Insurance Agent Web Power

What Kind of Internet Marketing Should Your Insurance Agency Be Doing Right Now?

I’m going to vastly oversimplify the exercise of choosing internet marketing components by making these assumptions:

• You know your insurance agency’s target customers, your key products, and your geographic marketing area;
• You have decided upon which traditional marketing programs you will use -direct mail, print advertising and the like;
• You have a budget for marketing and you know how much of that budget is available to you;
• You also know which programs will be implemented in-house and which ones will be outsourced.

So it’s August already…and your insurance agency is coming up a little short on some sales commitments that could cost you some contingency income and maybe some other preferential treatment from one or more of your insurance companies.  Your problem is short term in nature and you need a short term fix.

For most agencies, the main internet marketing options are these:

• Email marketing (in the short term, this would be confined to your current list)
• Local Search Optimization
• Organic Search Optimization
• Social Media Marketing
• Pay-Per-Click (or PPC)

On a relative basis, the costs for reach line up something like this:

Since we assumed you know your insurance agency’s available marketing budget, you may be able to rule out an option or two at the outset.  But budget aside, each program has different lag-time to sales and each program has a different sales production curve as you move to and through program maturation.   The next illustration shows the different lag times as you move through implementation phases:

This should make your choices fairly easy.  In the short term, Local Search Optimization and Email Marketing are probably your best bet.*  If you don’t have a good email list, one that has been updated, then your option may winnow down to just Local search optimization.  But September is right around the corner and your insurance companies, if they haven’t already done so, are going to start talking to you about marketing plans and commitments for next year.  So it’s a good idea to also consider the longer term sales potential of some of these programs.  Relative to each other, that potential over time looks like this:

When you have the luxury of time, return on investment (ROI) should enter into your decision criteria.  The chart below shows ROI ranges for both social media marketing and SEO.  There is some risk associated with each tactic for multiple reasons (I may blog about that later, if someone asks me to).  But the range of risk is something like good-to-great as opposed to horrible-to-good.  Risks associated with SEO and social media marketing are something most of us can accept and still sleep at night.  PPC would appear to be another matter.   PPC can produce acceptable ROI, but because insurance keywords are so expensive, pay-per-click ROI is unacceptably low for many insurance products.

*although as your short term gets shorter your only option may be to purchase leads

Putting the Role of Your Agency Information, Website, Blog, and Local Search in Perspective

A picture is worth a thousand words, as the old saying goes.  In my case, a picture is worth about 10 webinars, 2 guides, 8 blog posts, 3 newsletter articles and more emails and conversations than I could possibly recount.  For years, I have tried to impress the importance of consistency in your basic agency information across the vast internet – and it is possible, in fact very manageable, to control the appearance of your insurance agency name, address and phone number in web directories and local search engines.  Through numerous blog posts, guides and  webinars I have tried to put the relationship and synergy between local and organic search results, your insurance agency website and blog, and now social media, into a comprehensible context.

And now, courtesy of Mike Blumental’s blog on Google Maps and local search, comes this infographic.  Kaboom!  All the many years of trying to communicate how all these work is captured in one tidy graphic.  It does a nice job laying out how the various manifestations of your insurance agency’s web presence fit together and it does a nice job integrating the concepts of search and social.

You can skip on over to full post on Blumental’s blog for a full explanation of the diagram, and I recommend it, but here are a few essential points captured so cleverly in this one image:

• The rings closest to the center of the ‘web equity wheel’ are most within your control – so control them
• Make sure your business name, phone number and website domain name don’t change  – that’s at the very center
• In the second ring, keep track of user names and passwords that access your directory listings and accounts where your business information appears.  I cannot tell you how many insurance agents had a (former) employee set up their Google Places account, later to find they cannot access their information to correct or update it.
• Insurance agency owners and managers should have complete control of your website and blog, so no excuses for not getting your basic business information right here, and no excuse for not promoting the kind of information about your products and services, the way you want.
• N.A.P., as it appears in the third and fourth rings out, refers to your agency name address and phone number, which also appears in the very center of the diagram.  This information shows up again to highlight the importance of controlling this information at the headwaters – those data providers that populate (hundreds and hundreds of) directories and local search listings downstream.  Again I say, to those insurance agents who represent Progressive, take advantage of their List Agent program and will make quality controlling your N.A.P. information a *lot* easier

