Community, News and Events
Partner XE User Group to Host Conference
October 4-5, 2012, Embassy Suites, Columbus Ohio
Partner XE agencies are invited to join the NASPA board and SIS team October 4-5, 2012 at the Embassy Suites in Columbus for a day and a half of networking, educational sessions and small group training sessions with SIS and NASPA members. Sessions have been designed to benefit the actual users of the system, as well as the Agency principals.
Conference highlights include guest speakers, Cal Durland, Director of Member Relations, ACORD, Bill Tedrick, CEO, NxTech, Nathaniel Seevers, Social Media Expert, Paul Fuller, EVP – Product Management, SIS and Alex Deak, CEO, SIS. A packed agenda also includes multiple sessions on NASPA approved best practices for your agency using Partner XE and roundtable discussions that will help shape the future of your Partner XE agency management system.
Here’s a sampling of what you can expect:
- Best Practices Workflows in Partner XE – Setting your Agency up for Success!
- Real Time, Transformation Station, & Weblink – Maximizing the Time you Have Through Real Time!
- Agency Accounting Principles and Practice using Partner XE
- Social Media Marketing for the Independent Insurance Agent
- Making your Producers More Productive – Leveraging Partner XE with Some Great Sales Best Practices
Marketing
Independent insurance agencies can benefit from a strong online presence
At SIS we are vested in providing information and technology that helps independent insurance agents streamline their workflow, increase market share and grow their business. Because of that, we have been digging deeper recently to find and pass along pertinent information on all aspects of marketing.
We’ve offered tips from independent agents, perspective on social media, discussed various online tools and resources like local search that can be used to help you get found on the net and linked to a great Mashable article about marketing on Facebook.
Today’s focus is on websites.
Back in 2010, Progressive’s Steve Marko wrote an article for ACT, Build a Web presence worthy of 2010 in which he mentioned that auto insurance is one of the most shopped for products on the internet and cited statistics that indicated that 73% of people use the internet to search for insurance information, but 67% still prefer to buy from a local agent.
The good news for independent agencies, he said, is that people are still trying to find you. The bad news is that if you do not have a strong online presence, the chances they’ll go elsewhere increase significantly – and that was two years ago. We can only assume that, if anything, the number of individuals searching for insurance options online has increased over the last several years.
Given those statistics, it is surprising then that all independent agents don’t have more of a web presence. In a recent survey we conducted through a third party we found that only 143 out of 247 (57%) of agencies surveyed had a marketing web presence. Of those who had a web presence only nine (4%) felt that their website was “very effective” in driving new business to their agency. Out of those who did not currently have a web presence, only 27 (26%) indicated that getting a website would be the next on their list of marketing priorities.
Based most of the agents and agencies we’ve talked to, it seems clear that Marko’s key points back in 2010 still apply. Agencies need to
- Build a quality site that promotes a strong brand presence
- Broaden reach with free local online listings
- Attract “searchers” through SEO
- Keep them coming back with fresh content
- Measure results using online analytics and tracking the number of new customers attracted by the website.
For those who want to read more on the subject of business websites, there is a great post on Mashable Business, 4 Elements of a Successful Business Web Presence, that touches on the basics – Defining the Goals of your site, the site itself, the benefits of a blog and using a periodic newsletter and/or social media to drive traffic to your site and seek YOU out.
You can also visit the “Websites & Social Media” quick link at www.iiaba.net/act for more tips on websites, search engine optimization, blogs and other social media issues.
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.
Marketing
With Facebook, Timing Can be Everything
Since we have been talking about social media lately, and since more and more independent insurance agents appear to be using it successfully. It seemed like a good idea to pass along some insights and Facebook tips we gained while reading a recent Mashable Business blog post, HOW TO: Improve Engagements on Your Brand’s Facebook Page [STATS]
The stats presented in the Mashable post are taken from a new report by Buddy Media, a social media marketing company.
Key takeaways:
Be Timely
- Brands that posted outside of business hours had 20% higher engagement rates.
- Daily Facebook engagement has three peaks: early morning (7 a.m. EST), after work (5 p.m. EST) and late at night (11 p.m. EST).
Be Concise
- The length of the post matters as much as the time of the post.
