Insurance Agent Web Power

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

I have long encouraged agents to take control of their online reputation. Monitoring feedback left by others at various online rating and search services is a must. Encouraging positive feedback is even better.

I recently concluded a purchase on eBay (where buyers and sellers are sometimes referred to as the ‘EBay community) and received an email soliciting not just my direct feedback, but also a request to rate my experience via the eBay seller rating function. Here’s the email (names omitted to protect the innocent:

Thank you for your purchase from Business Name Omitted.

We received note that your order has been delivered and would like to verify that you are satisfied with your purchase and our service.

Please reply to this email if there is anything that would keep you from giving us 5 stars on all ratings. We’ll do what it takes to make it right.

If you are satisfied we would highly appreciate it if you would leave us positive feedback with 5 stars on all ratings on eBay. Please use this link: Direct Link to eBay Rating for Seller Omitted.

We have already added positive feedback to your ebay profile. Your feedback can be viewed at:
Direct Link to my eBay Profile and Rating Omitted.

If you have any questions you can either reply to this email or call us at Phone Number Omitted.

Thank you for your business,
Business Name Omitted

Taking a cue from this approach and using a version of this email after every agency sale, renewal, or claim will deliver multiple benefits. First, you will be systematically probing to be sure your customers are happy and will be building stronger relationships (aka, less price sensitivity, more referrals). Second, you will far outstrip your competition in the number positive reviews your agency has at Google Maps (local search), Yahoo Local, Yelp, etc. All you have to do is insert the direct link for rating at those services into your standard email, similar to the example above.