While every agent has his or her own sales process, they all generally contain some variation of 4 important actions:

1. Introduce yourself to the client.

2. Create value in the relationship.

3. Build trust.

4. Individualize your sales pitch. Continue Reading »

The internet is beginning to really change the face of prospecting. And while it might make that process easier, it doesn’t change the fact that selling comes from building trust between you and your prospect. After all, the best sales environment is one in which the client trusts you and your judgment and has a desire to work with you to fulfill their insurance needs.

When you host seminars, cold call, or meet clients who’ve been referred to you, you are focusing on presenting yourself as an authority in the industry and establishing that trust. Luckily, there is an easy way to create that authoritative, trustworthy persona online as well through a simple exercise referred to as blogging.

What is Blogging and How Does it Help?

When you blog, you create 300-500 word articles about a topic within your market. In doing so, you show your personality, your knowledge and your authority within the niche. When prospects read your blog, they get a sense of all that, and this gives them an instantaneous bond with you. The more regularly you blog, the stronger this bond can become.

Many people consider blogging to be the same as online networking, which is referred to as social networking. Blogging isn’t exactly social networking because it’s not a two-way conversation, but it does have some similar traits. Your blog readers can (and many of them will) comment on your blog posts, ask questions and even request that you cover specific topics. Commenting back and continuing to be personable is a great way to really cement your relationship and start getting sales.

Creating Good Blog Content

The key to creating good blog content is to write relevant posts that are easy for a web reader to scan. Since blogs are more of a social medium, you can write more casually and include your opinion. Keep the content general so your compliance department doesn’t get uncomfortable and don’t give too many glossy overviews or your readers won’t feel the value of your blog.

If you are not a writer, or aren’t even sure where to begin with creating your blog, don’t worry. You can purchase pre-written insurance content for you blog right here.

Insurance is a business based on relationships. People want to buy insurance from agents that they know and like; agents who are active in the same communities and social circles and agents who have just six degrees of separation from themselves. While the internet has brought access to a wider circle of clients, it has hurt our ability to meet some of the social circle requirements set deep in our client’s subconscious. One way that many agents are trying to bridge this gap is through daily or weekly blogging—which is a great idea—if you know what you are doing.

Have a Clear Message

Your blog posts should have a clear, easy-to-read message that your prospects (and other readers) will understand. If you aren’t sure how to keep your posts focused just pick three main points for each and write around them. Do not try to use words you aren’t familiar with to impress—it’s okay if the posts just sound like you.

Give Solutions

While your posts may contain the discussion of certain problems—like the problems caused by not having health insurance—they should not leave your reader with nothing more than a review of everything that could go wrong. Instead, they should contain solutions so that your reader has some actionable advice to take.

Set a Reasonable Posting Schedule

Once you decide how often to post on your blog, you need to stick to that schedule. When you are consistent it will boost your traffic and show how seriously you are taking the blog—which helps your readers to take it more seriously. If you are planning on taking a vacation, you can always write your posts ahead of time and schedule them for posting.

Be Authentic

Imagine what this blog would look like if we thought we should put on artificial airs when we wrote it:

Thou shall writeth thou blog posteth whilst avoiding ratolorum.

While Elizabethan words are a bit of a stretch, any language or sentence structure you use that your prospective clients don’t identify with might as well be Elizabethan. It’s okay to be yourself even if you don’t have any formal knowledge of the writing craft. Your message is what matters most—not your mastery over the use of the semi-colon.

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 all know that newsletters help create opportunity for your agency. They keep you in the client’s mind, display your industry knowledge and show that you are invested in keeping your clients educated and informed. Unfortunately, if you choose the wrong articles for your newsletter, you risk not just a deleted email or unread newsletter, but being seen as a pest and a spammer by your client.

Who is Reading Your Newsletter?

In order to choose the right articles for your newsletter, you need to know who is reading it. Think about it–if you are a 50-year-old male heading toward retirement, you wouldn’t want to read an article about how women graduating from college can ace their first job interview, would you? Your clients are no different. They want content that is pertinent to their lives, or where they want their lives to be.