- Posts with 80 characters or less garnered 27% more engagement than posts that were more than 80 characters
Ask For Engagement
- If you’re looking to get Likes on a post, all you have to do is ask.
Read the full article
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.
Marketing
Social Media for Independent Insurance Agents
Young insurance agents and young consumers advocate social media and digital marketing
Social Media for Independent Insurance Agents is a hot topic these days. It is tough to talk about insurance and marketing without the topic of social media coming up – in particular how it is being effectively used by younger agents and how it is used to attract younger consumers.
We recently found a few good articles that we felt might be of interest to those considering implementing a social media marketing strategy for their insurance business – one by a young college student, discussing the best way to attract and engage conversation with consumers of her generation and the other which presents the vantage point of young insurance professionals who are marketing to them.
On the consumer side:
ACT recently published a very insightful paper, A Millennial’s Take on Social Media, written by Lauren Foy a college sophomore, future insurance consumer and the daughter of an independent insurance agent.
Lauren talks about the dos and don’ts of using Facebook, blogging and other online methods to promote your insurance agency as well as the age-old value of personal relationships.
Her Facebook Tip?
“If you are on someone’s Facebook home screen too much with uninteresting comments you are more likely to get hidden. However, I can think of two companies that I see on my Facebook a lot and I am more likely to consider them when I am in the market. The way they do this is by posting relevant posts and doing it on a consistent, reasonable basis… My generation feeds on being “heard” and finds it so appealing that we give more attention to the social media sites that try to engage us.”
On the agent side:
In her recent Insurance Journal article, How Young Insurance Agents Are Changing the Industry, author Andrea Wells recounts her interview with two young insurance professionals, who feel very strongly that young agents have an opportunity to make big changes in how the industry operates – from social media marketing to increased use of technology in general.
She cites the following statistics: “Of the 513 young agents responding to the 2012 Insurance Journal Young Agents Survey, 75.2 percent reported having a Facebook page, 73.7 percent use Linked In, 28.5 percent use Twitter, 84.7 percent use an iPhone or other Smartphone, 44 percent use an iPad or other tablet device, and 10 percent report writing a blog — all for their work as an independent insurance agent.” – Read the full article
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.
Agency Management System Best Practices, Agency Operations, Community
Agency to Agency…
An Interview with Kirk Stubblefield
Stubblefield Insurance Agency, LLC – www.stubblefieldinsurance.com
Location: Abilene, Seymour and Olney, TX
A few months ago, Kirk Stubblefield of Stubblefield Insurance Agency in Texas graciously agreed to do an interview with SIS talking about his experiences with the Partner XE agency management system and the service he receives from SIS. During that interview Kirk mentioned that one of his favorite aspects of Partner XE is the flexibility it gives him to run reports that really drill down on various aspects of his business. What follows here is a much shorter version, intended to be part of a best practices series for those already using our software.
Can you give me examples of how you use the customized reporting feature to analyze your business?
I can use Partner XE to run a complete list of what each employee has brought into the business at any given time. I can see where they are and give bonuses based on what they are able to bring in without advertising. The reports I have set up will tell me exactly whether an employee has brought in new business, what type of business they brought in and the premium that each one of them is doing. Running and reviewing the reports allows me to get to the point of what I need to work on with each employee. Is it that they aren’t doing anything or is it that they don’t know what to do? I can use the reports to uncover where I need more training.
In addition, I can specify reports based on lines of business, office location (note: Stubblefield has three offices), new policies, lapsed policies, growth, attrition, etc. If I can see one office is growing and another is not, I can step back and figure out what one office is doing that the other is not.
We can also use the reports to adjust our marketing efforts. We can compare clients to clients to uncover which type of companies or lines of business are more profitable – then we can target our marketing efforts using those parameters… Where things are working the best for you that is what you need to expand on.
How often do you look at these reports?
Depending on the report, I look at it daily, weekly, monthly annually. I look at what each office is doing as a whole and know how we are doing as an agency.
Where do you pull the reports?
The searches under clients and policies are the best reports. You can also customize to create your favorite parameters. When you come up with one you like you can save it. You can really build reports to do almost anything you want.
