel they have a personal relationship with the companies they engage with. One way that companies can ensure they are successfully marketing on a digital platform, while maintaining the personal relationship that consumers need is through Google+.