Insurance agencies will be focusing on web marketing in the coming year as they create their marketing plans. This is a key marketing driver for generating leads. Web marketing isn’t a new trend. It is a new way to do business and something agencies should not ignore. Agency growth is no longer based on referrals. As more and more communication moves from hand-shake to the internet, younger buyers are more open to digital communication than face-to-face meetings.
What does web marketing actually mean? Wikipedia says that web marketing is “the placement of media along various stages of customer engagement through search engine marketing (SEM), SEO, banner ads on specific sites, e-mail Marketing, and Web 2.0 Strategies.” This is a fair definition of web marketing. We will answer important questions about insurance agency web-marketing. Let’s start by identifying key components to an insurance agency marketing plan.
- Agency Web Seminar Marketing
- Blogging and Vlogging
- Design of Insurance Agency Website
- Insurance eMarketing Campaigns
- Insurance Search Engine Marketing (SEM).
- Insurance SEO (Insurance Agency Search Engine Optimization).
- Pay Per Click (Google PPC, LinkedIn PPC, etc.)
- Social Media Marketing (Facebook. LinkedIn. Twitter. YouTube. StumbleUpon).
- Insurance Agency Telemarketing (augments Web Marketing)
If the agency website is not up-to-date and has been recently updated, then it’s a good idea to start insurance agency web marketing with a complete redesign. A website for an insurance agency must be visually appealing. It should contain current and compelling content. Video is increasingly important because it allows for quick and easy information transfer in an engaging and personal way. YouTube can be used to increase the visibility of insurance agencies’ websites. Vlogs are video blogs that can be extremely helpful for a website. Vlogs could be voice-over photos, a recorded PowerPoint presentation, or a talking head video. Vlogs combine the power of a blog with PowerPoint or video to enhance the impact.
Insurance agents must take great care when creating their website content. Content is the king of the internet. Lack of content on a website that is visually appealing will lead to a suboptimized search engine result for insurance. This can negatively impact SEO efforts by insurance agencies and reduce website stickiness and effectiveness. An annual review of the website content is a crucial part of any insurance agency’s web marketing plan. Prospects and clients should find the content of interest.
Social media marketing includes Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and StumbleUpon, just to name a few. This allows agencies to significantly expand their marketing reach. Insurance agencies have the opportunity to increase their branding, share content and establish subject matter expertise. They can also participate in discussions. You should consider many aspects of social media marketing for insurance. A simple blog post can be used in many ways to increase reach. Blogs can be tweeted, reblogged and ePublished. They can also be included in newsletters or eMarketing campaigns. One blog is only allowed to be reused five times. However, there are other ways that a blog can be used ten times or more, which dramatically expands internet reach, enhances cyber presence, and improves insurance SEO. Social media marketing is a crucial component of an overall web marketing strategy for insurance agencies. Social media marketing provides a foundation on which an agency can build. If used properly, social media marketing can be one of the key drivers to insurance agency leads. Since these two are closely interconnected, we will include blogging and ePublishing in the social media marketing category. Repurposed blogs can be shared via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter as articles, which will help insurance agency SEO.
SEO for insurance agencies and social media marketing can help improve organic search engine rankings. Paid engine ranking placement, also known as Pay Per Click (or PPC) advertising, is another option. Paid PPC ads are located at the top and sides of the organic SERP (search engines results page). Your agency will be charged a fee if an internet user clicks one of these ads. The fees charged can vary from less than a dollar up to $15 depending on the competition of the search term. Let’s take, for example, that your PPC keyword phrase was New York Business Insurance. When someone searches that keyword phrase, your PPC advertisement appears. Your budget and keyword phrase bid will determine whether you appear at the top. If someone clicks on your ad they pay a fee of five dollars. This is a great way to keep track of volume, efficacy, and conversion ratio. You are also paying ad fees. The difference between PPC and organic is determined by your web marketing plan for insurance agencies. You may have budgeted for one or both.
Agents can use eMarketing campaigns and web seminars to increase their outbound reach. Agency webinars allow you to communicate at a high level and with prospects. eMarketing campaigns that provide educational content are more popular than those that promote insurance products or pitch. While eMarketing and web seminars can pay big dividends for agencies, it can take 6 months to build a following.
Finally, how does telemarketing fit into the overall web marketing plan? Telemarketing is technically not a web-based solution. Telemarketing or appointment setting in this instance is a better description. It can be an integral part of a web marketing plan. These web marketing leads must be followed up on. Outsourcing an appointment setter can prove to be very beneficial for an agency’s overall pipeline building efforts. To ensure the agency is making the most of their web marketing efforts, it is important to call all prospects that click through to a agency’s website, and all webinar registrants, in order to make sure they are being properly addressed. Producers may not have the time or desire to call. Instead, they should make appointments with qualified appointment setters. Qualified leads are the main purpose of any web marketing strategy.