Tips For Improving Your Website in 2016

Over the last 10 years we have designed over 1,000 websites for independent insurance professionals. During that time is has become very obvious that it’s harder working with agents who are building their first website compared to ones who are redesigning ones already in place.  Reason being is there is a lot of trial and error involved before your site is truly going to help you make or save money. It’s not about “Bells and Whistles”, it’s about designing a site around the way you actually run your business, so it helps you and makes you more efficient. Below you will find our top 3 tips for improving or building your insurance website in 2016.

1      Don’t Stress About Making It Perfect – Perfect Doesn’t Exist

Whether you realize it now or not, it really doesn’t matter if the car is red or green in the picture representing “Auto Insurance”. As an insurance professional you are going to use your website differently than let’s say a florist. What this means is your website should help you become more efficient, that might mean letting your clients make payments, file claims, fill out forms or enroll online for smaller secondary products such as Dental Insurance. You likely won’t know exactly what efficiency tools are going to work until you launch the site and see how your clients use it. We call it “Battle Testing” the website. The key of course is getting your clients to “use it”. Once this happens, referrals are not far behind.

       Forget About Instant SEO Results – You May Not Even Want What Them Anyway

The first question we ask an insurance professional looking to build a website is… “Do you want referrals or do you want online price shoppers?” In most cases the broker answers “referrals”. If this is the case then your site design and marketing strategy should change. The site now needs to be designed as a “referral converter” for you. This means you have to have “branding”, information about who runs the company, testimonials, an active social media presence. Think about realistic scenario’s, maybe the son of a client is told to use you for auto insurance, he Google’s you, finds your site. Now your site needs to make him feel comfortable to contact you. It’s about creating “online credibility”.

3     Remember You Sell Someone Else’s Products

The overall key to success is to remember you sell insurance, the carriers are the ones controlling the products, the pricing and the plan structure. This means your website should focus on the services that you offer. It should tell people who runs the company, why you are unique and what type of value you bring to the table. It’s still amazing how many agents don’t want to put their pictures on their sites…… big mistake! The consumer wants to do business with someone they trust and can identify with. Make no mistake if they wanted a transactional relationship they would have gone to a “Big Name Online Corporation” online.

If you need help and guidance with your website and social media presence in 2016 please visit www.benefitstore.net and request a free consultation.

Ken French

President

973-607-1916 Ext 1

Using Social Media Like An Insurance Entrepreneur

Obviously there are many insurance agents and agencies that have become very successful using social media to grow and retain their insurance business. However, believe it or not, there is still a large percentage of agents that let their "personal feelings" toward social media hold them back from marketing their businesses and retaining their current clients. 

Social Media for your insurance business is really two simple things. (1) Getting as many people as possible to follow your branded business pages. This becomes your distribution channel. (2) Consistently posting unique content that projects you to be the insurance expert or guru to your social media distribution. It’s very much like drip email marketing used to be. Again the key being a high percentage of people are addicted to social media and pay attention to it, this makes your efforts worthwhile.

Unfortunately, some agents can get sucked into the "gossip" that is occurring and they fail to realize the potential for getting people to talk about them and the services they offer. I’ve had many conversations with agents who say they won’t use Facebook or Twitter because they can’t stand all the nonsense posted. The reality is, there is a lot of nonsense posted, however a great entrepreneur has the ability to understand that’s what draws the crowds to these places in the first place. You just have to ignore it and focus on what you’re projecting out to everyone’s newsfeeds.

It’s ok to dislike social media and still get new clients from it. I think the key is to understand literally hundreds of millions of people are on it daily. It’s this huge crowd of people and yes some people are gossiping. Your job is to make sure you have a professional booth “Your business page” right in the middle of it all. So people in the crowd can point to you and say “That’s the insurance guru” go to them for help with insurance. It sounds simple and in a way it really is, it’s just about having the right mind set to succeed.

I recently did a 15 minute webinar on the subject "Using Social Media As an Entrepreneur".
I suggest if you found the above information interesting that click and watch the webinar.
Click here to watch the webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fwd7VNjGYg

Ken French
President
Snoozzy Inc
Ken@snoozzy.com
www.snoozzy.com

Social Media = Drip Marketing

Social Media has become the modern day “Drip Marketing”. It works because a lot of people are on it paying attention. That being said, the challenge for most insurance agents and agencies is to get as many people as possible following their business presences and then “being consistent” with posting educational insurance posts that project them to be the experts. 