I’m going to stop there since there is already a thorough explanation of the diagram at Mike Blumenthal’s blog.  But you get the picture (heh, heh, no pun intended).  A few questions I’d like to leave you with:  1.  What kind of progress have you made building your agency’s web equity?  Are you stuck in the middle?  2.  If you are working on your social media presence in rings four and five (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), have you skipped over some of the details in the inner rings?

A couple of days ago, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the arrest of 125 crime family figures in what the FBI is calling the largest mob round up in history.  Every now and then, a major news story reminds us that often, law enforcement is working quietly for long periods of time, building up to a major disruption of criminal activities.  The announcement made me wonder if we won’t soon here a similar announcement heralding the curtailment of spam and near-spam web trickery.

For your consideration (as Rod Serling used to say), point one: Google has recently undertaken a manual audit of Google Place Page reviews.  Many speculate that the audits are a precursor to an algorithm change to recognize and clean up spam reviews.  Reviews, positive or negative, have been a big factor in Google’s local search algorithm.  Because of that, Place Page reviews have been targeted by spammers who post false reviews to influence search results, in violation of Google’s terms of use.  The large number of obviously fake reviews that have proliferated over the last few years has finally prompted Google to take action.  That first step is human review and a possible and likely outcome may be a blended machine algorithm and human audit process.

For your consideration, point two: Back in November, a new search engine launched named Blekko.  Blekko was built in response to the increasing amounts of spam showing up in Google search results.  We’ve all seen useless and unremarkable websites show up at the top of search, and searches related to insurance services are no exception.  Google is clear on their mission to promote sites with the most useful, relevant content.  But, through ignorance or willfulness, website owners still employ tricks to fool Google’s algorithm and gain search visibility.  When Google discovers spam SEO techniques, it levies severe penalties against offending websites.  But that doesn’t stop website owners from trying to out game Google’s algorithm – especially when spammy techniques work.  There is a growing consensus that Google is loosing the battle.  That’s why Blekko’s search results will depend on human input to determine search rank.

For your consideration, point three: Among the initial investors in Qwiki, another new search engine promising a ‘search experience’ are a co-founder of Facebook and a co-founder of YouTube.  Will Qwiki become a major search player?  It’s worth keeping an eye on, but take a look at the introduction video on their home page and notice the reference to curated information.  Yet another search service recognizes the short comings of purely algorithmic search results.

So are we on the cusp of an internet ‘mob’ round up?  I think so, although the bust may not be so sudden and dramatic as the January 20 AG announcement of the real mob round up.  But the trend seems set:  expect more human intervention in all search results.  The message for those of us that own websites?  Google’s mantra, that quality content counts, may actually become more true than ever.

Local Search:  Reviews are More Important than Ever for Your Insurance Agency

Let me just start by beating that dead horse for a minute or two (children in the room, please cover your ears…).  Local search *has been*, *is*, and *continues to be* an important vehicle for most insurance agents who want to be found on the web.  Reviews *have been* an important factor in Google’s local search algorithm.  Reviews *are* an important ranking factor in the local search algorithm.  Reviews *will continue to be* an important factor in Google’s local search algorithm.  Agencies, even brand new enterprises, who acquire just a few legitimate reviews, tend to show up very quickly in top local (and now organic-ish) search results.