Look at your audience. How much do you know about them? Are they from one general age group or gender? Or is there a wide variety of people, ages and life stages accounted for? Make sure you have the appropriate mix of articles to appeal to each of your subscriber groups.

What Do You Want Your Newsletter to Accomplish?

What is the end goal you’d like to achieve from the distribution of your newsletter? Do you want to sell your existing clients new products? Do you want your clients to recommend you to their friends to buy products similar to the ones they bought?

If your goal is to sell your life insurance clients an annuity, don’t fill your newsletter with life insurance articles. Instead, put one or two life pieces in the newsletter and pick annuity and retirement information for the rest. If you want to be known as the life insurance guru in your town, then pick life insurance articles that mix practical, widely known information for much of the newsletter and include some more complex life insurance information and strategies for the other articles. If you’d rather focus on selling multiple products to families, choose articles that deal with the concerns of new parents and homeowners.

Your website is more than just a way to attract new clients to your services. Your website serves as your sales department, your education library, your public image, and more. By keeping your website updated and filled with relevant information that showcases your knowledge and accessibility, it can be used as a tool to create trust between you and potential clients.

How Updates Create Trust

1. Updates show that you are accessible. How many clients have had difficulty reaching their agent after the policy is issued? You are on your site on a regular basis and this creates the impression that you are easy to reach and attentive.
2. Updates illustrate your continued efforts to stay informed. This helps your potential clients understand your investment in your career and the industry.
3. Regular updates on your website are done for anyone who views the website and are not subject to a fee. This no-charge value that you add to your site shows an altruistic desire to educate.

Ways to Update Your Site

Most of the content on your site is carefully crafted sales copy with keywords perfect for search engine optimization (SEO), a call to action that compels clients to call you, and evergreen insurance information. If you aren’t comfortable updating this information without losing the value of your SEO and call to action, add a news section or blog to your site. You may even create a small area on your front page dedicated to these updates. This takes little time to update and provides a consistent area for repeat visitors to look for updates. Make time to update or “tweak” your website at least monthly.

If looking for news is more difficult than you want to deal with, simply set up your Google Reader to pull all articles or blog posts with certain words in them that are used in your industry. This will help you save time in researching and will give you instant access to relevant information.

For a small charge, you can even purchase articles from us to use on your website. Learn more about this service.

If you’re like most agents you’ve got a website for your agency, but are likely struggling to get traffic. Unfortunately, the mantra “If You Build It, They Will Come” doesn’t apply here. With a little elbow grease, however, any agent can achieve success on the web.

Regularly Add New Content

The days where you can put up a brochure style website are long gone. Content has and will always be king.

Don’t worry if you aren’t the world’s most gifted writer. If you subscribe to a print or email insurance newsletter service, post a copy to your website after each mailing.  Add testimonials from satisfied clients.  You can even purchase professionally written insurance articles from us to use under your byline.

Above all else make sure you add new website content on a consistent basis. Nothing looks worse than displaying old information. Give visitors a reason to return.

Keep It Relevant

If you are a group benefits broker, for example, your website should provide resources on new regulations, latest medical trends, etc.  And don’t fool yourself into thinking visitors care about the definitions for HMOs, PPOs, and the like.

Similarly, if you are a commercial lines producer specializing in the oil and gas sector, make sure your content fits with your target market.

Write for Search Engines Too

Search engines, like Google and Yahoo, index your site using keywords. Website content that’s keyword rich will help you get to the top of the search results.

To start you need to identify relevant keywords that apply to your business. For example, keywords such  as “Georgia Health Insurance”, “California Employment Liability”, etc..  Google offers a free keyword tool that you can access here: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Once you’ve identified these high volume keywords, place them into the titles of your pages, the meta tags, and work them smartly into your page content.

Optimizing your website is not a one shot deal.  Just like anything it takes a bit of effort to be successful, but a few hours every week will get the job done.