going beyond your insurance agency's website

Going Beyond Your Website

Once your insurance agency’s website goes live, that’s when the real fun begins!  Too many insurance agencies think that putting up a nice website is enough, but nothing could be further from the truth. Once your website goes live, it’s time to start making it work for you. Here are a few things that every agency should pay attention to if they want to get the most value out of their new website.

Content

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (…and again, and again, and again…) – the key to a solid marketing strategy revolves around content. Once your website is live, it’s time to develop a long-term content plan, but before you start writing, make sure that you know exactly who your audience is by developing your marketing personas.

Now that you know who you’re writing to, what do you write about? The easiest place to start is with your blog. You can write blog posts on almost anything that will help you connect with your audience. A few ideas to get you started.

  • Upcoming community events
  • Insurance industry updates
  • Changes in the law that may impact coverage
  • Home / Auto maintenance tips
  • Posts that highlight your staff and show off their personalities
  • Seasonal topics (winter driving tips, flood preparedness, etc)

Looking at a blank screen may seem intimidating, but once you get started you may be surprised at how quickly your thoughts begin to flow on to the page.

Social Media

I’m still surprised at the number of insurance agencies that aren’t harnessing the power of social media. If you’ve ignored your agency’s social media accounts lately, a new site launch is the perfect time to breathe some new life into them! It’s also a great way to make sure that the content that you’re going to be creating gets in front of your audience. At a bare minimum, your agency should have active Facebook and LinkedIn profiles to meet the needs of both your personal lines and commercial lines audiences.

Email Marketing & Marketing Automation

Some people want you to believe that email marketing is dead.

They’re wrong. A few stats for you:

  • When it comes to B2B campaigns, email marketing is the 3rd most influential source of info – after colleague recommendations and industry thought leaders
  • 86% of professionals prefer email communication
  • 77% of people (consumers and businesses) prefer to get permission based marketing messages via email (vs direct mail, text, phone calls etc).

Your insurance agency can start simple with something like Constant Contact or MailChimp or they can go “all in” on a marketing automation platform like HubSpot. Either way, something is better than nothing and the sooner you get started, the better.

Backlinks and Local Citations

A backlink is a link to your website from another website, and a citation is (more or less) a mention of your business online that includes your Name, Address, and Phone Number (your NAP). Both of these are powerful signals that tell the search engines that your business is legitimate and credible. Some of the best backlinks are obtained by taking a bit of an old school PR approach – build relationships with local publications, media outlets and other businesses and make sure that they know about all of the great things that your agency is doing throughout the community. By doing this, you dramatically increase the chances of a local news organization or other group including your agency in one of their upcoming stories. One of the most important citations that  your agency should develop right away is directly on Google – make sure that your agency has claimed and optimized your Google My Business listing.

It’s time to start making your website really work for your insurance agency! If you have any questions, just ask. We love helping agents.

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