A few more insurance agents have claimed their local listings this last year, and thanks to some insurance company programs like Progressive’s ListAgent, local agencies are getting better visibility and new business through Google Place pages.  But most agents continue to lag behind in claiming their free local listings…and even those that do claim are not putting a process in place to routinely capture customer reviews.  And as noted in the preceding paragraph, those reviews continue to be important.  (OK, the children can uncover their ears, I’m done flogging the horse).  In fact, all evidence points to reviews taking on an even larger role in local search rankings.  And now that Google is blurring the lines between local and organic search, the influence of reviews on insurance agency web visibility now impacts organic search optimization as well.

Changes to the Google SERP

Back in early November Google started mixing local search results with organic results.  The local results don’t always display the same way and experts who watch local search closely haven’t yet fully digested the implications of recent changes.  But there is broad consensus that, to some degree, Google’s local search algorithm and their organic search algorithm have been consolidated in some areas.  This can be seen in the following SERP, where the top local listings (push pins) incorporate page titles and meta descriptions from websites (previously the domain of organic search and SERPs exclusively).

And sometimes, local search results show up in middle of organic results, as in the following example:

Google’s boardroom and on screen changes make clear that they are focused on making local and mobile services even more effective (partly in response to Yelp, Foursquare, and Facebook’s Check-in feature).  As part of this effort, Google has launched a new user review service called Hotpot and has quietly launched a full frontal assault on review spam, starting with Google Places’ reviews.  The review clean up effort has been bumpy for some, resulting in the removal of legitimate reviews for some businesses.  Google is working through both a manual review process and an automated algorithm to identify and remove suspect reviews.  Google has hinted at the increased importance of reviews in determining local search rank so it makes sense that they would want to exert a little quality control over them.

Specific, unique, well written reviews are less likely to be removed by Google – those reviews look less like spam, no matter what algorithm Google evolves to. Interesting and well written reviews will also result in more click-throughs from potential customers.  So, the best thing for your insurance agency to do is the same thing that’s always been the best thing to do:  encourage your customers to post reviews to Google, Bing, Yelp, or any other place your insurance agency’s local listing shows up.

How to Get Reviews for Your Insurance Agency

How do you do that?  The answer to that question just happened to have dropped into my in box in the last day or two.  I recently stayed overnight in an Asheville NC hotel.  One day later, an email showed up that looked exactly like this:

Notice the inclusion of Facebook and Twitter – the Hotel Indigo recognizes the importance of connecting with ‘friends’ wherever their friends might choose to congregate.  But also notice the Trip Advisor section:  the hotel is encouraging online reviews.  Insurance agencies should be sending similar emails each time:

a.  A new customer is brought on board

b.  Your agency quotes, but does not acquire a new customer

c.  At the end of most claim settlements

d.  After selected service transactions

The email should come from the agency owner or upper management.  Obviously, your agency isn’t going to encourage customers to leave reviews on TripAdvisor.   Rather, you should mix up Google Places (Hotpot), Bing Local, Yelp, or others.  Doing this will require a little discipline; you will need to set up a systematic process so that you review transactions and send a few emails each day.  It won’t take much time, and the rewards will snowball over time.

Coupon ideas for insurance agency Google Place pages or Twitter Tweets…

So what if you can’t offer special sales on insurance policies?

We all envy the pizza parlors and retailers who can offer limited time discounts and sales. Adding a coupon to a Google Place listing or announcing a special offer via a Twitter Tweet is easy for them. Not so much for insurance agents. How can you offer a sale or limited time discount on a car insurance policy? You can’t, but the good news is you can use tweets and coupons…you just need to step outside the box a little.

From Google Place page for Mission Mountain Winery

Here are just a couple of coupon (or tweet) ideas you can use to get customers and prospects to drop into your office. Remember, you can use internet communications to finesse off line behaviors and vice versa.

1. Offer give aways to the next 50 people who stop by your office to say hi. To go cheap – use insurance company provided merchandise.
2. Offer to make a $10 donation to one of 5 or 6 charities in the name of visitors.

