Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

For decades yellow pages ads were the leading source of new customers for most insurance agencies.

How many times in the past twelve months have you picked up a yellow pages to look up who to call? The same goes for your prospects. Searching on the internet has replaced yellow page usage for those prospects, so it’s critical that you are found when they do that search.

Being found in the yellow pages was relatively straightforward – you paid to be found. The more you paid, usually, the more likely you were to be found.

Being found on the internet works in much the same way

No, there’s not an “internet salesperson” who’ll let you pay them more to be found more easily, but the more you “pay” in terms of time and effort, the more easily prospects will find you when they search online.

The better the content on your website, the more content you have on your website, the more unique the content on your website, the more likely yours will be the listing near the top of the page when they search.

There’s obviously a lot to learn and do to maximize all of that, but there’s ONE really easy, straightforward step that you can take TODAY.

Complete your Google Places listing

Go to google.com and search for your city name plus the word insurance. What do you see? Here’s the result for “Wichita Falls insurance”.

The top 3 listings and the ones under the map on the right are companies that have paid Google to appear in those spots. Their ranking in the display is determined by how much they offer Google multiplied by how often people click when they see that ad, so you need both money and skill in ad writing to do well with those.

That map, though, and the agencies that show right under the paid ads – those are Google Places results, and you can have that for FREE and with only a little effort. That Google Places listing is the second most important ad for your agency (the first is your web site).

Simply go to Google Places and click on the link under “Get your business found on Google”.

You’ll need a Google account, but that’s free and easy to create if you don’t already have one.

Getting listed in Google Places takes only a few minutes’ effort and will pay off for years. Please, if you have not already done so, complete/claim your listing – you’ll be glad you did.

That’s what Rob’s been saying for years. Until today, when a great article by National Underwriter, showed how insurers are finding it easier to let customers know how to contact them in the middle of a disaster.

Companies like Alfa Insurance, Shelter Insurance and Westfield Insurance used Twitter updates, Facebook posts and YouTube videos to update, inform and reassure customers in the middle of tornadoes, floods and more.

Here’s a sample Twitter post with the location of the Mobile Response Unit handling claims from the recent tornadoes:

Here’s a solid Facebook interaction. Not every interaction will start positively, but responding well is much more powerful than pretending no one is ever disappointed with you:

The recent fires and hail storms have shown us at iMGA that we’d really like to be able to do more of the same as well. Please help us do that with these two very easy steps:

1. Like Us on Facebook (click on the link, then click on the “Like” button at the top of the page)
2. Follow Us on Twitter (click on the link, then click on the “Follow” button at the top of the page)

We’ll gladly do the same for you if you add your agency Facebook and Twitter contacts in the comments below.

How is your insurance agency using these great new relationship-building tools with your clients? We’d love to spread great ideas, so please add yours in the comments below!

Texas and Mexico have a long history together, from Spanish colonies in both places in the late 1600s, through the Texas Revolutionary War against Mexico, to the current $41 billion per year in Texas exports to Mexico.

So it’s no surprise that in Texas any major “celebration of Mexican heritage and pride” is celebrated widely.

It may be a surprise to you, though, that while Cinco de Mayo, the 5th of May, commemorates the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army at The Battle of Puebla in 1862, it’s NOT Mexico’s Independence Day, which is September 16.

Cinco de Mayo is primarily a regional holiday celebrated only in the city and state of Puebla, and “is a holiday that is virtually ignored in Mexico”.

You Never Know What Will Catch Fire

The Battle of Puebla was a relatively insignificant event. The French forces were beaten back, but they did capture Puebla only a year later. It’s not even a national holiday in Mexico. Yet on this day each year millions of people, of Mexican heritage and not, will celebrate the day in the United States.

What has caught fire with your clients? Are you trying different ideas? The only way to know what will work is to test many options. When one does catch fire – run with it! Next thing you know you may have a surprise holiday of your own.

What has surprised you? What has resonated with your clients that you didn’t really expect? Share your experience in the comments.

Every business needs a “hook” . A great hook is something worth talking about. Better yet, it’s something worth driving out of your way to get.

Snuffer’s restaurant in Dallas has a hook. It’s their cheese fries. In my case it’s their cheese fries topped with bacon, chives and jalapenos.

For $8 or less they’ve come up with a dish that is truly noteworthy. It’s special. It’s unique. It made Snuffers our choice for lunch over the thirty other choices we had within 5 miles that day. It’s remarkable in the sense that it’s worth remarking about.

What’s your agency’s hook? What’s the one really unique thing you give/offer/do for your customers? What makes doing business with you special?

At iMGA our hook is that we go crazy making things easy for agents. To do a homeowners, vacant, rental or mobile home quote with us takes well under 2 minutes. We look up the protection class for you. When possible we look up the square footage, construction type and year of construction for you. We don’t ask a single question or require a single piece of paper we don’t have to. We keep our focus on easy in the application and underwriting processes also.

Our goal is to be so easy that it’s noteworthy. We’re obsessive about it because we know it’s our hook. We’re not the biggest or oldest market you have – those spots are taken. But we know we can be the easiest – and we’re determined to be – and as a result agents are telling their friends about us.

How about you? What’s the thing that makes your clients tell their friends about your agency? Please tell us about it in the comments so we can help you spread the word.

Many of us have tried those “30-day-free” trials, only to forget to cancel during the 30 days and end up paying for something we didn’t really want that much.

A free trial offer is a legitimate way to get a much larger percentage of the population to be willing to try a product or service. The big question for businesses, though, is whether to structure how it works in order to “trap” as many as possible, or to treat customers and prospects the way you’d like to be treated.

Citrix does this really well with their GoToMeeting service. It offers a 30-day free trial. The day before the trial ends they send an email that includes a reminder that you’ll start getting billed the next day, an offer to convert to an annual subscription AND information on how to easily cancel the trial – including a link to make it really easy.

In insurance we can’t offer free trials, but – with things like clear language, readable fonts and timely reminders – we CAN make it clear that every time we get the chance we choose to treat prospects and customers as we would want to be treated.

It’s just plain the right thing to do. At iMGA, we believe strongly that it’s also better business in the long run, and we plan to be here for the long run.

What are some examples you’ve seen of insurance companies and agents really treating clients and prospects with respect (or not)?