Business Opportunities and Internet Marketing Systems that Don't Work |
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Insurance Agent WebsitesMany insurance companies offer websites to their agents, and there are a growing number of companies that offer website packages to independent insurance agents. Both of these have problems that mean that they will not provide a total web solution.Both share a set of problems, and may have additional problems that interfere with your ability to actually generate leads from them. The primary flaw is that they lack personality. When you are competing with tons of other insurance agents, and when any person can go directly to an insurance site online to get a quote, you need to find a way to differentiate yourself. The most basic way to do that is to set yourself up to attract clients who WANT to deal with someone personally. After all, if I can go to Geico.com and do everything by computer, if I am the type of person who wants to just deal with a computer, then what do I need you for? What you want is people who are actually interested in contacting a caring insurance agent, who can think creatively and suggest solutions for them without them having to review every option and figure out what each one means so they can determine whether it is a good match. And people like that will only go to the web to do a preliminary search - what they are actually looking for ISN'T insurance! What they are looking for is an AGENT. So a template driven "cookie cutter" site, which does not allow you to fully personalize and customize it, will fail to bring you any meaningful client contacts. You need to find a way to reach out in a friendly, and very comfortable manner, to persuade these people that they can contact you with utter confidence that you will listen to their needs, and give them something personal. To do this, your site design has to be completely coordinated, from the design, to the fonts used, to the images used, to the way the copy is written, and to how the navigation works. The entire site needs to give a cohesive message of warmth and welcome - it needs to feel familiarly cozy, to welcome them in and make them feel like you care. You need to show images that are taken of you, interacting with clients. The site needs to have evidence on every page of a person behind the words and images. And it needs to have a good About page that gives people reason to feel that they know you just a little - enough to trust you anyway. Template driven sites may be much harder to get indexed with the search engines, and they will generally ALWAYS have aspects to them that cannot be modified, and which will interfere with the primary function of the site - to generate quality leads that progress to sales. An agent URL to a company site cannot be registered with the search engines - so you will get very little free traffic. The solution is different, depending on which situation you find yourself in, but it comes down to the same thing: Build your own site. Find a professional who understands that they are not selling insurance - sure, the site needs to have good insurance information in order to validate your credibility, but what they are really selling is personal help with insurance. Then create a site that helps begin the process of relationship building, that reaches out to new clients and encourages them to give you a call. If you have a company provided URL, then create a site that just showcases your personal company, and then link into the company site for the detailed information and online service. This gives you your own URL that you can register with search engines, and with which you can develop a distinct presence online. You get the best of both worlds. The big companies can all do automatic delivery better than you can. So focus on the one thing they cannot give - someone in your neighborhood who understands your personal issues. A good insurance agent can do that better than a computer any day! Written by Laura Wheeler, MicroBusiness Website Developer, and founder of the MicroWebmasters Alliance |
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