Be sure to limit the promotion to a set time period, let people know that they need to present – or at least mention – the coupon to get the goodies, get visitors to ‘check in’ using Facebook Places when they are in your office (put up a poster), set up some light refreshments for visitors (coffee, tea, cookies) and set up a workstation so they can get quotes while they visit – but no pressure, encourage customers to get the coupons and share with friends.

Any thoughts or additional ideas?

The companies (collectively) that distribute through independent agents aren’t doing everything they could to help their agents gain visibility and business on the web.  Nationwide seems to be.

Do it yourself, or get someone to do it for you, but get listed with the local search engines and directories.  Agencies that take advantage write more new business every month courtesy of an essentially free tactic.

Dominate Local Search a local search service from Confluency Solutions

Something Old, Something New

I talk to a lot of insurance agents.  Some are happy with their sales and profit growth, most aren’t.  That’s one thing most agencies have in common.  Some have little free cash to invest in marketing programs, some have literally invested over $100,000 in what they believe to be state-of-the-art marketing systems.  Even these agencies have something in common.  Almost none of them are engaging in the four basic tactics that cost almost nothing and deliver demonstrable sales results.  Two of the tactics are as old as dirt and two of them wouldn’t exist without the internet.  As much as anything, I think that shows that the insurance agent who achieves top quartile growth combines a little of the old with the new.

The New

Local Search

Almost all insurance shoppers turn to the internet at some point during their research and purchase process.  And increasingly they are presented with a short list of local businesses next to a map.  Informal research conducted by Confluency Solutions indicates that 80% of all insurance agents have not claimed their local listing with Google Places, Bing Local, or Yahoo Local.  Claiming and enhancing your agency’s business listing is free and takes little time.  That’s why every agent who cares about sales growth needs to manage their visibility in local search.

Email Marketing

Email marketing has been with us for so long that it hardly seems new but it was not possible without the internet.  Spam abuse has brought us tightened regulations (CAN-SPAM) and tightened email filters to keep out unwanted email.  Many agencies use email abuses as a rationale for not collecting and using email addresses.  But, as the Marketing Sherpa chart below shows, those businesses that use email marketing, have *not* seen diminishing returns over the last three years.

There are lots of techniques for gathering email addresses and obtaining permission to send out emails but the best place to start is with your customers and current prospects.  Intelligent email communications to the first group improves retention, account sales, and referrals.  Emails to the second group can introduce additional product (sales), expand your insurance agency value proposition, and maximize sales conversions.  And emailing to either group will have almost no impact on your marketing budget.  You can get money for nothing.

The Old

Lost Business Reclamation

Customers leave for a variety of reasons but always a variation on the ‘grass is greener on the other side’.  Often it isn’t.  Customers are frequently gone before you know you’ve lost them.  In those cases where an agency can learn about a potential customer defection before it happens, the customer is retained 86% of the time.  They just want to know you care.  And if you show them that you care, even after customers have left your insurance agency, you can win back that lost business.  You can pick and choose who you want back, and a process employing a few well placed phone calls, surveys, and emails can bring ex-customers back into the fold once you’ve helped them realize the grass really isn’t greener on the other side.

Managed Referrals

Most agencies get nearly 70% of their new business from referrals.  Nothing wrong with that, except that in most cases those referrals happen fortuitously.  A simple program, wherein you reward customers for referrals with small gifts and constantly promote – with your email, website, on-hold message, and conversation – the existence of your referral program, you can increase the number of referrals your insurance agency receives dramatically.  Of course, if you are employing the first three tactics discussed in this post, your percentage of new business from referrals will decline.  But there is nothing wrong with that – it’s all low acquisition cost.

A Lesson in Local Search Visibility

Marketing Sherpa recently posted a chart illustrating the growing importance of local search. As noted here before, most insurance agencies have not

caught on to this business source.  And those insurance agents who have not taken the simple step of claiming and optimizing their local listings in Google, Yahoo and Bing, are losing money because of that.  And that lost income may be substantial.  In the last two days I have had an interesting phone call with a Midwestern insurance agent and reviewed local search results for 41 established insurance agencies.

