Marketing an Insurance Agency

Your How-To Guide

You've filed all the necessary paperwork, obtained all the required licensure and have opened the doors to your new insurance agency. Now what?

At INS Digital Media , we understand that being the new kid on the block can feel a bit daunting. That's why we've put together a list of tips to help you get your new agency off the ground—and get a leg up on the competition.

What can the Web really do for your insurance agency?

The easy answer is that it allows you to contact and be contacted by thousands of insureds and prospects. But the web can do more than just spread your reach. It can help you to open new insurance opportunities and make interaction with your carriers more rewarding.

Yet just having a website isn't enough. It must also be informative, interactive, and include strong client service and sales elements. Plus you must budget for its continuous development and promotion. Even though your website is always available, you still have to actively promote it to attract "unique visitors".

Employ the Web for Agency Advancement

The insurance industry can be a tough field to break into - in order to make your mark, you must constantly look for ways to reinvent your business.

Perhaps the easiest way to lift your new agency off the ground is through the power of the Internet. Its potential is limitless, and with more and more consumers turning to the Web to shop for insurance, not using the Web to your advantage is, to use the old adage, shooting yourself in the foot.

Not sure what the Internet can do for your business? Here are some must-do ways to boost your business:

• Create a Professional Website. A website can hold information about the agency, articles on insurance and insurance shopping, rate comparisons as well as any information you wish to share about yourself, all aimed at acclimating consumers with your services.
• Get Leads Online. Online quote forms provide a means of interaction between your agency and a potential client and can often be the first step in establishing a business relationship. Online insurance quote forms will help generate qualified leads from your own website 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (leads are not shared with other agents in your area.)
• Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a key component of your insurance web marketing strategy. If you're looking for high-ranking and professionally written search engine listings, effective SEO techniques will help your chances at landing at the top of the web's major engines, such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. Search Engine Optimization is the process of boosting and maintaining your website’s position in the organic (non-paid) results that Internet users see when they run searches on different search engines.
• Form a Blog. You can form a Weblog or "blog" for little or no cost to up your Web presence and create a space to host industry news, anecdotes and build a discussion around your personal or professional interests.

It's important to note that these sorts of tools - especially websites and blogs - need constant attention and change. You'll need to remain committed to updating and refreshing your pages to appeal to both consumers and to the search engines that host your sites.

As you continue to grow your business and expand your ventures online, you will run across new techniques for improving your business - don't shy away from these methods because they seem time consuming or complicated.

As Harvard business professor Michael Porter once said, "Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity." And, when it comes to lifting a new agency off the ground, both innovation and economic prosperity are essential for success.

Become a Marketing Marvel

Unless you've hired an expensive advertising company to spread the word about your agency, promoting your business is up to you.

You can increase your agency's visibility by:

• Handing out flyers and printed magnets.
• Putting an advertisement in local newspapers and weekly ad sheets.
• Joining local community organizations and chambers of commerce.
• Investing resources in search engine advertising through programs such as those offered by Google and Yahoo!
• The more concentrated you are on improving the presence of your agency, the more name recognition you will earn—drawing more attention from insurance shoppers in your area!

Satisfy Your Clients

Your clients will truly discover how they feel about your services when they need your help-leaving unsatisfied customers to find a new agency and satisfied customers to tell others how much they love their insurer.

Here are a couple ways new owners are keeping their clients content:

• Implementing a Customer Service Department. Even if it consists of one or two employees to start, this is the best way to assure prospects and current clients that they're being taken care of. Adding a customer support section to your website will also improve efficiency and better server your customers.
• Streamlining the Claims Process. New programs connect data sources with claims networks—speeding claim assignments and allowing insurers and adjusters to address other tasks in the claims process. Using these technologies can yield faster claim payouts and saves insurers time and money—eliminating the need to fund large call centers, fax claims back and forth and complete other resource-depleting administrative tasks.
• Keeping in Touch. Keep track of your clients' birthdays and other life events. Placing a phone call or dropping a card in the mail—without pushing your products—reminds your clients that you value their business.

Your clients are a big part of your current business and future success of your agency. Keep your clients happy and you'll continue to bring in customers for years to come!

Start Expanding Your Agency Today!

It's time to start planning and budgeting for next year. Make sure that plenty of resources are dedicated to developing your presence on the web. But for the best chances of success, you must build your site around your agency's marketing plan and not the other way around.

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