These days all you hear about on websites, on forums and in blogs is SEO. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a means of driving traffic to your website. That is all SEO does for you. It does not create value to your readers, it does not position you as an authority in insurance and it does not turn your readers into your clients.

In order to get the most out of your website, you must bring in content that positions you as someone people want to do business with. With our article subscription service, you can build your site, blog and press release for both the search engines and the readers.

Here are a few things to remember when building and updating your website:

1. Educate. Your readers come to your website because they have questions. When you give them the answers to these questions, as well as questions they haven’t even thought of yet, you become a valuable resource to your reader. Who doesn’t want to do business with a proven expert?

2. Entertain. No, your website should not have circus clowns romping around the pages, but your content should be readable and enjoyable. The client should learn from it while being compelled to read more. Highly readable content proves that you are a good communicator, and isn’t that important to insurance buyers?

3. Create a reputation as an authority. Sure SEO brings people to your site, but who are they supposed to think you are when they get there? After reading your content, do they think you are a barely literate person or come away with the impression that you are a leader in the insurance industry?

The right content merges SEO with thorough research, entertaining and compelling writing, education and an authoritative voice. Make sure your website combines all of these elements to truly benefit from all that new media has to offer.

We have added another new feature to our email newsletter program that many of you had requested in the past. You can now choose any day of the month to send out your e-mail newsletter.

To select the perfect day and time to communicate your message, we have added a new button at the top of each proof that says Schedule Mailing (see screenshots below). Enter the day and time you would like your newsletters to go out, and they will begin to be delivered at requested timeframe. Just be sure you’re happy with your proof first!

Please note that if you select a week-end day, the newsletters will go out on that day. If you do not specify a time, the default time will be 6am EST.

Once you have scheduled a monthly newsletter for a certain day of the month, the system will default to that mailing day in the following month, unless you decide to choose another delivery date again.

If you want to keep things as is that’s fine too.  Note that in the past, if the 1st or 15th fell on a weekend, we sent your newsletters on the following Tuesday. Now, in this case, your newsletters will be sent out on Monday morning unless you change your mailing date.

Every day, whether they like it or not, your clients are bombarded with news about the troubled economy. They sit and watch as CEOs are replaced, new policies are discussed, and stock values rise and fall. Some of these events are truly cause for concern and others are simply fear mongering tactics used to create news channel profits. But the fear mongering doesn’t just create profits for television stations and it isn’t just perpetrated by the television station your client favors; it is also used as a tactic of other agents to help turn your client into their client.

Through selling fear to your clients, another agent could convince them that the insurance company you sold them a policy for will not be able to pay claims or they may convince your client that the policy you sold them does not offer the best value or benefits for them. If your client is uninformed, they may easily buy into the propaganda.

The only way to combat this is through educating and staying in touch with your client on a consistent basis. Depending on the size of your client list, you and your staff may not be able to call each client regularly to stay in touch, so you must find other methods of creating consistent, valuable contact. By educating your client often with newsletters, blogs, and websites, you help to create a strong foundation of trust and education within your clients. This foundation can help them avoid the lure of an agent who capitalizes on fear.

In addition to providing a resource that helps keep your client persistency up during a bad economy, the regular contact provided by newsletters and a strong web presence helps your client feel connected to you and gives the impression that you are available to them as a resource—not just as a salesperson.

Help your clients feel safe and secure—as though you are their life raft on the choppy water of this economy. Stop their roving eye and help them avoid the complications that can accompany unnecessary insurance policy changes. Provide them with an easy to create educational resource that keeps you available and in demand.