My Midwest agent mentioned that she had recently picked up a $60,000 commercial lines account.  When she asked the client how they found her agency he said he did a web search and chose the agency with the most professional web site.  Moral of the story:  if you can’t be found, even an astonishing website won’t help you.

The 41 agencies I reviewed are all well established agencies; most have more than 10 employees and are located in a variety of communities:  urban, suburban and rural.  I should note that these insurance agencies are regarded as top quality by their competitors and are highly sought after by insurance companies seeking representation.  All of them have aggressive commercial lines growth objectives.  I did a Google search to see how visible these agencies might be to business insurance prospects in their market areas.  I gave each agency an unfair advantage by using the zip code of the agency location as take from an insurance company agency locator*.  Here’s how these agencies ranked for a search on ‘business insurance zip code’.

Only 7 of the 41 agencies had claimed their listing in the Google Local Business Center; of those, four had a number 1 ranking in the local listing, and two ranked in the top 10, just outside the 7 pack.  34 agencies had not claimed their local listing at all so the information Google ranked on and displayed was derived from third party sources like Info USA.  Two of those 34, who were located in small towns, fortuitously showed up in the 7 pack and another rural agent made the top 10.

Even the agencies that claimed their listing in the Google Local Business Center could have taken greater advantage of the details Google allows businesses to provide, like company representation, key products and insurance coverage provided, photos and video. But the most striking thing about this graphic is that 73% of the agencies just don’t show up (see the red and yellow regions).

Even quality insurance agencies could be competing a lot more effectively for new business and local search is possibly the most budget-friendly item missing from agency marketing repertories.

Insurance agencies can learn more about local search through a free webinar offered by Confluency Solutions.

*Insurance agencies who are providing P. O. box zip codes to directories and agency locators are often not doing themselves any favors with local search.

This screen shot of the local search portion of a Google search for ‘insurance chattanooga, tn’ points up the problem for insurance agencies.  Why are four of the 7 pack spots occupied by doctors?

The answer is because no local agencies have optimized their local listing in the Google Local Business Center.  Most haven’t even claimed their free listing.  I have seen local SERPs with attorneys, body shops and even Wal-Mart’s Vision Center better positioned than local insurance agents.  An individual searching on the word insurance is far more likely to be seeking an insurance provider than eye or medical care – and Google would like to provide options that fit a searcher’s objectives.  But even Google needs a little help from time-to-time.  This oversight committed by most insurance agents provides a golden opportunity for others.  Confluency Solutions is conducting a free webinar for insurance agents on April 22.  If you want to boost your agency’s search visibility, and write more new business,  you might want to think about signing up and sitting in.

A lot of insurnce agencies I talk to are uneasy about customer reviews that might show up on the public web. The fact is, most business owners are nervous about losing control over customer commentary, but I tend to talk mostly to insurance agents. The local search components of all the major search engines have a place for reviews, and services like Yelp exist pretty much for the purpose of sharing customer reviews. You don’t have to draw your customer’s attention to these review services; sooner or later, they will find them on their own.

Unscrupulous ‘web marketing’ service providers will sometimes post false, negative reviews (or positive reviews on a competitor site they are ‘optimizing’). You should be monitoring your insurance agency’s reviews on these services, as well as those of competitors. Search providers are generally responsive to dealing with false reviews, as long as they can be proven false (e.g., the same ‘reviewer’ providing essentially the same review, to multiple insurance providers across the country, and posting all the reviews around the same time). If reviews are legit, however, or if you cannot prove them to be false, they stay.

The best way to offset negative reviews is by out weighing them with positive reviews. Happily, the evidence seems to indicate that there are a lot more good reviews than bad. Geoff Donaker, COO at Yelp, noted that the ratio of positive to negative reviews is 6:1*. If your agency is delivering real value, let go a little and encourage your customers to spread the word.

*From http://allthings.womma.org/2009/05/18/recap-yelp-presentation/, May 13, 2009