Most agents by now have taken the basic steps of online marketing. Your website looks professional and you’ve claimed your Google My Business listings. But, many agencies we talk to still struggle with the next steps. Having a website simply isn’t enough anymore. 2018 will be about: What makes your agency unique and what makes you stand out?
What makes your agency unique?
Insurance agencies are in a grossly competitive market. In fact, the insurance industry as a whole is the single most competitive and expensive industry on the internet to advertise. Much of this cost is driven up by direct writers, but even agents are getting into the pay-per-click ad space. If you’re still focusing on just auto and home insurance, it is time to consider other avenues because every other agent in the country is focusing on these too.
What content marketing approach do you have that will make you stand out online?
Content marketing is all about writing product content targeting. Instead of spending all your time focusing on home insurance, think about AirBnB insurance, VRBO Insurance, vacation rental insurance, secondary home insurance, short-term-rental insurance and more! When we look at websites for insurance agents, most of them look the same. They hit the big products, but neglect the smaller ones. Yes, you should have home insurance on your website, but home insurance can be broken down into countless additional sub-categories. This goes for all categories. Instead of Motorcycle Insurance, what about scooters, mopeds, Vespa’s, slingshot, Spyder… This is where the opportunity online is in 2018.
Is your site secure?
If your site is not using a SSL certificate yet, it would be a good idea to get one. SSL certificates are inexpensive and can be installed quickly by any competent web provider. There are two simple reasons to get one installed today.
- Abandon Rate: Google’s latest version of their web browser, Chrome, will now tell visitors that your site isn’t secured in stark red letters. A recent study by HubSpot found that when people were warned that a site wasn’t secured, they abandoned the site by 82% of the time. Do you want to miss out on 8/10 leads on your website?
- SEO Boost: Google says they favor sites that have a SSL installed and give them an SEO boost. It isn’t often that Google tells us any of their algorithm, so take advantage of this.
Is your site responsive?
It surprises me how many websites I still see that are not mobile friendly or responsive. You can read about the importance of website mobile responsiveness from a 2014 blog post I wrote. We can’t reiterate enough – if your site isn’t mobile responsive, you’re going to miss out on over 50% of all website traffic. Period.
Site speed
If your site is taking over 4 seconds to load, you’re going to have an abandon rate in excess of 25%. Slow sites are generally slow because there is too much JavaScript, too many large images or too many off-site requests loading (iframes etc.) Utilize free speed test tools by Google or GTMetrix to improve the speed of your site.
Malware and DDOS protection
It seems like the internet is like the Wild Wild West these days. You can’t go a day without hearing about a major hacking event, stolen consumer data or our last election. While most DDOS (denial of service) attacks try to target major websites your insurance agency site is still vulnerable. Most insurance agency websites can operate safely on a smaller marketing platform with minimal memory on their server. When you get too much traffic however, your processes can backup which causes your site to crash and go offline. Investing in both malware as well as a hosting company that can help mitigate your vulnerability from DDOS is a minimal investment in your online presence. Things like CloudFlare (CDN) can also help with your page speed and erroneous downtime errors that occur because of rogue IP Addresses accessing image files too frequently.
2018 will be a great year for insurance agents. Consumers are continuing to support the channel and the easier your agency is to find online, the better your chances are to landing more customers through the web. Consumers want to do business with local agents, so find ways to stand out – participate in local events, post local pictures, support local charities and do your best with gathering reviews online to your Google My Business profiles, Facebook and Yelp. There is a lot that goes into marketing an agency successfully but with some patience, you can thrive. If the thought of marketing your business successfully is too much, we’d love the opportunity to work with you. Tosten Marketing has helped hundreds of agents around the country successfully market their business online with up-to-date website design, unparalleled hosting packages, malware protection and of course or SEO services. If you’re not familiar with our company, check us out. I think you’ll be impressed.