If you’re struggling to post and be consistent everyday check out our social media posting service for insurance professionals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuiNlrE5iXo 

Ken French 
www.BenefitStore.net 
Ken@snoozzy.com 
973-607-1916 Ext 1 

LinkedIn Pre-Written Message Tips

When you connect with someone new on LinkedIn, it makes a lot of sense to have a "Pre-written" (thanks for connecting) message to send out to them. The key to this process is making sure you can do it quickly and efficiently.(You could be sending out 5 a day!)

So to summarize
You connect with someone new on LinkedIn
You go and TAG them into a folder in LinkedIn
You then copy and paste your "Pre-written Message" to them using the LinkedIn Messaging tool.

Below is an example of a Pre-Written Message
I just wanted to thank you for connecting with me. I am the president
of Bob’s Insurance. Our main focus is Home, Auto and Life Insurance.
You can visit our main agency site at www.bobsinsurance.com or call
me directly at 987‐654‐2222 for a free consultation. Feel fee to tell me
a little bit about your business and the types of clients you’re looking
for? I will do my best to send them you’re way.

Ken French
ken@snoozzy.com
www.benefitstore.net
973-607-1916 Ext 1

LinkedIn 101

2015 is almost ½ over and I now almost find it almost comical when I chat with insurance agents who want me to prove to them that they should use LinkedIn for their insurance agencies.
I try to explain to them I could care less about LinkedIn, that I personally don’t like it very much myself and that my opinion really should mean very little to them.

However I try to explain the facts to them.
- 69 Million different USA computer users hit the site during August of 2014
- The site allows you to network with others
- The site allows you to create a database of your contacts
- The site allows you to message and market to those contacts
- The site allows you to join niche groups of your target market clients
- This is with the free version of LinkedIn
- Plus if you know what you’re doing, you should still have time to continue what you’re currently doing from a marketing standpoint.

So even though I don’t really like using LinkedIn, I learned a long time ago that my opinion doesn’t count. That I am salesman and I have to go where the crowds go. I have to do my best to touch as many people as possible, to project myself to be credible, to be an expert and to be a problem solver. That the insurance industry is truly a numbers game and that the agencies who reach those numbers make more sales.

In conclusion, it’s ok to hate or not understand LinkedIn. However if you want to project your expertise out to new and different people there is no excuse for not using it…. I guess you can always have fun cold calling.

Join us for a free webinar on Using LinkedIn For Your Insurance Agency

When: 5/21 Noon to 12:15 EST

Click to register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5961184075985829633

 

Ken French
President
www.benefitstore.net
973-607-1916 Ext 1
Ken@snoozzy.com

Insurance Agent Social Media Posting Strategy 2015 Tips

We find that about 70% of insurance professionals really lack any type of social media game plan for their firms. Most struggle with simple concepts such as When, What and Where should they even be posting.

 

In order to build a good strategy for your brand, first you have to have fundamental concepts that you can always fall back on to answer your questions and uncertainties.

 

We feel these concepts are called the “3C’s of Social Media”

-Common Sense

-Creativity

-Consistency

 

When should I post? Use common sense, when are most people on social media fooling around? Is it at 5am when you are waking up or lunch time?

 

What should I post? First off you need to be consistent and post 5 days a week, add some creativity to it and now you’ve got a plan. (Promote Your Firm, Project Your Firm’s Expertise and Project Your Personality) when you post.

 

Last week I did a special 15 minute webinar that covered the above in much more detail. If you found the above interesting click here to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j30F2slPKPU

 

LinkedIn Boot Camp Training For Insurance Professionals: If you’re still not getting to the next level with LinkedIn you should check out our Insurance specific Boot Camp’s coming up in February at www.SocialMediaImprovement.com.  Our 90 minute session is only $125, which I preform.

 

Ken French

President

Snoozzy Inc

www.snoozzy.com

Ken@snoozzy.com

 

Using Social Media Like An Entrepreneur

Obviously there are many insurance agents and agencies that have become very successful using social media. However, believe it or not, there is still a large percentage of people that let their "personal feelings" toward social media hold them back from marketing their businesses.

Social Media is powerful because hundreds of millions of people are on it everyday. It's like a huge crowd of people chatting. Like I said, some people can get sucked into the "gossip" that is occurring and they fail to realize the potential for getting people to talk about them and the services they offer.
I recently did a 15 minute webinar on the subject "Using Social Media As an Entrepreneur".

I suggest if you found the above information interesting that click and watch the webinar.
Click here to watch the webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fwd7VNjGYg

Ken French
President
Snoozzy Inc
Ken@snoozzy.com
www.snoozzy.com